Earth Day's most enduring symbol had a little help from some primary sources
John McConnell's mission was invigorated by a series of photographs
Today is Earth Day, and like all holidays, it is a product of time, place and people’s values. Its most recognizable symbol is the Earth Flag, which was designed by John McConnell, a faithful Christian whose beliefs compelled his peace and environmental activism. Although he had long been a vocal advocate for peace and environmental stewardship, it was seeing the photograph taken by Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders, Earthrise, that invigorated McConnell to make the sanctity of Earth his priority.
We make primary sources everyday; we can’t help it. Every time we produce anything it should come with the knowledge that it can be used to inform, teach and inspire others. The Apollo program in its entirety is a product of its time period, the machinery, tools and vehicles used by the astronauts, and the missions themselves are also all documents of the status of the science and engineering as of the late 1960s. When Apollo 8 was orbiting the moon at Christmastime 1968 part of their job was to take photographs of sights humans had never seen before. These are spectacular primary sources, and like so many other documents, very inspirational to say the least.
The first version of McConnell’s Earth Flag was directly inspired by Anders’s picture, and made as a celebratory banner to wave as Apollo 10 was enroute to land on the moon. Not only were other amazing primary sources collected on that mission—moon rocks—so were the additional photographs of Earth they took. In fact the second version of the Earth Flag was based on a picture taken during Apollo 10. The final and still-used iteration of McConnell’s Earth Flag is based on the last moon mission, Apollo 17, and its Blue Marble photo.
A good part of the second season of the podcast has been orbiting the late 60s and early 70s, including the most recent episode about The Oregon Trail, and the final installment for the season which is about The Beatles and the Civil Rights Movement. Much of the popular culture from that era speaks of a society dealing with the transition from an old, well-practiced past to a new frontier full of feats and newness. Being the first generation of humans to be able to see Earth from afar, even if just in photographic form, was certainly an honor. And plenty of people, including John McConnell equated this honor with duty.