A chapter of the virtual exhibition “Beyond Doom and Gloom: An Exploration through Letters,” this letter shows apprecation to the hopeful spirit of Rachel Carson. The exhibition is curated by environmental educator Elin Kelsey.

Fourth chapter of Stephen Milder et al.’s virtual exhibition, Petra Kelly: Life and Legacy of a Transnational Green Activist.

While English satire magazines mocked vegetarianism since the 1840s, the first German caricatures appeared some 30 years later. Early drawings often imagined that a vegetarian would gradually transform into a plant. Other recurring topics are the assumed correlation between (meatless) nutrition and (peaceful, fragile) physical appearance and character, as well as the debate over whether a meat-rich or a meat-free diet was better for human health.

In the early phase of the vegetarian movement, satirists playfully imagined how this diet and worldview affected different aspects of culture. Other cartoons make fun of the fact that vegetarianism quickly became a trend that was seen as sign of the Zeitgeist of the 1880s. Surprisingly, they overlooked the fact that vegetarianism was indeed intended as a sociocultural reform that could contribute to social and gender equality.