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Forest History Society Research Resources

The Forest History Society's (FHS) core mission is to promote the study of the history of human interaction with the environment. Our rich research resources support this endeavor by identifying and improving access to documentation of forest, conservation, and environmental history.

The Society has a long-standing oral history program, unique descriptive electronic databases, and extensive archival, library, and photographic collections that document the myriad relationships that have existed between people, forests, and natural resources throughout history. These resources allow us to provide exceptional reference assistance to researchers from around the world.

The Society is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina. Our research facilities are open to the public Monday through Friday, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Our reference staff are happy to assist with inquiries in person or via mail, telephone, or e-mail. Appointments are strongly recommended for visitors.



Forest History Society Research Resources

  • FHS Archival Collections
    The Forest History Society's Alvin J. Huss Archives houses a wide array of "primary source" materials, including such items as: photographs, scrapbooks, diaries, newsclippings, reports, pamphlets, memoranda, correspondence, financial records, and audio-visual materials recorded in a variety of formats. Most materials date from the twentieth century. Descriptive "finding aids," summarizing the contents of collections, are searchable in the archives, and a growing number of them are accessible in electronic format through our web site.
  • FHS Photograph Collection
    The Society's collection of approximately 25,000 photographs, slides, negatives, and glass plates documents the history of human interaction with the environment. The main collection is indexed by subject and has a particular focus on the history of forests, the forest products industry, and lumbering and sawmilling practices. Auxiliary image collections created by companies or individuals document many of the same topics but are usually in the form scrapbooks or albums. Most images are in black-and-white print format and date from the 1930s to the 1960s.
  • FHS Library Resources
    The Society's Carl A. Weyerhaeuser Library maintains a diverse collection of published "secondary sources" relating to forest, conservation, and environmental history. Books, periodicals, maps, newsclippings, annual reports, newsletters, and reference works form the basis of the collection. The library specializes particularly in the history of logging, early forest management practices, and the forest products industry, but our unique collections support research in broad subjects across disciplines.
  • FHS Searchable Databases
    The Forest History Society has compiled several databases that reference primary or secondary source materials pertinent to research in topics related to forest, conservation, and environmental history. Some of the databases are catalogs of various collections held by the Society, and others serve as descriptive guides to resources elsewhere.
  • FHS Oral History Interview Collection
    The Society's Oral History Interview Program has produced more than 250 interviews conducted with individuals involved with the management and use of forests and their related resources. For the majority of interviews, sound recordings in various analog formats (reel-to-reel recordings, stenorette tape recordings, cassette recordings, etc.) complement typed transcriptions. More recently conducted interviews have electronic transcriptions, some of which are accessible through our web site from links in our Annotated Guide to the FHS Oral History Collection.
  • U.S. Forest Service History Collection
    The Forest History Society has produced a catalog to a collection of historical materials amassed since the early twentieth century by U.S. Forest Service employees working in Washington, D.C. The U.S. Forest Service History Collection contains such materials as correspondence, memoranda, legislation, books, periodicals, articles, pamphlets, and photographs. The collection, now housed at the Forest History Society in Durham, N.C., has proven useful for researchers and Forest Service employees interested in the administrative history of the agency and the broader issues with which it has been involved. The official archival Records of the U.S. Forest Service are maintained by the National Archives.
  • Centennial Forester Collection
    In 1946 the Society of American Foresters (SAF) and the American Forestry Association began assembling a collection of photographs and biographical sketches of foresters and conservationists to be housed at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The collection, named in honor of Gifford Pinchot, the first chief of the U.S. Forest Service, grew to include portraits and biographies for over 1,000 individuals before additions to the collection tapered off in 1950. At the November 2000 annual meeting of the SAF in Washington, D.C., the Forest History Society began collecting portraits of and biographical information about foresters and conservationists whose careers have developed during the mid- to late twentieth century to form a Centennial Forester Collection modeled after the original Pinchot Collection at the Library of Congress. We will accept contributions of portrait images and biographical forms for this collection indefinitely.
  • Canada's Forest History
    Environmental history often transcends politically-designated geographic borders and therefore sometimes demands an international perspective. Having recognized this long ago, the Society has for many decades used its program areas in Library and Archives, Research and Publication, and Education and Outreach to develop resources that support research pertinent to international environmental history. Canada's forest history, especially, has been significantly represented in our programming efforts.



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©2004 FOREST HISTORY SOCIETY
Updated: August 25, 2005