Sterling Memorial Library’s Manuscripts and Archives holds a growing collection of papers related to environmental history and politics in the United States. For further information about these holdings, please visit the Manuscript and Archives website:
William Henry Brewer Papers. Scientist and Yale professor. Worked on the first geological survey of California, helped organize the Connecticut State Agricultural Experiment Station (1877), served on the United States Forestry Commission, helped found the Yale School of Forestry in 1900, helped organize the New Haven Board of Public Health (1872) and the Connecticut Board of Health (1878), and was active in the early years of the American Public Health Association. He studied the suspension and sedimentation of clays in river water and the effect of deposits in delta formations.
Herman Haupt Chapman Papers. Yale forestry professor. The papers highlight Chapman’s research, writings, and teaching on forest mensuration, valuation, regulation, and finance, and his work with the Society of American Foresters, particularly his study of forestry education in the United States, as well as his interests in national and state parks, forests, and wilderness areas.
Peter B. Cooper Papers. Attorney. Correspondence, notes, and background material that document his legal work to preserve the quality of the environment in the New Haven area and on Long Island Sound. Cases involve issues of energy transmission, coastal area development, highway construction, pollution of public water supplies, air quality control, and nuclear power plant construction.
Arthur William Galston Papers. Yale biology professor. The papers highlight Galston’s concern over the ecological harm done by herbicides and his efforts to end the use of Agent Orange, which was sprayed as a defoliant in Vietnam by the United States military.
Henry Solon Graves Papers. Forester and first dean of the Yale School of Forestry. The collection documents Graves’s academic and administrative career, his professional writings and activities, and his service during World War I as a forestry engineer in France.
George Bird Grinnell Papers. The papers document Grinnell’s leading role in the American conservation movement. The material focuses on his adult life (1886-1938) and details his work as editor of Forest and Stream magazine, authority on American Indians of the West, and active participant in the National Audubon Society, the Boone and Crockett Club, the American Game Protective and Propagation Association, and the National Parks Association.
John Dennett Guthrie Papers. Forester. The papers contain correspondence, notes, writings, printed material, photographs and memorabilia concerning forestry and forest policy in Alaska, Arizona, Oregon, Texas, and Virginia, and material on Guthrie’s association with Civilian Conservation Corps, United States Forest Service, Society of American Foresters, and the Yale School of Forestry.
G. Evelyn Hutchinson Papers. Educator, zoologist, and ecologist. The papers consist of correspondence, writings, addresses, notes and research materials, subject files, memorabilia, and photographs relating to G. Evelyn Hutchinson’s work as a zoologist and limnologist, as well as his travels as part of the Yale North India Expedition
William Kent Family Papers. Public official. The papers document Kent’s activities as a municipal reformer in Chicago and Northern California; his interests in conservation, recreation, and public control of water power; his campaigns for election to Congress; his service in the U.S. House of Representatives and on the U.S. Tariff Commission; and his business interests in cattle ranches in Nebraska and Nevada.
Charles Augustus Lindbergh Papers. Aviator and conservationist. Among the many areas of interest to Lindbergh were his support for the reduction of whale harvesting, his collaboration with Lowell Thomas to minimize the effect of the Alaskan pipeline in the 1960s, his support in the founding of the World Wildlife Fund, and his opposition to the development of the supersonic transport jet. Papers are restricted but permission can be obtained from his family.
New Haven Redevelopment Agency
Project files, minutes, correspondence, and property records, documenting the work of the New Haven Redevelopment Agency, primarily from the 1950s to the 1980s.
Francis Griffith Newlands Papers. Public official. The papers highlight Nevada Democratic and Silver Party politics and focus on Newlands’s legislative programs on transportation, particularly railroads and inland waterways, interstate commerce, irrigation, flood control, land reclamation, currency and silver, conservation and forests, and tariffs.
Paul Bigelow Sears Papers. Educator. Chairman of the Yale University Conservation Program, the papers focus on Sears’s activities on behalf of professional scientific organizations and civic groups interested in conservation, such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Ecological Society of America, the National Research Council, and the National Science Foundation. Numerous files concern Sears’s involvement with citizens’ groups and government agencies for conservation in Ohio.
Coalition to Stop Trident Records. Established in Connecticut in 1984 to coordinate and continue the activities of several groups resisting the production and deployment of Trident nuclear submarines and missiles in Connecticut.
Forest Fire Poster Collection. The collection consists of lantern slides of forest fire prevention posters.
New England Society of American Foresters Records. Members of the society come from the six New England states as well as the eastern Canadian provinces. Through its meetings and publications the society disseminates knowledge of the purpose and achievements of forestry, particularly in the areas of silviculture and forest management.
Save the Wetlands Committee, Inc. of Connecticut Records. The committee was formed in 1966 to establish a program for the preservation and protection of Connecticut’s coastal and inland wetlands. Through educational publications and meetings, the committee worked to garner public support for legislation protecting Connecticut’s marshes from dredging, landfill, and commercial development.
Seventh American Forest Congress Records. The congress, held in February 1996, attempted to produce a working consensus on forest conservation and recommended steps for improving forest management practices, research on forestry problems, and policies guiding both.
Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Records of deans (1900-2003); officers and faculty; departments, offices, programs, and projects; student records; student, alumni, and support organizations; and audio-visual material and memorabilia.