A celebration of city trees

Above our heads on city streets, the lives of trees unfold. The urban canopy carries history, ecology, and lore of city life forward through the generations. Our trees contain clues about who we are, where we are, and how our cities change. Ubiquitous to the point that they are easily overlooked, this exhibit draws attention to the trees around us and invites you to sit under the urban canopy and look up.

CANOPY is both a physical exhibit and an invitation to digitally engage with the trees around us. Browse a collection of tree guides in the second floor library, or explore the street tree canopy of the Northeast by searching the hashtag #canopyNE on Instagram. Add #canopyNE to your own photos to share your knowledge, impressions and photos, and to ask questions. You can also access this digital walking tour to find examples of eight commonly planted trees within a 15-minute walk of the John Nicolas Brown Center through the map below:

Conor Macdonald is a first-year Master’s student in Public Humanities at Brown University.