Friends of John Muir's Birthplace

In early-2020 Friends of John Muir’s Birthplace worked together with other groups in Dunbar to focus on Muir’s role as an environmental activist and successful campaigner and his relevance for our situation today.

The exhibition was scheduled to be installed in the Birthplace and be on show between April and October. The intention was that it would support the review and expansion of the John Muir’s Legacy section of the permanent exhibition. However, due to the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the impact this had on the preparation, production and installation of the physical exhibition, it is not yet known when the exhibition will be physically installed and opened in the Birthplace.

The hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic means that some of the exhibition’s content and themes outlined in a public preview back in February have been amended to include references to the current crisis.

This latest addition to our virtual exhibitions starts at the John Muir, Earth-Planet, Universe page.

The latest news item in the John Muir Birthplace website – https://www.jmbt.org.uk/2020/05/28/happy-birthday-sierra-club/ – prompted an update to the Exhibitions section of this website about the Friends’ exhibition, ‘125 Years of the Sierra Club’, that was hosted in the Birthplace from April 21^st until July 26^th 2017 (having been extended beyond the end of June).  Six panels gave an overview of the history of the Sierra Club with an emphasis on John Muir’s involvement in the founding, and ethos, of the organisation.

See this latest addition to our virtual exhibitions at the 125 Years of the Sierra Club page.

On this day 7 years ago Friends of John Muir Country Park (FoJMCP) arranged  a work party to coincide with the weekend of Muir’s 175th birthday celebrations. So, on Saturday 20^th April, 2013, members of FoJMB joined FoJMCP to plant hundreds of trees at Linkfield car park. The work party included Scottish Government Minister for Environment and Climate Change, Paul Wheelhouse MSP shown in the photograph (below) planting the first of many trees.

Paul Wheelhouse MSP planting the first of many trees

FoJMB Newsletter #24, June 2013 featured this story with quotes from Paul Wheelhouse: “Throughout his incredible career, John Muir worked tirelessly to preserve the natural environment for future generations, inspiring people worldwide with his exceptional passion and commitment. During our Year of Natural Scotland in 2013 it is entirely fitting that we mark the 175th anniversary of his birth – here in Dunbar – by celebrating his outstanding natural legacy and encouraging people across Scotland to follow in Muir’s footsteps to experience the great Scottish outdoors. I regularly visit John Muir Country Park, and it’s a real honour for me to have a chance, here, to formally mark the life of someone whose work I greatly admire.”

and from East Lothian Council’s [then] Cabinet Member for Environment, Cllr Norman Hampshire: “John Muir’s innovative work in recognising the importance of protecting the natural environment has been widely appreciated and adopted across the world. Growing up in Dunbar the young John greatly loved the variety of the natural environment around the town. Events such as this weekend not only promote the values and beliefs of Muir but also seek to actively put many of his ideas into practice to enhance and protect the local environment.”

2013 was also the Year of Natural Scotland and a banner was attached to the one of the areas set aside for planting to mark the occasion.

The Year of Natural Scotland 2013

This was what this area looked like during the planting.

Tree planting in progress, April 20th 2013

Seven years on this is what it looks like now!

Seventh birthday

The following visitor countries of origin have been transcribed from the one visitor book that covers 2019. There were 613 entries in total. The following word cloud has been generated from these entries.

Combining already transcribed comments and adding the comments from earlier in 2019, here is the word cloud from all 564 comments made in the visitor book during 2019. Every one of the comments was positive!