This archive contains the digital files of photographs, texts, and an audio story created by Ian Stevenson as part of his undergraduate thesis project The Splendor and Travail of the Earth for the Nonfiction Writing Honors Program in the Department of English at Brown University. © Ian Stevenson (2018).

The Splendor and Travail of the Earth examines the tensions between environmentalists, ranchers, hunters, and the government, with a focus on public lands ranching and the conflict over wolves. It discusses the history of wolves in the United States and their position as a native species and a metaphor. It analyzes the actions of the federal agency called Wildlife Services, the larger management agencies (the Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service and the Park Service), as well as American environmental legislation and the relationship between agricultural interests and the government. In addition, it scrutinizes the lives and working conditions of H-2A sheep herds, a small group of foreign workers who come to the United States to work for American ranchers.