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National Agricultural Library
U.S. Department of Agriculture
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Manuscript Collections Search

Special Collections at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agricultural Library houses manuscripts and archival records documenting the history of agriculture and the USDA from the 19th through the 21st centuries. These collections include correspondence, field notes, journals, photographs, publications, posters, and other items of individuals who worked for or were associated with the USDA, individuals involved in non-USDA agricultural activities, and organizations related to agriculture. For more information or to schedule a visit, please contact Special Collections.

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Displaying 401 - 425 of 469 Collections

Roy Walter Simonson Papers

The Roy Walter Simonson Papers contain notes, correspondence, and memoranda from soil surveys in the United States from 1899 through 1953. The collection also contains notes on specific regions’ soils, scientific aspects of soils, and soil classification. Notable records include notes, memoranda, and correspondence related to the controversy surrounding the soil survey in the Southern Region of the U.S. in the 1940s. There are also autobiographical writings by Simonson along with 14 foreign travel journals Simonson compiled between 1947 and 1978 that document his trips to Western and Central Europe, Ceylon (now known as Sri Lanka), India, South America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
Historical or Biographical Sketch
Roy Walter Simonson (1908-2008) obtained a bachelor’s degree in soils and chemistry from North Dakota Agricultural College. He completed a Ph.D. in soils at the University of Wisconsin. In 1938, he joined Iowa State College as a faculty member and supervisor of the soil survey program. In 1943, he became soil correlator for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Division of Soil Survey in Knoxville, Tennessee. He was promoted to assistant chief of the Division of Soil Survey and transferred to Beltsville, Maryland in 1949. Upon consolidation of the USDA’s soil survey activities under the Soil Conservation Service in 1952, he supervised the classification, correlation, and nomenclature of soils throughout the United States. He retired from USDA in 1973.
Collection Number: 415
Earliest Date: 1899
Latest Date: 1978
Bulk Dates: 1940-1970
Linear Feet: 2.5
Processed: Yes, view the finding aid online.
Subjects: Natural Resources; USDA History
Digitization Status: None

Brice K. Meeker Papers

The Brice K. Meeker Papers consist of reports, speeches, diplomas, slides, and photographs from conferences attended by Meeker as well as areas he and his family lived while he was an agricultural attache. There is information on agriculture in the United States and the U.S.S.R. In addition, the following areas are represented in photographs or slides: The Aegean Islands, Australia, Austria, Belgium, the Canary Islands, Denmark, England, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hawaii, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Scotland, South America, the Soviet Union, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, and United States.
Historical or Biographical Sketch
Brice K. Meeker (1922-1988) was former assistant administrator for the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS). He received a master’s degree and doctorate in agricultural economics from Purdue University and began working with the United States Department of Agriculture in 1953. Meeker spent most of his career overseas with FAS and was assigned to Hungary, Hong Kong, the Soviet Union, the Netherlands, and Australia. He retired in 1983.
Collection Number: 416
Earliest Date: 1948
Latest Date: 1996
Bulk Dates: 1960-1974
Linear Feet: 5.5
Processed: No, contact Special Collections.
Subjects: Farms and Farming Systems
Formats: Photographs
Digitization Status: None

Ivar Frederick Tidestrom Papers

The Ivar Frederick Tidestrom Papers consist of flora of several regions and states, including the Chesapeake Bay, Texas and Oklahoma. The collection also contains a number of keys and revisions of keys for various plant families, as well as notes on plants that Tidestrom collected in France and the United States. There are a limited number of personal photographs and some correspondence related to Latin nomenclature and validation of species.
Historical or Biographical Sketch
Ivar Frederick Tidestrom (1865-1956) was a Swedish-born American botanist, taxonomist, and plant explorer. He served as assistant botanist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture with Frederick V. Colville, retiring in 1934. Tidestrom published several books, including Ferns and Fern Allies (1907-1908), Elysium marianum: Salicaceae, Ceriferae, Betulaceae (1910), and A Flora of Arizona and New Mexico (1941).
Collection Number: 417
Earliest Date: 1940
Latest Date: 1950
Bulk Dates: 1940-1950
Linear Feet: 6.25
Processed: No, contact Special Collections.
Subjects: Plant Science
Digitization Status: None

Edward Everett Terrell Papers

The Edward Everett Terrell Papers mainly consist of photographs, micrographs, negatives, and illustrations of the plant specimens featured in Dr. Terrell’s research and publications. There are also plant species distribution maps, journal article reprints, and personal files and correspondence relating to publications, reviews, and specimen collections.
Historical or Biographical Sketch
Edward Everett Terrell (1923-2011) was a taxonomic botanist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, for 25 years. He was also a researcher and collaborator with the Department of Botany, Smithsonian Institution, and the Department of Plant Biology, University of Maryland. Dr. Terrell published many articles and books, including Checklist of Names for 3,000 Vascular Plants of Economic Importance (1977), Revision of Houstonia (Rubiaceae-Hedyotideae) (1996), and Annotated List of the Flora of the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (2000).
Collection Number: 418
Earliest Date: 1920
Latest Date: 2010
Linear Feet: 8
Processed: No, contact Special Collections.
Subjects: Plant Science; USDA History
Formats: Photographs; Reprints
Digitization Status: None

Franklin A. Coffman Artifacts

The Franklin A. Coffman Artifacts consist of several objects obtained in the Philippines, including tools, a musical instrument, and decorative pieces. There are also several projectile points (arrowheads and a spear point) that were found on USDA property in Beltsville, Maryland.
Historical or Biographical Sketch
Franklin Arthur Coffman (1892-1976) served as an agronomist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Beltsville, Maryland research station from 1917 to 1962. Prior to this, he conducted research at the Agricultural Experiment Station in the Philippines from 1914 to 1916. Coffman focused his principle research on oats (Avena), especially in the areas of genetic improvement, taxonomic classification, and morphology. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agronomy at Kansas State Agricultural College (now Kansas State University). His papers are held at Kansas State University’s Morse Department of Special Collections.
Collection Number: 419
Earliest Date: 1914
Latest Date: 1916
Linear Feet: 10
Subjects: Agricultural History
Formats: Agricultural Art and Memorabilia
Digitization Status: None

Glenn Loren Fuller Collection

The Glenn Loren Fuller Collection contains soil science-related correspondence, reports, memoranda, soil surveys and maps, photographs, rock and soil samples, and collecting equipment such as a leather satchel, duffle bag, and camera tripod. Personal belongings include funeral memorial book and cards, family photographs, house plans, investments records, vital statistics correspondence, engraving plates for wedding announcement, automobile data, and the Spartanburg, South Carolina Park and Recreation Board minutes (1964).
Historical or Biographical Sketch
Glenn Loren Fuller (1891-1964) was a soil scientist for the Soil Conservation Service of the United States Department of Agriculture from 1935-1958, when he retired from civil service. During his career, he served in numerous capacities including Regional Soil Scientist, Southeastern Region Soil Conservation Service, Spartanburg, South Carolina (1937-1954); and Deputy Director, Caribbean Area Soil Conservation Service, San Juan, Puerto Rico (1954-1958). He graduated from Cornell University's College of Agriculture in 1915. He was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1940, and elected a Fellow of the Soil Conservation Society of America in 1954.
Collection Number: 420
Earliest Date: 1902
Latest Date: 1964
Linear Feet: 9.5
Subjects: Natural Resources; USDA History
Formats: Agricultural Art and Memorabilia; Maps; Photographs
Digitization Status: None

Economic Research Service Historic Farm Production Records

The Economic Research Service Historic Farm Production Expenses Records were generated by staff in the Farm Income Sections and Projects, Bureau of Agricultural Economics. The records include correspondence, memoranda, research notes, surveys, descriptions of procedures, and documentation of estimates. There are a number of ledgers documenting expenditures, by state, for dairy supplies, seed, grazing fees, insurance, real estate, fertilizer, hired labor, board and lodgings, repairs and operation of farm capitol items.
Collection Number: 421
Earliest Date: 1935
Latest Date: 1985
Bulk Dates: 1935-1985
Linear Feet: 53
Subjects: Economics
Digitization Status: None

Calvin Lunsford Beale Collection

The Calvin Lunsford Beale Collection includes books, reprints, papers and correspondence. The collection also includes photographs and slides of over 2,000 county courthouses in the United States, which Mr. Beale visited during his long career.
Historical or Biographical Sketch
Calvin Lunsford Beale (1923-2008) was a senior demographer in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service from 1953 until his death. Beale specialized in studying rural population dynamics, including migration and population redistribution and racial and ethnic composition. He is noted for discovering a "population turnaround" in the late 1960s as people began to return to rural areas from the cities.
Collection Number: 422
Latest Date: 2008
Linear Feet: 138
Processed: No, contact Special Collections.
Subjects: Economics; USDA History
Formats: Photographs; Reprints
Digitization Status: None

Thomas S. Buie Papers

The Thomas S. Buie Papers contain articles, memoranda, letters, and newspaper clippings pertaining to the attempt of the Farm Bureau Federation to effect the closure of the regional offices of the Soil Conservation Service and the transfer of the functions to other USDA agencies.
Historical or Biographical Sketch
Thomas S. Buie (1896-1973) was appointed director of the Soil Conservation Service Southeastern Regional Office in Spartanburg, South Carolina in 1935 and served until 1954. Prior to that he was the Regional Director of the South Tyger Regional Project, one of the first United States federally initiated soil conservation projects (begun in 1933). Buie experimented with erosion control techniques beginning in the 1930's and is responsible for the adoption of many soil and water conservation practices in South Carolina and the Southeast. He was one of the founders of the Soil Conservation Society of America where he served as president in 1948. He was a member of the Clemson University class of 1917; he received his M.S. and Ph.D from Iowa State University.
Collection Number: 423
Earliest Date: 1941
Latest Date: 1948
Bulk Dates: 1946-1948
Linear Feet: 0.25
Processed: No, contact Special Collections.
Subjects: Natural Resources; USDA History
Digitization Status: None

Douglas Helms Collection

The Douglas Helms Collection contains Helms' office files and relates to the history of Soil Conservation Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service. The collection includes articles, books, correspondence, photographs, films, and oral histories.
Historical or Biographical Sketch
Douglas Helms (1945-2018) served as the historian for the USDA Soil Conservation Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service from 1981 to 2011.
Collection Number: 424
Linear Feet: 166
Processed: No, contact Special Collections.
Subjects: Natural Resources; USDA History
Formats: Audiovisuals; Maps; Photographs
Digitization Status: None

Wye Oak Collection

The Wye Oak Collection contains a Maryland Centennial Garrett State Forest commemorative plaque, preserved Wye Oak leaves (in filter paper, very fragile), Wye Oak lightning rod nails, 2 Wye Oak pins, Big Tree and Champion Tree literature, 1 mounted and framed print of the Wye Oak, 3 mounted and framed displays of Wye Oak leaves, and 2 books. A piece of wood from the actual tree is included in the collection.
Historical or Biographical Sketch
High winds of a violent thunderstorm on June 6, 2002 toppled Maryland's honorary state tree, the Wye Oak (a white oak: Quercus alba). It was located near Wye Mills, Talbot County, Maryland. Its height was 88 feet, and it measured over over 31 feet in circumference. It stood for over 450 years. It was in private hands from 1665 until 1939 when the State of Maryland purchased the acres surrounding it to create the Wye Oak State Park.
Collection Number: 425
Earliest Date: 1944
Latest Date: 2002
Bulk Dates: 1990-2002
Linear Feet: 2
Processed: No, contact Special Collections.
Subjects: Forestry
Formats: Agricultural Art and Memorabilia
Digitization Status: None

Food Irradiation Collection

These materials are primarily from the Quartermaster Food and Container Institute for the Armed Forces (QMF&CI). There are contract research project reports and other publications related to food irradiation. Projects appear to be done internally, at other institutions, and with some companies. Some materials are international.
Collection Number: 426
Earliest Date: 1957
Latest Date: 1968
Bulk Dates: 1950s-1960s
Linear Feet: 36.25
Subjects: Human Nutrition
Digitization Status: Portion of collection digitized

William Speechly Manuscript

The William Speechly manuscript is titled "A Treatist on the culture of the pine apple and the management of the hot-house." This handwritten manuscript contains information on how to grow the pineapple plant in a greenhouse and includes a description of insect control. The manuscript is signed by A.N. Cudell, 1898.
Historical or Biographical Sketch
William Speechly was a gardener to the duke of Portland.
Collection Number: 427
Earliest Date: 1779
Latest Date: 1779
Bulk Dates: 1779
Linear Feet: 0.25
Processed: No, contact Special Collections.
Subjects: Entomology; Plant Science
Digitization Status: None

Forest Service Leader Photograph Collection

The Forest Service Leader Photograph Collection consists of twenty-two unframed black and white photographs of twentieth-century United States Forest Service officials. There are two photographs of Gifford Pinchot.
Collection Number: 428
Earliest Date: 1901
Latest Date: 1979
Linear Feet: 0.5
Processed: No, contact Special Collections.
Subjects: Forestry; USDA History
Formats: Photographs
Digitization Status: None

Economic Research Service Foreign Agricultural Files Collection

The Economic Research Service Foreign Agricultural Files include: Japan Agricultural Polices and Trade (1963-2009); Japan commodities (1960-1990); Japan, Agriculture and Food Sector (1964-1992); Files on South Korean Agriculture (1946-1992); and Japan agricultural input files (1970-1990).
Collection Number: 429
Earliest Date: 1946
Latest Date: 2009
Bulk Dates: 1963-1992
Linear Feet: 14
Subjects: Economics
Formats: Reprints
Digitization Status: None

Quelea Research Collection

The Quelea Research Collection consists of reports and notes from Richard L. Bruggers, director of the National Wildlife Research Center. The documents gathered are primarily published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations; however, many are produced by government and non-government entities. The documents in the numbered boxes 1-9 are in English, and the translation project are in French and Spanish, and include research reorts, technical reports, conference minutes, and other types of informational reports, many with maps. Many documents are accompanied by brief notes from Dr. Bruggers. The notes were not digitized
Historical or Biographical Sketch
The Quelea is the common name for an East African weaverbird, Quelea quelea. Less than 5 inhes (13 cm) long and wieghing slightly more than 1/2 ounce (1.3 grams), the tiny birds are found throughout sub-Saharan Africa in areas receing less than 30 inches (76 cm) of annual rainfall. With the spread of grain farming and irrigation, they have extended their natural habitats, generally picking new breeding grounds every year. Highly mobile, they often descend in a locust like manner upon fields and in flight may indeed be mistaken for locusts. Queleas are often found in concentrations of more than a million birds; such a flock can destroy up to 60 tons of grain in a single day, consuming half and knocking the rest to the ground.
Collection Number: 430
Earliest Date: 1960
Latest Date: 1999
Bulk Dates: 1960s-1990s
Linear Feet: 6.25
Subjects: Animal Science
Digitization Status: Portion of collection digitized

Office of the Secretary of Agriculture Memoranda

The materials consist of USDA Secretary of Agriculture Memoranda and Circulars (1918-1979), General Orders (1897-1913), Plant and Operations Memoranda (1936-37), Secretary Special Orders (1927-34, 1939), Technical Advisory Board Circulars (1938-1940), USDA Defense and Agriculture Series (1940-41), and USDA Defense Exercise Memoranda (1960-1970s).
Collection Number: 432
Earliest Date: 1897
Latest Date: 1979
Bulk Dates: 1913-1979
Linear Feet: 11.25
Subjects: USDA History
Digitization Status: None

Vitamin Publications Collection

The Vitamin Publications Collection consists of journal articles and reprints first listed by type of vitamin then by author's last name. Vitamins covered include A, B12, C, Calcium and Iron.
Collection Number: 433
Earliest Date: 1915
Latest Date: 1974
Linear Feet: 51.25
Subjects: Human Nutrition
Formats: Reprints
Digitization Status: None

Chico Plant Introduction Station Photograph Collection

The Chico Plant Introduction Station Photograph Collection primarily contains 5" x 7" photographs and negatives of pistachios that were grown in Chico, California. Photographers include W.E. Whitehouse, R.L. Taylor, J.C. Long, C.L. Stone, and Mitchell. Some photographs were taken at the Beltsville area and D.C. laboratories since specimens were sent there from Chico. Additional subjects include persimmons, walnuts, pears, crab apples, apricots, plums, peach-almond tree, cherries, avocados, guavas, mangoes, annonas, jujubes, oranges, and vegetables. Many of these were taken on plant exploration trips such as Whitehouse's trip to Persia in 1929, Dorsett and Dorsett's trip to China in 1924-25, Dorsett and Morse's trip to China in 1931, and Long and Stone's trip to California in 1936. The collection also includes a set of 4" x 6" index cards with plant introduction number, name of plant, type of fruit, where it originated, and other information such as whether it was growing in quarantine at Bell, Maryland or where seeds were sent.
Historical or Biographical Sketch
The Chico Plant Introduction Station is no longer in existence but was originally part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introductions from 1904 until the 1970s, at which time the property was transferred to the Forest Service.
Collection Number: 436
Earliest Date: 1912
Latest Date: 1952
Linear Feet: 2.5
Subjects: Plant Science
Formats: Photographs
Digitization Status: None

Food Processing Abstracts

The Food Processing Abstracts were available on a subscription basis from Lowry-Cocroft Abstracts based in Evanston, Illinois. Each week subscribers received abstracts, alphabetized and numbered in order, coded by a classification system. The code numbers appeared on the lower right hand corner of each card. The classification system had three divisions: Processing Fields, Type of Food Processed, and Kind of Information Included. Processing Fields subjects consisted of pasteurization, heat sterilization, freezing, dehyrofreezing, dehydration and concentration, freeze drying, preservation with chemicals (including salt), fermentations (excluding alcoholic beverages, separation and refining, irradiation, enzyme treatment, packing, packaging, cooking and baking, and organoleptic analysis. Types of Food Processed subjects were vegetables, fruit and fruit products, meat, poultry, fish and shellfish, eggs, dairy products, cereals and soy beans, starch, sugar and confections, beverages, oils and fats, spices and flavorings, prepared foods, diet foods, other foods, and baked goods. The differentiation by kind of information covered field included patent, legal, quality control, microbiology, time and temperature processing, equipment, storage, flavor, texture, color, nutritive value, antioxidants, emulsifiers and stabilizers, other additives, composition and analysis, and consumer preference. Information was retrieved by use of a sorting needle. For instance, if it was desired to obtain all the articles on the subject of freeze drying, the needle was inserted in hold 23 and the desired cards, on which this number was notched, dropped out. If only the articles on freeze drying of meat products were desired, a second use of the needle in hole 49 of the separated cards isolated those. Again if it was desired to refer only to patents on freeze drying of meat, a third use of the needles in hold 29 segregated those.
Collection Number: 437
Earliest Date: 1963
Latest Date: 1969
Linear Feet: 11
Subjects: Human Nutrition; Physical Sciences
Digitization Status: None

Gas Chromatography Abstracts

The Gas Chromatography Abstracts were produced by Preston Technical Abstracts Company in Evanston, Illinois. Subject classification consisted of Apparatus, Theory and Review Articles, Applications, and Special Techniques.
Collection Number: 438
Earliest Date: 1965
Latest Date: 1969
Linear Feet: 10
Subjects: Physical Sciences
Digitization Status: None

Card Catalog from Dr. Jane F. Robens

This card catalog contains bibliographic citations to literature on topics such as chemicals in foods, the effects of chemicals in the body, diseases from chemical exposure, toxicology of insecticides, etc. Literature is listed by subject, dates from 1911-1978 , and consists of serials, reprints, and books.
Collection Number: 439
Earliest Date: 1911
Latest Date: 1979
Linear Feet: 1,056
Subjects: Human Nutrition
Digitization Status: None

Plant Sciences Card Catalog

The Plant Sciences Card Catalog of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Library, developed over half a century, consists of three divisions: author catalog, plant pathology catalog, and subject catalog. Work on all these ceased on July 18, 1952 because of lack of funds. The plant science subject catalog (Botany Subject Index) is a card catalog with entries arranged alphabetically by subject and by scientific names, broken down into divisions and subdivisions of large subjects. Names of genera are arranged under the family, the family names appearing in their regular alphabetical place. Included also are references to literature on many subjects of interest to the botanist, such as textbooks arranged chronologically, voyages and travels, biographies, and geographical botany. It is world-wide in scope and contains references to botanical literature from earliest times as published books and in American and foreign serials of all kinds, journals, proceedings, bulletins, etc. The Bibliography of Agriculture, which started in 1942, includes the types of references covered by the plant science catalog. After the Plant Sciences Card Catalog was no longer updated, users of the Plant Sciences Catalog would have made use of this resource which was updated monthly.
Historical or Biographical Sketch
The "Botany Catalogue" was developed under the supervision of Frederick V. Coville in 1893 and originated in an attempt to enlarge and coordinate the collections of botanical literature in the libraries of Washington.. The nucleus of the catalog was the botanical part of the catalogue of the Department of Agriculture Library. It started as an author list, chiefly used by the Department library in cooperative book buying, but came to be generally consulted by workers in botanical lines and as it grew it became necessary to enlarge its scope and develop a subject catalogue along with it.
Collection Number: 440
Latest Date: 1952
Linear Feet: 4,308
Subjects: Plant Science
Digitization Status: None

CPC Catalog

(CPC is the name listed on the card catalog - do not known full name.) The CPC card catalog contains bibliographic citations for plants and soils, mostly articles, and the cards mostly carry the NAL cataloging system numbers. The cards are filed alphabetically by last name of author and by type of crop. Includes early horticultural literature from 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. There are both American and foreign citations. Additions to the catalog may have ceased in the 1940s.
Historical or Biographical Sketch
Cards may have originated in the Division of Fruit and Vegetable Crops and Diseases, Bureau of Plant Industry.
Collection Number: 441
Linear Feet: 600
Subjects: Natural Resources; Physical Sciences; Plant Science
Digitization Status: None

USDA 150th Anniversary Time Capsule Collection

The USDA 150th Anniversary Time Capsule Collection contains memorabilia and publicity materials related to USDA’s 150th anniversary activities held in 2012. Items include a commemorative DVD titled "Secretaries of Agriculture: 150 Years, 30 Leaders”; original interviews of former Secretaries of Agriculture on DVD; USDA timeline files; USDA graphic polo shirt; bookmarks; stickers; decals; pin; notecards; and an 18-foot banner with the USDA 150th graphic. Publicity posters advertise the USDA 150th Anniversary Brown Bag Seminar Series. There are planning notes, participant schedules, brochures, booklets, and correspondence related to USDA staff participation in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival (June-July 2012).
Historical or Biographical Sketch
On May 15, 1862 Abraham Lincoln signed into law an act of Congress establishing the United States Department of Agriculture. In 2012 the USDA commemorated and celebrated its 150th anniversary. The event was celebrated throughout 2012 through many events, notably by USDA being a featured participant in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival; and: with a 150th Anniversary Brown Bag Seminar Series.
Collection Number: 442
Earliest Date: 2012
Latest Date: 2012
Bulk Dates: 2012
Linear Feet: 7
Subjects: USDA History
Formats: Agricultural Art and Memorabilia; Posters
Digitization Status: None