Digital Exhibits

Digital Collections provide direct access to a selection of the rich primary source materials held by the Forest History Society. As time and funding permit, the Society is preparing digital versions of some of its more interesting documents, photographs, films, and other materials. In addition to our ongoing efforts to digitize and catalog the extensive FHS Photograph Collection, the Society also periodically brings together digital resources around a topical theme of interest. Below you will find links to selected digital collections that assemble archival resources around a subject of historical significance.

Chinese Loggers in the American West

This exhibit was made possible with generous support from the MillsDavis Foundation and was curated by Shing Yin Khor. The project was overseen by FHS Librarian Lauren Bissonette, with help from FHS Historian James Lewis. Introduction In 1848, following the California Gold Rush, Chinese people quickly became part of American society. They established large Chinatowns…

Reclaiming Maxville: The Legacy of African Americans in a Lumber Town

With generous support from the MillsDavis Foundation, FHS partnered with the Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center to develop and share this story of forest history. This exhibit was curated by Yolanda Hester and Elizabeth Flowers of Frameworks and Narratives, LLC, with advisement from Gwendolyn Trice and Sierra Newby-Smith of the Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center. The project was…

The Oberlaender Trust and American Forestry

Establishing The Trust In the early 20th century, Gustav Oberlaender built his fortune in the hosiery industry, but he earned a legacy through philanthropy. Though not a forester himself, his charitable acts linked his name to the field of forestry and, indirectly, have had a lasting impact on the management of American forests and wildlife….

Division and Restoration: A Brief History of Forestry on the Quinault Indian Reservation

Introduction Comprised of 208,000 acres and located on the Pacific Ocean and Olympic Peninsula of Washington, the Quinault Indian Reservation contains extensive coastal forests that have always been central to the tribe’s culture, subsistence, and economy. Since the 1920s, managing timber on these forests has been challenging and mired in controversy, involving a complex relationship…

Kieckhefer Container Company

Paperboard, either corrugated or solid, also known as cardboard, fiberboard, or containerboard, has been an essential part of our everyday lives in one form or another for more than a century. It became ubiquitous through the efforts and innovations of fiberboard industry pioneers like the Kieckhefer Container Company. In the first half of the 20th…

Champion Pulp and Paper Mill in Canton, NC, Timeline

Located just west of Asheville, North Carolina, and within the headwaters of the Pigeon River, is the small town of Canton, home to the Evergreen Packaging mill, an employee-owned facility. Opened in 1908 as the Champion Fibre Company, the pulp and paper mill has played a significant role in the environmental and social history in…

Pioneer Trail Riders of the Wilderness

On July 11, 1933, a group of twenty-two men and women headed into the South Fork Primitive Area on Montana’s Flathead National Forest. Members of the party had come from all over the country to experience seven days of horseback travel deep into the rugged wilderness of this recently designated primitive area. The outing was…

Barkbeetle Enemies of California Forests Album

“Barkbeetle Enemies of California Forests” is an album in the archival collections of the Forest History Society. The volume was prepared by the Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in cooperation with the State Emergency Relief Administration and the Emergency Educational Program. It was published in February 1935 in…

World War I: 10th and 20th Forestry Engineers

During World War I, two U.S. Army regiments of forestry engineers worked in France to provide the Allied forces with the large amount of timber necessary for the war effort. Those making up these regiments came from forest ranger, logging, and sawmill jobs throughout the U.S., and served their country in France by providing work…

The American Tree Farm System

On June 12, 1941, the nation’s first tree farm was dedicated near Montesano, Washington. Owned by the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company, the 120,000-acre Clemons Tree Farm launched a nationwide movement. Over the next few decades the American Tree Farm System would expand across all 50 states. To see when the first tree farm was certified in…

“Redwood in the San Francisco Fire” Photo Album

“Redwood in the San Francisco Fire” is a small photograph album in the collections of the Forest History Society, prepared in June of 1906 by the Redwood Car Shippers Bureau and donated to the Society by the Davenport, Peters Company. The album contains 10 photographs depicting damage caused by the San Francisco earthquake and fires…

Views from the National Forests Album

“Views from the National Forests” is a leather-bound photo album in the archival collections of the Forest History Society. Produced in the mid-1930s by the U.S. Forest Service for placement on commercial railways, it contains 36 images dating 1914–1933 with captions addressing such topics as recreation, wildlife, reforestation, timber management and use, fire control, forage,…

Forest History Society YouTube Channel

Features clips of historic films from our archives, such as footage of logging operations, river drives, forest fire suppression, and much more. Also includes classic Smokey Bear television PSAs, and selections from documentaries such as Up in Flames, Timber on the Move, and The Greatest Good. Forest History Society YouTube Channel

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