My work as a historian of business, culture, and environment in the modern U.S. examines how seemingly mundane consumer projects shapes individuals’ identity. In my book project and articles, I use corporate archives, oral history interviews, and military records to investigate the broad reach of the outdoor industry. My books include Shopping All the Way to the Woods: How the Outdoor Industry Sold Nature to America (Yale, 2024) and Big Box USA: The Environmental Impact of America’s Biggest Retail Stores (Wyoming 2024, co-edited with Bart Elmore and Sherri Sheu).
Learn more about this work on the Highlander Podcast’s History of Gear Series or watch this lecture from the Rachel Carson Center in 2019.
“The Teaching Postdoc: What Four Early Career Scholars Learned
from an Honors College“With Kylla Benes, Lauren Collins, and Holly Riley
Honors in Practice, 2023
“The gender politics of do-it-yourself: Frostline kits and the American outdoor equipment boom of the 1970s“
Enterprises et Histoire, 2022
“Gearing Up: Materials and Technology in the History of Sport“
With Carolin F. Roeder
“Ultralight: Commercializing Lightweight Backpacks for Long-Distance Hiking“
The International Journal of the History of Sport, 2022
“Logos on Everest: Commercial Sponsorship of American Expeditions, 1950-2000“
Enterprise & Society, December 2021
“Layering for a Cold War: The M-1943 Combat System, Military Testing, and Clothing as Technology“
Technology and Culture, April 2019
“From Buckskin to Gore-Tex: Consumption as a Path to Mastery in Twentieth-Century American Wilderness Recreation“
Enterprise & Society, December 2018
Rachel S. Gross 