Professor Ralph Hosmer: Enriches FHS Library with GiftSource: Forest History, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Summer, 1961), pp. 12+15Published by: Forest History Society and American Society for Environmental HistoryStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3982991 .

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Professor Ralph Hosmer

Enriches FHS Library with Gift RALPH SHELDON HOSMER, Professor Emeritus at Cornell University and the last surviving charter member of the Society of American Foresters, has given a large collection of books, peri- odicals, bulletins, pamphlets, pictures, and other published materials relating to the history of forestry and the forest products industries to the library of the Forest History Society.

Professor Hosmer's gift constitutes the largest single addition to the So- ciety's growing library in St. Paul,

Minnesota, and includes many rare published items, some of which go back more than seventy-five years.

Included in the gift is a complete file of the Journal of Forestry and a complete set of the Proceedings of the Society of American Foresters. The Society's files of American Forests, For- est Leaves, Garden and Forest, and many other important forestry and forest industries-related serials have been greatly strengthened by the Hos- mer gift.

Of particular note are fine files of federal and state forestry bulletins, magazines, and monographs, including some of the earliest publications of the old Bureau of Forestry and early pub- lications of state foresters and state forestry associations.

The task of inventorying, cataloging and preparing this large acquisition for use by scholars and writers will occupy

(Continued on Page 15)

Samuel Trask Dana (From Page 11)

46. In addition to numerous bulletins and articles, he is the author of Forest and Range Policy: Its Development in the United States; co-author of Cali- fornia Lands- Ownership, Use, and Management; and, editor, History of Activities in the Field of Natural Re- sources. His most recent publication is Minnesota Lands: Ownership, Use and Management of Forest and Related Lands written in conjunction with two other authors.

Leonard G. Carpenter (From Page 11)

greatly respected by those Minnesotans who know best the unpublished story of his dedication to the enrichment of the life of his community. Leonard Car- penter and his charming wife, the for- mer Geraldine Kimberly, have been mainstays of the world-famous Minne- apolis Symphony Orchestra, the Minne- sota Orchestral Association, and the Minnesota Institute of Fine Arts.

In the midst of a busy schedule he finds time to serve also as a director of the American Red Cross in his home county, and is a trustee of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis. He serves also as a director of the First Bank Stock Corporation, the North- western National Life Insurance Com- pany and is a trustee of the Farmers & Mechanics Savings Bank in Minneapo- lis.

Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter have two children, a daughter, Nina Kimberly Anderson, and a son, Thomas Kimberly Carpenter. They have two grandchil- dren.

Fernow, Hosmer Papers Go to Cornell Archioes

SCHOLARS AND WRITERS will soon have access to the papers of two pioneers in American forestry-Bernhard Eduard Fernow and Ralph Sheldon Hosmer.

These important historical source materials have been placed in the Cor- nell Archives at Ithaca, New York. Their placement there followed an in- ventory of Hosmer's library and manu- script materials made in April by El- wood R. Maunder and Joseph A. Miller of the Forest History Society. Both groups of papers had previously been promised by Professor Hosmer and Professor Karl H. Fernow, son of America's first professional forester, to the Cornell Archives.

The addition of these papers to the collection of manuscripts at Cornell makes that repository one of the most important centers for research in North American forest history. Scholars and writers who are interested in research- ing these materials should address their requests for information to Mrs. Edith Fox, Curator of the Archives.

Recent Library Contributions Add To Society's Research Resources

IN EXCHANGE FOR Forest History the Kansas Historical Society has presented the Forest History Society with a bound set of its publication, The Kan- sas Historical Quarterly, which dates from 1931.

THE WISCONSIN Historical Society has provided the Society with as nearly a complete file as possible of their ex- cellent publication, Wisconsin Maga- zine of History.

IN RESPONSE TO our solicitation of last issue, the Institute of Paper Chemistry has donated issues of The Paper Maker ranging from 1935 to 1960.

RECENT DONATIONS of books, manu- scripts, bound volumes of trade jour- nals, technical pamphlets, and govern- ment documents have significantly ex- panded the FHS library.

Weyerhaeuser Company's transfer of their St. Paul sales offices to the West Coast resulted in the valuable acquisition of the major part of their

library holdings. Included were a num- ber of books, bound volumes of several trade journals, technical pamphlets, and government documents.

INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTIONS have signif- icantly increased our holdings: from Dr. Herbert Heaton-Benjamin Hib- bard's, A History of Public Land Poli- cies; from Helmuth Bay-George H. Warren's, The Pioneer Woodsman as he is Related to Lumbering in the Northwest; from Fred G. Sherrill, "Lumber Goes To War;" from William D. Hagenstein-Federal Timber Sale Policies, Joint Subcommittee Hearings, Parts One and Two; and from Austin F. Hawes-The Forester (July and September, 1900). "Memorandum on the Supplies of Wood for the Book Paper Industry," "Memorandum on the Newspaper Situation," and "Mem- orandum on Book Paper."

The Society is grateful for these contributions to our library which is becoming more efficient and complete as a result. '

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Historian Asks "Is History Bunk or Good Business?"

APPBOXIMATELY ONE HUNDRED LEADE

of forestry, conservation, and the wood- using industries of Minnesota, Wiscon- sin, and Michigan, attended the Min- nesota Forest History Conference at the Minnesota Historical Society on June 9th.

Monsignor James P. Shannon, presi- dent of the College of St. Thomas, and well-known American historian, key- noted the Minnesota Conference with a luncheon address "Is History Bunk or Good Business?"

Chiding both businessmen and in- tellectuals for their traditional hostility to each other, Father Shannon called upon representatives of both groups to lend their greater support to the work of historical societies which endeavor to collect and preserve authentic source materials which document all areas of community life and to enlist the inter- est of trained scholars in exploring these materials.

"Henry Ford's now famous remark, that 'History is more or less bunk,' is often cited by businessmen as a credo they can accept," Father Shannon stat- ed. It is also cited, he continued, "by professors of history as a classical ex- ample of monumental ignorance."

"In a sense each of these critical judgments is correct; and in a sense each of them in patently false," Father Shannon said. The muck-raking litera- ture on the lives of great businessmen which Henry Ford read and which he could not reconcile with his own per- sonal knowledge and admiration of these men moved him to assign such literature as "bunk." "His error was not in calling it bunk," Father Shannon stated. "His error was in calling it history."

"Conversely the lofty attitude which

Pinchot Portrait Provided by Forest Service

The editors of Forest History are in- debted to the U. S. Forest Service for providing the photograph of Gifford Pinchot on this issue's cover. Mr. Pin- chot is pictured as a participant in the 1925 inaugural parade in Washington, D.C.

Our belated thanks are also due the American Forestry Association for making available the photograph of Austin Cary which was used on the cover of the Spring, 1961 issue.

many scholars, including historians, often took toward business affairs and business leaders rested on the ques- tionable premise that the work of a good historian is to record the rise and fall of empires, the overthrow of mon- archies, and the negotiation of treat- ies," Father Shannon pointed out. "It was not the function of a scholar to write the story of a business or a cor- poration. Consequently when men of Henry Ford's unquestionable stature in American life made outrageous state- ments about history and books and the men who write them, scholars felt a righteous indignation and reiterated their deep convictions that business is by definition crooked and businessmen mere mechanics of financial manipula- tion, unworthy of space in any serious study of the sweep of human history."

The speaker went on to point out that in recent years both scholars and merchants have had reason to take a second look at these traditional atti- tudes of hostility and "to realize that enlightened businessmen, not scoun- drels, and good historians, not muck- rakers, have a great deal in common and could, by mutual effort, be of im- mense help to each other."

Father Shannon praised the work of enlightened businessmen in the forest products industries for their pioneering in the establishment of richer archives of business records freely opened to scholars in repositories throughout Canada and the United States.

"We can be very grateful," he stat- ed, "that a new era of respect and un- derstanding between the writers of his- tory and business leaders has put down the old myth that all 'History is Bunk.' In time past, bunk has on occasion masqueraded as history. But in our day the cheap approximation is recognized as a poor substitute for the real thing and many business leaders are taking positive steps to see that the identity of the real thing is protected in well preserved archives and published for the education of the public by respon- sible scholars."

Father Shannon spoke at an invita- tional lumberjack lunch which was hosted by two prominent Minnesota companies, the McCloud River Lum- ber Company and the Minnesota and Ontario Paper Company. The meal was served from an authentic swing-

dingle, a one-horse sled which was used in the heyday of logging to bring food from the lumber camp to the lumber- jacks at work in the woods.

The swingdingle was found after several weeks search of the region by representatives of the Forest History Society and the Minnesota Historical Society. It has been given to the state historical museum by Edwin H. Falk of Anoka, Minnesota. At the same time a fine collection of log marking ham- mers were also obtained for the State Historical Society collections through the generosity of Mr. Leonard Lam- pert, president of the Lampert Lum- ber Company, St. Paul.

Following the luncheon the Confer- ence heard papers by Miss Lucile M. Kane, curator of manuscripts of the Minnesota State Historical Society; Dr. Frank H. Kaufert, head of the School of Forestry of the University of Minnesota; and Dr. Paul H. Giddens, president of Hamline University and noted historian of the American oil in- dustry. These speakers explained the usefulness of collections of historical materials. The seminar was moderated by the Dean of Minnesota historians, Dr. Theodore C. Blegen.

Professor Hosmer (From Page 12)

the time of Society library staff well into 1962.

Professor Hosmer began his service as a forester in 1898 as the seventh man chosen by Gifford Pinchot for service in the Division of Forestry. When the Society of American For- esters was organized in 1900 Hosmer became its first treasurer. He was later elected by his professional colleagues a Fellow of the Society.

From 1904 to 1914 he was territorial forester of Hawaii, where he estab- lished a system of forest reserves to protect the watersheds of streams which provide water for irrigating the main crop of the Islands, sugar cane.

In 1914, he was appointed Professor of Forestry and Head of the Depart- ment of Forestry in the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell. He taught there until his retirement in 1942. Professor Hosmer lives with his wife, Jessie, at 9209 Wait Avenue in Ithaca, New York.

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