Inventory of the Forestry Lectures of Carl Alwin Schenck, 1904 – 1909
Descriptive Summary
Abstract: German-born and -educated Carl Alwin Schenck (1868-1955) was a pioneer in American forestry education, known for his contributions as premier forester for the Biltmore Estate and as founder of the Biltmore Forest School.
This collection consists of digital facsimile reproductions of two volumes of Carl Alwin Schenck's published lectures on the topics of forest policy and forest protection. Schenck published his forest policy lectures in 1904 and his forest protection lectures in 1909 for the benefit of students attending the Biltmore Forest School in Asheville, North Carolina.
Title: Forestry Lectures of Carl Alwin Schenck, 1904 - 1909
Creator: Schenck, Carl Alwin, 1868-1955
Repository: Forest History Society Library and Archives
Call Number: 2002-001
Language of Material: Material in English
Extent: 0.5 linear feet (2 volumes and digital surrogates)
Biographical Note
German-born and -educated Carl Alwin Schenck (1868-1955) was a pioneer in American forestry education, known for his contributions as premier forester for the Biltmore Estate and as founder of the Biltmore Forest School.
Carl Alwin Schenck was born 25 March 1868 in Darmstadt in the state of Hesse, Germany. As a young man he studied forestry and law, earning a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Giessen in 1895. On the recommendation of Sir Dietrich Brandis, then considered the world's leading professional forester, American entrepreneur George W. Vanderbilt hired Schenck in 1895 to manage the woodlands on his vast estate in Asheville, North Carolina. Schenck succeeded Gifford Pinchot, the first American trained in the field of forestry, as manager of the estate's forests, taking charge of such forest management tasks as implementing erosion control measures, supervising logging practices, marketing timber, and reforesting harvested lands.
In 1898, with George Vanderbilt's permission, Schenck founded the Biltmore Forest School, the first forestry school in the United States. The school primarily admitted high school graduates with lumbering experience and trained them to work as foresters in the private sector rather than as government employees in positions that required extensive education. The school offered a one-year course of intensive lectures supplemented with extensive field work in practical forestry and lumbering. Schenck ran the school in his spare time, conducting most of the lectures and personally leading the students on lengthy horseback rides through the Biltmore forests so that they could view firsthand the various forestry applications being implemented on the estate. The school flourished for a number of years, but in 1907 George Vanderbilt fired Schenck over a disagreement, and Schenck was forced to move the Biltmore Forest School off the grounds of the Biltmore Estate. For a time Schenck used as his headquarters a schoolroom and student housing provided by Champion Paper and Fibre Company in the town of Sunburst, North Carolina, and he began taking his students on extensive field trips to Germany, France, New York, North Carolina, Michigan, and Oregon. Schenck eventually disbanded the Biltmore Forest School in 1913 due to declining enrollment after having graduated over three hundred fifty students.
In 1914, Schenck was recalled to Germany to serve as a lieutenant on the Eastern front, where he was wounded in action. In the decade following World War I, Schenck gave forestry lectures at several German and American forestry schools, and he conducted field tours of European forests for American forestry students. During the 1920s and 1930s, he wrote numerous articles and textbooks while continuing his work as a lecturer. In the wake of World War II, Schenck worked with American authorities to help set up forestry and relief programs in Germany.
In his later years he received numerous honors, including an honorary degree of Doctor of Forest Science from North Carolina State College awarded in 1952. In that same year, Schenck returned to the United States and spoke at numerous banquets, meetings, and dedications around the country. On May 16, 1955, Carl Alwin Schenck died at the age of eighty-seven in Lindenfels, Germany, after having been ill for quite some time.
Collection Overview
This collection consists of digital facsimile reproductions of two volumes of Carl Alwin Schenck's published lectures on the topics of forest policy and forest protection. Schenck published his forest policy lectures in 1904 and his forest protection lectures in 1909 for the benefit of students attending the Biltmore Forest School in Asheville, North Carolina.
Collection Arrangement
- Forest Policy Lectures by Carl Schenck, Published in 1904
- Forest Protection Lectures by Carl Schenck, Published in 1909
Subject Headings
- Biltmore Forest School -- History
- Forest policy
- Forest protection -- Handbooks, manuals, etc.
- Foresters -- United States -- Biography
- Forests and Forestry -- United States -- History
- Schenck, Carl Alwin, 1868-1955
- Vanderbilt, George Washington, 1862-1914
Detailed Description of the Collection
1. Forest Policy Lectures by Carl Schenck, Published in 1904.
(1 volume)
Includes lectures published in 1904 by the Biltmore Forest School in Biltmore, North Carolina. Lectures on Forest Policy. Second Part: 'Forestry Conditions in the United States' provides for each state of the union statistical information on such forest policy issues as: forest area; regional physiography; distribution of various forest types; forest ownership; timber utilization; public attitudes toward forests and forestry; forest and/or conservation laws and legislation in effect; whether or not any forest reserves existed at the time of publication; and irrigation.
2. Forest Protection Lectures by Carl Schenck, Published in 1909.
(1 volume)
Includes lectures published in 1909 by the Inland Press of Asheville, North Carolina. Forest Protection: Guide to Lectures Delivered at the Biltmore Forest School presents Carl Schenck's lectures about measures that forest owners should implement to protect forest resources from adverse influences caused by animals, climate extremes, erosion, insects, non-native plants, pollution, storms, and human activities. Includes a bibliographic reference list (pages 39-42) compiled by Carl Schenck and F. D. Couden supplemented with numerous tables (pages 43-108) providing reference information about government publications on insect damage to particular tree species. Also includes an index. Handwritten notations appear on pages throughout the book, especially towards the end.
Administrative Information
Access Restrictions
No restrictions.
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Preferred Citation
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Forestry Lectures of Carl Alwin Schenck, Library and Archives, Forest History Society, Durham, NC, USA.
Processing Information
Processed by Elizabeth Arnold, June 2002
Encoded by Amanda Ross, July 2009
Funding from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission supported the encoding of this finding aid. Support for digitization and outreach provided by the Alvin J. Huss Endowment.
