Storm Cloud: Picturing the Origins of Our Climate Crisis

Name: Storm Cloud: Picturing the Origins of Our Climate Crisis | The Huntington
Start: Sat, Sep 14 2024 - Mon, Jan 6 2025
Location: The Huntington

Exhibitions

Sept. 14, 2024–Jan. 6, 2025 | “Storm Cloud” analyzes the impact of industrialization and a globalized economy on everyday life from 1780 to 1930, as charted by scientists, artists, and writers, and contextualizes the current climate crisis within this historical framework.

“Storm Cloud: Picturing the Origins of Our Climate Crisis” traces the rise of environmental awareness in the 19th century—an age of rapid industrialization in the English-speaking world as well as a period in which the sciences of geology, paleontology, meteorology, and ecology developed.

View the large print exhibition booklet

Items on a museum gallery wall and in display cases.

Two people look at objects in museum gallery display cases.

A person looks up at a large painting hung on a museum gallery wall.

“Storm Cloud: Picturing the Origins of Our Climate Crisis,” Photo by Elon Schoenholz.

| The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

“Storm Cloud: Picturing the Origins of Our Climate Crisis,” Photo by Elon Schoenholz.

| The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

“Storm Cloud: Picturing the Origins of Our Climate Crisis,” Photo by Elon Schoenholz.

| The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Rebeca Méndez on “Storm Cloud,” John Ruskin, and a Perfect Sky

Artist, designer, and UCLA professor Rebeca Méndez discusses her work Any-Instant-Whatever (2020), which is featured in “Storm Cloud.” Her video installation documents 12 hours of Los Angeles’ winter skies, creating an immersive experience that encourages contemplation while also addressing themes of environmental change.

Related Resources

A book cover with a painting of clouds and text that reads "Storm Cloud, Picturing the Origins of Our Climate Crisis"

Companion Book

Explore how 19th-century artists, writers, and scientists first sounded the alarm on industrialization’s impact on the environment. This insightful book connects early environmental awareness—showcased through art and literature—to today’s climate crisis.

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Storm Cloud Library

Check out this list of books compiled by the curators of the exhibition, including full-text 19th-century climate-fiction courtesy of Project Gutenberg, and a list of climate- and sustainability-related nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and children’s and young adult books.

Book List