doi.org/10.1080/14662035.2021.1956099
The preservationist John Muir (1838–1914) and the railroad magnate Edward H. Harriman (1848–1909) developed late in their lives an unlikely friendship, the root of which can be traced to Harriman’s Alaska Expedition in 1899. The emotional outcomes generated by the discovery and exploration of the natural landscape during the expedition were established through a place-naming ritual and reinforced through subsequent interactions between the two men for the next decade until Harriman’s death in 1909. Despite both possessing different social status and disparate perspectives of the environment and humans’ role within it, Randall Collins’ (2004) interaction ritual theory provides a lens through which one can understand how their relationship developed and ultimately influenced environmental policy.
Muir, for example, was able to leverage Harriman’s political capital to accomplish his preservation-based intentions while Harriman was able to expand his transportation empire as the growth of national parks increased tourism across the western United States. By supporting Muir’s political efforts, Harriman contributed to the creation of a new market–national park tourism–upon which he was able to capitalize by scaling his business through an increased rail transportation footprint. Consequently, the friendship that developed between Muir and Harriman is an interesting historical tale of two astute men who merged complementary pools of capital to accomplish their respective personal and professional ambitions.