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PRESS KIT:

Book Cover Image
Sample flyer from Hitchcock Center
Sample flyer from Berkshire Environmental Action Team
Photo of Noah (left) and Charley (right)
Below are suggested blurbs to be used in advertising our invertebrate programs. Feel free to modify as you see fit.

Slideshow Presentation

For forty days and forty nights, naturalists Charley Eiseman and Noah Charney traveled the continent. They returned with thousands of photographs, not of Yosemite's grand vistas or Yellowstone's bison herds, but of tiny eggs stuck to flagpoles, origami made by beetles, and the artfully crafted portable houses of caddisfly larvae. The trip was field work for their new book, Tracks and Sign of Insects and Other Invertebrates, which won the 2010 National Outdoor Book Award for best nature guidebook. Egg cases, cocoons, galls, leaf mines, burrows, nests, and many other curiosities are illustrated in the book’s pages. In this talk, the authors will show images of exquisite invertebrate-created objects, discuss mind-boggling natural history, and share amusing anecdotes from their eccentric journeys. Professional entomologists and bug-haters alike have found themselves rolling with laughter and staring in horrified fascination during this entertaining presentation.

Field Walk, Invertebrate Tracking

Have you ever noticed that someone's been etching delicate feathery patterns into the algae on your picnic table? Have you ever flipped over a rock and found neat shiny red discs? How about perfect circles cut out of the leaves of your rose bush? If you've never seen these things, perhaps it's time you slow down and take a walk with Charley Eiseman and Noah Charney, who will point out all sorts of curious objects that will expand your sense of the fullness of our world. These are the signs of invertebrates. Each object tells a story of bizarre lives playing out all around us all the time. Come spend some time with the authors of the 2010 winner of the National Outdoor Book Award, Tracks and Sign of Insects and Other Invertebrates, and see the world as they see it.

Gallery Exhibit of Photographs ("Spineless Splendor")

Leafcutter bees cut clean circles from the edges of leaves, sometimes spiraling inward. Slugs etch complex feathery patterns out of algal films that contrast vividly against light colored surfaces. Pirate spiders sculpt intricate translucent orange mesh sacs, like velcro-covered earings, in which they hang their eggs. Stopping to admire the tiny objects that invertebrates create, you will discover an uncharted treasure trove of magnificent patterns.

In this photographic exploration, Noah Charney and Charley Eiseman have looked beyond the actual creatures, focusing on the signs left behind as they go about their daily lives feeding, reproducing, and seeking shelter. While the insects themselves may view their work as mundane acts of survival, the many claws, jaws, and other appendages have carefully crafted forms that, as The Tennessean puts it, "could rival the artistry of the greatest sculptures." These works inspired The Boston Globe to pronounce that "insects are Modernists." The photographs were originally compiled as part of an award-winning field guide, Tracks and Sign of Insects and Other Invertebrates, written by Eiseman and Charney. Informative text accompanies each photograph in the gallery, describing the peculiar natural histories of the creatures whose signs are depicted.