The history of American electricity is often told through the experiences of engineers and managers, but these were only a handful of the many thousands of workers who built, maintained, and ran electrical utility systems in the Unites States. The linemen, clerks, pipe fitters, marketers, secretaries, and many, many others who do the work to keep the power on have little space in the literature. In fact, we have collectively learned not to see these workers and the work that they do even when they are right in front of our eyes. 

	That’s where the research of energy historian Trish Kahle enters the picture. Dr. Kahle, former NEH-Hagley postdoctoral fellow and current assistant professor in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University – Qatar,  researches the social relations that develop within and around energy systems. Her current project examines the development of the American electrical grid through major episodes in its history: early forays into the construction process in the late-nineteenth century; rural electrification and segregation; deindustrialization and civil rights agitation. 

	In support of her work, Kahle received funding from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, & Society at the Hagley Museum & Library. For more information on our funding opportunities, and more Hagley History Hangouts, visit us online at hagley.org.

Power Up: A Social History of American Electricity with Trish Kahle

SPECIAL THANKS to my good friend, Australian new music trombonist extraordinaire, Simone de HAAN.

‘the Symphony Orchestra” 

some extinctions are sweet
see the saprophytic
symphony orchestra
where our much will have more 
is forever at war 
with the speed of sound
morbidly obese strip miner 
of the past with superb technique 
like the humble sex worker who 
mimics true love perfectly
sad swan-song of the beautiful
young conductor decomposer-in-chief 
baton hard sharp pointed erect
leading its troops straight into 
the motionless oblivion of moist muck
the happy food of hungry worms

IMAGE: An actual sign in SNAKE RIVER COUNTRY along the CANNABIS HIGHWAY, spectacular gravel mountain bike road from Richland to Huntington, OREGON

Power Up: A Social History of American Electricity with Trish Kahle

Hagley Museum and Library

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