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STUDENT CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION RECORDS

 Collection
Identifier: CONS242

Scope and Contents

  • 1957 First volunteers are placed in the Grand Teton and Olympic National Parks.
  • 1960 Zion National Park and Cedar Breaks National Monument are added to the program.
  • 1964 The organization incorporates as the Student Conservation Association, Inc. (SCA) and former National Park Service Director Conrad Wirth becomes SCA Chair. Elizabeth Cushman was named Executive Director. Their headquarters were established at Sagamore Hill National Historic Site (home of Theodore Roosevelt) in Oyster Bay, New York.
  • 1967 SCA places first volunteers outside of federal public lands at Merck Forest and Farmland Center, Vermont.
  • 1970 SCA headquarters moves to Vashon Island, Washington. The first co-ed high school crews enter the field, and the number of alumni surpasses 1,000.
  • 1976 SCA headquarters relocates to Charlestown, New Hampshire.
  • 1977 SCA begins offering conservation programming for urban youth in Washington, D.C.
  • 1981 The Bureau of Land Management begins partnership with SCA.
  • 1982 Ronald Reagan presents the President's Volunteer Action Award to SCA Founding President Elizabeth Cushman Titus. Cooperation with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service begins.
  • 1986 SCA's first international project occurs through an exchange program with Germany.
  • 1988 SCA opens a regional office in Washington, D.C.
  • 1989 The Greater Yellowstone Recovery Corps is created in response to the previous year's wildfires, continuing for three years and involving more than 600 members.
  • 1990 SCA begins work with U.S. Armed Forces, partnering with the Navy's Natural Resource Program; a new exchange program opens with the Soviet Union.
  • 1991 SCA urban program evolves into the Conservation Career Development Program and the international program expands to Canada and Mexico.
  • 1993 SCA mounts the Everglades recovery effort following Hurricane Hugo.
  • 1994 SCA begins partnership with AmeriCorps and the Corporation for National Service.
  • 1996 SCA publishes Lightly on the Land: The SCA Trail Building and Maintenance Manual.
  • 2000 A Public Broadcasting Service television documentary profiles SCA volunteers in the North Cascades National Park and members of SCA's urban initiatives in Washington, D.C.
  • 2003 National Fire Plan Council presents SCA Fire Education Corps with inaugural Excellence in Community Assistance Award for helping communities reduce their risk of wildfire. ChevronTexaco presents SCA Founding President Elizabeth Titus Putnam with the Conservation Hero Award. SCA adds the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Geological Survey as partners.
  • 2004 In cooperation with Home Depot and the U.S. Forest Service, SCA initiates the California Wildfire Recovery Program in the wake of the Fall 2003 wildfires in Southern California.
  • 2005 SCA earns U.S. Forest Service Centennial Award for conservation leadership.
  • 2006 SCA earns U.S. Department of the Interior's "Take Pride in America" volunteerism award for work with native and invasive plants.
  • 2007 SCA launches 50th Anniversary celebration.
  • 2007 SCA chosen to lead Northwest Recovery at Mount Rainier and other area parks after the floods of 2006.
  • 2008 SCA hold EarthVision: Actions for a Healthy Planet in Washington D.C.

Milestones for the Student Conservation Association (timeline derived from the SCA website):

1957
First volunteers are placed in the Grand Teton and Olympic National Parks.
1960
Zion National Park and Cedar Breaks National Monument are added to the program.
1964
The organization incorporates as the Student Conservation Association, Inc. (SCA) and former National Park Service Director Conrad Wirth becomes SCA Chair. Elizabeth Cushman was named Executive Director. Their headquarters were established at Sagamore Hill National Historic Site (home of Theodore Roosevelt) in Oyster Bay, New York.
1967
SCA places first volunteers outside of federal public lands at Merck Forest and Farmland Center, Vermont.
1970
SCA headquarters moves to Vashon Island, Washington. The first co-ed high school crews enter the field, and the number of alumni surpasses 1,000.
1976
SCA headquarters relocates to Charlestown, New Hampshire.
1977
SCA begins offering conservation programming for urban youth in Washington, D.C.
1981
The Bureau of Land Management begins partnership with SCA.
1982
Ronald Reagan presents the President's Volunteer Action Award to SCA Founding President Elizabeth Cushman Titus. Cooperation with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service begins.
1986
SCA's first international project occurs through an exchange program with Germany.
1988
SCA opens a regional office in Washington, D.C.
1989
The Greater Yellowstone Recovery Corps is created in response to the previous year's wildfires, continuing for three years and involving more than 600 members.
1990
SCA begins work with U.S. Armed Forces, partnering with the Navy's Natural Resource Program; a new exchange program opens with the Soviet Union.
1991
SCA urban program evolves into the Conservation Career Development Program and the international program expands to Canada and Mexico.
1993
SCA mounts the Everglades recovery effort following Hurricane Hugo.
1994
SCA begins partnership with AmeriCorps and the Corporation for National Service.
1996
SCA publishes Lightly on the Land: The SCA Trail Building and Maintenance Manual.
2000
A Public Broadcasting Service television documentary profiles SCA volunteers in the North Cascades National Park and members of SCA's urban initiatives in Washington, D.C.
2003
National Fire Plan Council presents SCA Fire Education Corps with inaugural Excellence in Community Assistance Award for helping communities reduce their risk of wildfire. ChevronTexaco presents SCA Founding President Elizabeth Titus Putnam with the Conservation Hero Award. SCA adds the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Geological Survey as partners.
2004
In cooperation with Home Depot and the U.S. Forest Service, SCA initiates the California Wildfire Recovery Program in the wake of the Fall 2003 wildfires in Southern California.
2005
SCA earns U.S. Forest Service Centennial Award for conservation leadership.
2006
SCA earns U.S. Department of the Interior's "Take Pride in America" volunteerism award for work with native and invasive plants.
2007
SCA launches 50th Anniversary celebration.
2007
SCA chosen to lead Northwest Recovery at Mount Rainier and other area parks after the floods of 2006.
2008
SCA hold EarthVision: Actions for a Healthy Planet in Washington D.C.
SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

The Student Conservation Association collection is open for additional material. This finding aid represents items received through 2008.

The records include correspondence, reports, notes, photographs and samples of tee shirts, patches and pins. The material is organized first by organizational unit - founder, board and administration – and then, primarily, by date. Within the Program Series, materials are first organized alphabetically by the various programs, such as the Conservation Career Development Program to promote interest in environmental careers, and the Yellowstone Recovery Corps, created to assist after the Yellowstone fires.

SERIES 1 ELIZABETH C. TITUS PUTNAM, FOUNDER, 1956-2000 BOX 1

Elizabeth Cushman's senior thesis and her early correspondence with the National Park service begin this series. It continues with her correspondence and reports of trips made in support of the program.

SERIES 2 BOARD OF DIRECTORS, 1965-1998 BOX 1-2

The Board of Directors series includes meeting minutes, committee reports, and correspondence as well as information about social and fund raising functions.

SERIES 3 ADMINISTRATION, 1955-2004 BOX 2-7

The Administration series includes the organization's general correspondence files and the student newspapers.

SERIES 4 FINANCE, 1956-2004 BOX 7-9

Information in this series includes correspondence, reports, ledger sheets and accountant's reports.

SERIES 5 LEGAL, 1956-2004 BOX 9

This small series deals, primarily with the organization's legal charitable status.

SERIES 6 MEDIA, 1956-2005 BOX 9-13

Extensive clippings files document the variety of student activities and the organization's public relations efforts.

SERIES 7 PROGRAMS, 1956-2004 BOX 13-22

A large portion of the collection is organized in this series. A few files relate to the general administration of the programs; the remainder is organized first by the different programs, and within each of those groups, by date. Feedback from Park personnel, students and parents was important to the organization, and is included in the program evaluation files.

SERIES 8 REFERENCE MATERIAL, 1973-1999 BOX 22

This series includes general material about the National Parks and other volunteer programs.

SERIES 9 EPHEMERA, BOX 23

This small series includes student tee shirts, baseball cap, pins and shoulder patches with SCA logos.

SERIES 10 AUDIO-VISUAL, 1972-2005 AVBOX 1-5

This series is organized by format, and includes VHS, audiocassettes, and computer discs. Most of the material documents student activity programs.

SERIES 11 PHOTOGRAPHS, 1973-2005 PHOTOBOX 1-15

The extensive photographs in this collection are primarily snapshots taken by students or advisors documenting their activities. Many images are not identified as to persons, places or dates. Others have only minimal identification. Many dates were assumed from processing dates on the prints, slides, or accompanying material and may not reflect the date of the events. The photographs are housed in 5x7 envelopes or within file folders, and are organized by subject. Some photographs remain in notebooks or scrapbooks to retain their original order.

SERIES 12 RESTRICTED 1958-2004 BOX 24-25

This material contains student applications or evaluations and is restricted until the year 2054.

Dates

  • 1955-2014

ACCESS:

The collection is open for research, however, some material is restricted until 2054.

OWNERSHIP:

Papers are the physical property of the Denver Public Library.

PUBLICATION RIGHTS:

All requests for permission to publish, reproduce, or quote from material in the collection should be discussed with the appropriate librarian or archivist. Permission for publication may be given on behalf of the Denver Public Library as the owner of the physical item. It is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained by the customer. The Library does not assume any responsibility for infringement of copyright or publication rights of the manuscript held by the writer, heirs, donors, or executors. Reproduction restrictions are decided on a case-by-case basis.

ORGANIZATIONAL NOTE

The Student Conservation Association was founded in 1957, the implementation of a senior thesis written in 1955 by Vassar College student Elizabeth Cushman (later Elizabeth Titus Putnam). Cushman had read about the lack of Park Service staff and the affect on the National Parks. In an article in Harper's Magazine, Bernard De Voto had actually suggested the closing of the National Parks because of the staffing issue, hoping the public would be so outraged, that Congress would be forced to appropriate more funding. Cushman's thesis proposed to address this shortage by recruiting college students as volunteers in the Parks during summer vacation. Drawing from the concept of the Civilian Conservation Corps, the program was originally called the Student Conservation Corps.

Encouraged to pursue her vision, Cushman established the original Student Conservation Corps with the aid of her colleague Martha "Marty" Hayne, and in 1957, the first volunteers were assigned to Grand Teton and Olympic National Parks. Growing from 53 volunteers in 1957, the program currently provides more than 4,000 interns and volunteers who donate two million hours of conservation service per year, and work in more than 500 natural and cultural sites throughout the United States.

Extent

38 boxes (38 linear feet)

10 audiovisual boxes

16 photo boxes

1 oversize box (photographs)

Language of Materials

English

PROVENANCE:

The Student Conservation Association donated the records to the Denver Public Library.

SIZE:

Number of Boxes: 25

Number of AV Boxes: 5

Number of Photo Boxes: 11

LOCATION:

CONS242

PROCESSED AND ENCODED BY:

Claudia Jensen

July 2009

PROJECT MANAGER:

Ellen Zazzarino

Title
STUDENT CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION RECORDS
Date
JULY 2009
Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script

Repository Details

Part of the Denver Public Library, Western History and Genealogy Repository

Contact:
10 W. 14th Ave. Pkwy
Denver CO 80204 United States