Charlotte Leib
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charlotte-leib.bsky.social
Charlotte Leib
@charlotte-leib.bsky.social
2K followers 640 following 290 posts
PhD@Yale writing an #envhist of the NJ Meadowlands centered on intersection of the organic & fossil economies. Trained in landscape, energy, early Am.& US history, w/ broader interests in histories of tech, climate, capitalism, inequality charlotteleib.com
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charlotte-leib.bsky.social
Recent sidewalk encounters:
An errant stove.
An ice box.

It just so happens I’m writing about both things currently in my dissertation…

Yes, you heard it right: stoves and ice! 🧊 Both important understudied topics in 19th century American #envhist and #energyhistory 🔥
Large metal ice box labeled in blue letters “ICE” next to a bike rack and a brick building / wine shop. A used stainless steel stove and oven on a street. There’s a building with windows in the back and the image of the street is reflected in them. You can see the photographer taking a photo of the stove with her iPhone. It is winter and the sun and shadows are crisp.
November 26, 2025 at 12:03 AM
charlotte-leib.bsky.social
What a “road diet” and renovating for safe, pedestrian and cyclist friendly streets looks like… with Willie Wright’s “Right on for Darkness”’ as soundtrack 😀🎶🎸 #roaddiet #safestreets #NewHaven #righton
November 24, 2025 at 6:13 PM
charlotte-leib.bsky.social
Final fall blooms in #NewHaven this week.

Found this calendula in my writing break round-the-block walk thriving in a stone and concrete microclimate
🍃🍂🌨️

11.21.25 #fall #flowers
Bright yellow calendula popping its head up above a gray and green background Color in a bleak near-winter scene. Flower had a green head and red band around it before yellow petals.
November 21, 2025 at 7:48 PM
charlotte-leib.bsky.social
Here’s to the beauty of pink-hued sunsets after a dreary day…closing research tabs…reading 19th-c, weather diaries, and meeting a major writing deadline (still in process…!) Going to be some late nights upcoming. Wish me luck.
Laptop computer on a desk facing a window that looks out on an urban streetscape. A cloudy pinkish-orange sunset is visible. The sky however is mostly grey. The building outside on the horizon is low lying brick and then there’s another brick building with a smokestack. The desk has a plant perched on it. The laptop shows a screen with a detail of a handwritten cursive weather diary. There are sticky notes and clips on the left of the laptop on the desk and two books on the desk to the right.
November 18, 2025 at 12:41 AM
charlotte-leib.bsky.social
...And just as I read about an entire 🧊 #ice warehouse getting struck by ⚡lightning and as I write about 19th c. #climatechange there's lightning & thunder, in November ⛈️

Favorite convo. today: talking with an Italian library security staff about how ice is so...American.

Dickens thought so, too.
Black and white image shows smoldering wood and half melted ice blocks, stacked up high in tall wooden bays the size of an urban streetscape. Image reads: "Courtesy William Devonmille, Bloomfield, NJ. Caption reads: "A fire on July 20, 1912, destroyed this icehouse which was located on the east shore of Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey [...] It took several weeks for the ice to melt."
November 16, 2025 at 1:31 AM
charlotte-leib.bsky.social
I’m bummed I can’t see the Aurora here in New Haven like my NY & northern CT neighbors,

So I’m taking solace peering into 1841/42 weather diaries for the chapter I’m writing—where, indeed: mid-Atlantic-area observers occasionally spotted the Northern Lights 🌌

Pawling, NY earlier this evening:
Bright red, purple and green northern lights with silhouettes of bare trees either lit up by street lamps or cast against the sky. Light cloud cover. Blue hills in background.
November 12, 2025 at 3:29 AM
charlotte-leib.bsky.social
Surrounded by snow flurries and sound #firstfreeze #NewHaven #Carillonneurs #bells #soundon
November 11, 2025 at 6:54 PM
charlotte-leib.bsky.social
I really enjoyed your essay @claireconnolly.bsky.social!

As a #swimmer I also relished @stevementz.bsky.social's history of how the crawl arrived in Europe via #Ojibwe #swimmers Wenishkaweabee & Sahma.

These forgotten histories should be featured in NBC #Olympics coverage!

What a fabulous issue.
November 7, 2025 at 11:29 PM
charlotte-leib.bsky.social
Wondrous red, yellow, blue hues
on the New Haven Green 📸
this morning
An open space, like a quadrangle, with a bright red-leaved tree in the foreground at left, a bright yellow ginkgo middle and other trees and brick buildings in the back. Sky is brilliant fall blue and the weather is clear sunny and crisp. Their are puffs of large white billowy clouds in the blue sky above the trees.
November 7, 2025 at 4:53 AM
charlotte-leib.bsky.social
#Frog stocks!

One of the many ways speculators tried to "improve" the value & productivity of #NJ #Meadowlands in the 19th c

I have this one filed under "frog capitalist" in my research notes 💭🐸💰

...An 1860s attempt to make the #Meadows yield more #frogs before pollution in the 1880s killed them.
A screenshot of a newspaper clipping: "The Bergen County Journal says that a capitalist of distinction recently visited that county, and on observing the vast amount of meadowland lying idle, conceived immediately the idea that this was the place for successful frog speculation. The salt meadows of Bergen county, being convenient to the New York market, where there is a steadily increasing demand for fattened frogs, he considered of immense value to the business. He has entered into negotiation for a large tract, which he will proceed to fence in and stock with frogs, for supplying the epicures and restaurants of New york and other cities. - Bergen County Journal, Daily Gazette and Republication, August 27, 1860 (Trenton, NJ) Vol. 68, Issue 205: 3. A close-up portrait of green frog situated in a watery marsh landscape. Marsh rushes surround the frog, which is set between sunlight and shadow. It looks at the camera with its large inquisitive eyes and has an upturned mouth, as if smiling. Most of its green body is underwater. Its arms are outstretched atop a spear of meadow rush. Photo in the public domain, by Jimmy K, via Pexels.
November 5, 2025 at 11:30 PM
charlotte-leib.bsky.social
Today's #Meadowlands #bird: Greater Yellowlegs

Tall and teetering, GY can be told apart from Lesser Yellowlegs by its longer bill and ringing "tew tew tew" call.

The #birds use their long legs to shuffle into shallow #water to catch prey, and are often affected during #oil spills for this reason.
Three white and grey Greater Yellowlegs birds stand in shallow water with their stilt-like yellow legs. Their reflections can be seen elegantly beneath them. They occupy a wetland with sticks and grass debris in the water in the background. The scene is calm and sunny. One of the birds, in the center, has its beak turned down to the water to prey, while the other two birds, located on either side look at each other. Photograph by Michael Yellin, DeKorte Park, Lyndhurst, NJ, The Meadowlands. November 1, 2025.
November 5, 2025 at 5:40 PM
charlotte-leib.bsky.social
Today's #Meadowlands #bird: the secretive Clapper Rail.

The Rail's thin body helps them move smoothly thru dense vegetation. This Rail was spotted Nov 1, 2025 by Joseph Cifarelli in #Bayonne #NJ.

Listen to the Clapper Rail's distinctive kek-kek-kek trill here: www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Clappe...
Clapper rail with an orange beak and gray-white-brown body stands in profile underneath Phragmites (Common reed) in a dark, shady pool of water in a marsh. Its feet are underwater. Clapper rail with an orange beak and gray-white-brown body sits and splashes in the water beneath a stand of Phragmites (Common reed). It's the same spot as the last photo. Clapper rail with an orange beak and gray-white-brown body sits and looks head on at the camera-person after washing him/herself in the same spot as the last photo. Photographs by Joseph Cifarelli, The Bayonne Nature Club, November 1, 2025.
November 4, 2025 at 5:35 PM
charlotte-leib.bsky.social
As I prepare to submit my #diss this year, I'm starting a thread with photos of the many #bird species that are denizens of my #research site, the #NJMeadowlands.

Follow along to learn your #birds with me,
And get to know this astounding ecology near #NewarkAirport !

#BergenCounty #HackensackRiver
Great Blue Heron stands against marsh grasses, with blue waters in background. Photograph by David McClure, The Meadow Lens, Mill Creek Marsh, New Jersey Meadowlands, October 25, 2025. Double-crested cormorant flies from right to left above an old mossy Atlantic white cedar stump situated in a watery bay. Photograph by David McClure, The Meadowlands, October 25, 2025.
November 4, 2025 at 4:26 AM
charlotte-leib.bsky.social
A spooky sidewalk riddle 👻 🍃:

🕸️🕷️☁️ 🕊️🐛🦅
——/——/——/——/——/——
Two types of fall fiber—
One fatal, the other forgiving—
Forbid the former,
and more creatures would keep living.
Fake plastic spiderwebs on a green hedge Close up of fake white plastic spiderwebs Milkweed with fluffy white seeds A second view of the same stalk of milkweed against a cracked old sidewalk with lawn grass on either side, and the green hedge covered with fake white plastic spiderwebs in the background.
November 1, 2025 at 7:47 PM
charlotte-leib.bsky.social
The #bees 🐝 have gone but the Dahlia blooms are still on!

I’ve been passing this sidewalk plant nearly daily in #NewHaven since July. With the night chill now, and recent new #moon 🌙, I’m relishing what’s left. Still brilliant 😍

#fall #flowers
Bright mesmerizing pink and white dahlia head with a yellow center. Two additional dahlias with pink, red, and white colorways and a yellow center. The photo is taken from above and you can see the brown shoes of the photographer next to the plant. The skirt the photographer is wearing is also visible; it has an intricate black, green and orange-gold flower pattern. Some green leaves show to the right of the frame next to the flower heads and there are leaves and spears of grass to the left on a sidewalk.
October 29, 2025 at 11:19 PM
charlotte-leib.bsky.social
A few more small things to celebrate *.:;’ *

#fall #flowers
Portrait of brilliant orange clusters of echinacea, with clover and grass in the background. A portrait of a small sunflower 🌻 One of the last of the season It appears near a sidewalk with a house and lawn in the background
October 24, 2025 at 12:21 AM
charlotte-leib.bsky.social
Here’s to the small things
The sun setting in the west
The things that
with the world upside down
persist, maintain
October 24, 2025 at 12:14 AM
charlotte-leib.bsky.social
Fun times 🤩
October 18, 2025 at 2:20 AM
charlotte-leib.bsky.social
Saw some nice #gneiss out here today on the #ThimbleIslands

Thanks to @yalewhc.bsky.social @paulsabin.bsky.social for coordinating the trip! #envhum #envhist #Connecticut #LongIslandSound
Wooded island on red-sand colored rock as seen from a motorboat Group of people on an island look at a rock as one person looks out on the water with binoculars Group of people walk across a rocky area with some vegetation towards a larger erratic boulder on the island’s edge.
October 18, 2025 at 12:29 AM
charlotte-leib.bsky.social
Midday #LA hike break after flight cancellation 🤩 #BaldwinHills #LosAngeles
Two sisters smile one in front of the other stop a hill. An urban skyline 🏙️ lies in the distance. Steep steps Four active drills in the middle ground of the image drill oil from a hillside covered in California sage scrub. An urban landscape lies in the distance—behind, across the horizon.
October 14, 2025 at 2:00 AM
charlotte-leib.bsky.social
Thank you to all of the #UHA2025LA attendees to stopped by to learn about my digital project this morning at the Urban History Association conference

I'll also be sharing " #OurLandOurStories Wild Rice and Lenape Lifeways in the New Jersey Meadowlands" from 1-2pm, if you'd like to stop by! #envhist
woman presenting to a woman and man in front of a screen in a ball room woman presenting to a woman and man in front of a screen in a ball room
October 10, 2025 at 8:09 PM
charlotte-leib.bsky.social
4. It's up to all of us, in this time of #biodiversityloss #climatechange & corporate governance to embrace the fact that #lightpollution is one thing we—as individuals and communities—can control.

So shield those streetlamps, choose warmer hued bulbs & #turnoffthelights! The #birds will thank you.
A diagram of different urban lighting scenarios set against a dark blue-black backdrop and starry night (represented in abstract illustrated form). First, at left, (1) Problematic urban lighting. A giant light orb casts out from a streetlamp, blinding and white, extending into much of the night sky. Next (2) A streetlamp represented with a temporal controller installed. The streetlamp stands dimmed and darkened. No stray light sheds into the night sky. Third (3) A downshielded and dimmed streetlamp. Here, the light, still a white hue, is directed to the ground and there is no upward or outward pollution. Fourth (4) A streetlamp that uses a warmed temperature bulb. Its light appears in an oranger-pinker hue. The diagram notes that the light temperature for this color must be <3000 Kelvin.
October 9, 2025 at 11:04 PM
charlotte-leib.bsky.social
3. Historians can mobilize to begin to heal the wounds that artificial light inflicts on humans and animals.

We can move beyond historical celebrations of urban lighting systems’ #brilliance to recognize & mediate the extents of their historical& ongoing #brutalities, by adopting a #birds-eye view.
An evocative, abstract illustration in green, deep blue, red, beige, white and black of illustrated birds suffering from exposure to light pollution and spilled oil. Some of the birds have blotches of chemical pollution (symbolized in a pinkish-red hue) in their stomachs and some are caught in black spilled oil. Several spread their oil-covered wings out as oil drips off them. Others try to fly away out of the oil, or are positioned flying or standing more healthfully and successfully at a remove from it.
October 9, 2025 at 10:48 PM
charlotte-leib.bsky.social
For example: After the 1965 blackout &in the 1970s #energycrisis, turning out #lights became a political &environmental act

In 1790s revolutionary France, disgruntled Parisians smashed the city’s newly installed oil lamps to protest the excesses of the ancien régime & all that light then symbolized
A generator is used to power searchlights, typically used for movie premieres and supermarket openings, in Manhattan, during the 1965 Northeastern blackout. The generator searchlight beams into the sky, while the skyline of Manhattan circa 1965 is pitch black, save for a ConEd station glowing near the waterfront. / Photograph courtesy Museum Without Walls.
October 9, 2025 at 10:44 PM
charlotte-leib.bsky.social
2. Artificial light is a form of fast, slow & forgotten violence—not just upon #birds & animals, but upon humans, too

Overexposure to #light at night contributes to higher #breastcancer rates, for example

Mobilizing around the use of artificial light can be a powerful means of change + #protest...
Some examples of artificial lighting prior to 1800. Left to right (three black & white images, shown in red, blue, and fluorescent green hues): candle guard and lantern; a rushlight made from a meadow rush dipped in fat and mounted in an iron holder; stormy petrels used as “lamps” in the Shetland Isles. / Images, colorized by Charlotte Leib, are from W.T. O’Dea, “Artificial Lighting Prior to 1800 and Its Social Effects” Folklore 62, no. 2 (June 1951): 312–324 (Plates XV and XVII).
October 9, 2025 at 10:39 PM