Austin Foster Hawes papers

The Austin F. Hawes Papers contain correspondence, writings, photographs, newspaper clippings, and other papers related to Hawes's student life, his career as state forester in Connecticut and Vermont and as professor of forestry at the University of Vermont, as well as to forestry, the history of forestry in New England, and related topics.

The rather fragmentary selection of correspondence falls into two groups. The early correspondence (1900-1911) is largely in the form of typed transcripts compiled by Hawes from his letters to his family and annotated and illustrated with photographs. The letters emphasize his experiences in forestry school and in his early career rather than family matters. Some additional correspondence of this period may be found in Hawes's 1906 notebook (folder 52). The later correspondence (1942-1959) consists mostly of incoming letters discussing Connecticut forestry history; various short writings and other materials are enclosed. Prominent correspondents include Wilbur Cross, Gifford Pinchot, and Herman Chapman.

Hawes's writings, both holographs and typescripts, constitute over one-third of the papers. They deal with various aspects of forestry and the history of forestry, the major work being a two-volume typescript, "History of Forestry in Connecticut 1849-1944." Many of the writings are at least in part autobiographical. There are also two short excerpts from Hawes's diary describing trips to the Midwest (1917) and to Cuba (1938), and two notebooks. One, "Notes Taken on the Forest Conditions in Baden and Eastern France, Fall 1906," contains laid-in photographs and correspondence. The other (1912-1916) contains scattered notes on topics in forestry.

Also in the papers are memoranda and other materials of the Connecticut Forest and Park Commission, its chairman George Waldo, and Herman Chapman, president of the Commission on Forests and Wild Life, collected by Hawes. The bulk of these concern controversial changes in the administrative structure of the commission which led Hawes to resign from the commission in protest in 1943. Other materials in the papers include a few items from the Society of American Foresters; a selection of short writings by various authors, including Dorothy Canfield Fisher, on forestry and related topics; newspaper clippings; over one hundred photographs of foresters and forest scenes in Connecticut and elsewhere; memorabilia such as Hawes's certificates of appointment to the Bureau of Forestry in the Department of Agriculture, and a guestbook signed by numerous foresters; and, finally, miscellaneous papers, including a list of courses at the Yale School of Forestry, pine tree statistics from 1901, and so forth.

These papers were donated to Yale University by Mrs. E. A. Currier, sister of Austin Hawes.

Related material may be found in the Herman H. Chapman Papers, Mss Group No. 134.