ARTHUR H. CARHART PAPERS

The Carhart papers covers a broad span of Arthur Hawthorne Carhart's life. Early material includes college yearbooks and reports and army sanitation reports written when Carhart served at Camp Meade during World War I. The bulk of the papers, however, document his professional life beginning in 1919 when he moved to Denver, Colorado to work for the U.S. Forest Service, and continuing through his founding of the Conservation Center Library, right up to his death in 1978.

Although his professional concerns were always linked to the land and man's use of natural resources, Carhart promoted these interests in several ways through his work with: the Forest Service, as a landscape architect and city planner, and as a writer and radio host. The papers reflects all these activities through Forest Service reports, city planning reports, landscape articles, and his manuscripts and radio scripts.

The collection contains material from the Colorado Author's League which Carhart founded, the Outdoor Writers of America Association, and the J. N. "Ding" Darling Foundation. Correspondence between Carhart and his publishers often examine the themes that he felt should be presented to the public, such as the use of public lands and wildlife management.

The collection also contains Carhart's research notes, reference materials, audio tapes, film and photographs. The taped interviews are primarily with former Forest Service employees, which Carhart made as part of an oral history project for the Denver Public Library. There are also personal tapes Carhart used for corresponding with family and friends after he suffered a stroke.

Carhart maintained an extensive correspondence with a diverse group of people. He frequently made copies of his letters and in many instances, these copies accompany the letters he received. The subject matter varies greatly, but most often centers around issues of public land management, wildlife management and government policies. Frequently, personal greetings and information are included. The correspondence in this series is arranged in chronological order, beginning in 1920 and continuing until just prior to his death in 1978.

This series contains the reference materials Carhart used in researching conservation issues. There is information on wildlife management, water rights - particularly those of the Colorado River and public land use. Reference material directly associated with Carhart's books are included with the manuscripts in Series 3.

Carhart wrote on a wide range of topics - western fiction, hunting and fishing, wilderness, water rights and timber. His works were published as articles in magazines and as books. The series begins with the extensive correspondence Carhart maintained with his publishers and gives insight into the process of developing a work for publication, the varied needs and expectations of publishers, and the methods of payment for materials used. It continues with his books, first those which remained unpublished, by title, then his published books by date of publication. The series continues with Carhart's articles, first the manuscripts, then the published material. Most of the article manuscripts are undated, but some include a cover sheet documenting submissions to publishers and payment. The series concludes with Carhart's radio scripts, speeches and a small amount of poetry.

Drawing on his extensive network of people who had worked for the Forest Service or conservation organizations, Carhart solicited donations to the Conservation Library Center. His goal was to create a single resource for information related to wilderness, public land use, wildlife preservation, and the conservation of natural resources. His work is reflected in the material of this series, which includes his correspondence on behalf of the library and the awards received.

A small amount of correspondence exists between Carhart and his parents, his wife Vera, and his niece Joy Fuenzalida. Additional material includes college yearbooks, scrapbooks, awards, journals and memorabilia.

Carhart created an oral history of conservation issues through a series of interviews and reminiscences. The recordings in this series contain these interviews, as well as tapes he made later in the 1970s when he was living in California. Many tapes are in response to letters he received from family and friends.

The material of this series includes galley proofs of Carhart's books Colorado and Planning for America's Wildlands. It also contains a large number of maps for roadless areas and National Forest areas. Of particular interest is the 1911 map of Superior National Forest with extensive notes describing Carhart's canoe trip through the area later known as the Boundary Water Canoe Area. A letter to his wife, Vera, about this trip is included in the Personal series (Box 24, FF3). Carhart's interest in writing extended even to children's stories. The Adventures of Pinto the Cowboy Pony is a set which includes the book written by Carhart and five small toy animals. Two sets are included in the collection.

The collection includes images of the Carhart family as well as pictures related to Carhart's many environmental concerns. Some were used to illustrate his publications. Most of these images were photographed by Carhart, but some were taken by the U.S. Forest Service or by commercial photographers. The subjects include: travel, National Parks, hunting, fishing, and forest management. Most of the negatives appear to have corresponding prints. Many of the negatives in this collection have been identified as cellulose nitrate and all are stored in the STXV freezer (photo envelope 1-8). Access to the negatives is restricted and requires the permission of the archivist.