This grant is for the research, production, and broadcast of two new documentary shows for the American Experience series: Make Way for the Highway and Feather Wars.
Make Way for the Highway is about the development of the interstate highway system, which revolutionized not only the way Americans drive, but the way they live. And while there were many obvious benefits—greater mobility and faster shipping – there were many neighborhoods that were destroyed in the process, disproportionately impacting poor and minority neighborhoods. This two-hour documentary will tell the story of the largest construction project in American history and its lasting impact on rural, suburban and urban Americans across racial and socioeconomic lines.
Feather Wars tells the little-known tale of the turn-of-the-century craze for feathers worn in women’s fashion and how the egregious slaughter of birds to feed this frenzy led to backlash and the emergence of the conservation movement. Because the Gilded Age economy created a new class of consumers and the Industrial Revolution allowed for faster and cheaper consumption, the booming demand for feathers in women’s fashion resulted in the wholesale slaughter of birds. This one-hour documentary will trace how Theodore Roosevelt and women activists launched a conservation movement that led to the end of the brutal feather trade and the creation of the Audubon society.