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Alfred D. Bell Travel Grants

The Forest History Society (FHS) annually offers a number of competitive Alfred D. Bell, Jr., Travel Grants to support travel and lodging expenses of up to $950.00 incurred by researchers conducting in-depth studies using resources in the Society's Alvin J. Huss Archives and Carl A. Weyerhaeuser Library. FHS established the award to honor the memory of wholesale lumberman, forest industry editor, and former FHS vice president Alfred Bell, Jr., who died in 1985.

Award Details

The Forest History Society awards several Bell Travel Grants each year to researchers who use FHS research resources to support their work. Decisions are made on a case-by-case basis, with awards going to persons whose research topics are well covered in the FHS library and archives. Preference is given to young scholars per the wishes of the Bell family.

To apply for a Bell Travel Grant, complete an application [pdf] and send to:

Bell Travel Grants
Forest History Society
701 William Vickers Avenue
Durham, NC 27701
Telephone: 919-682-9319
Fax: 919-682-2349

For further information, contact Librarian Cheryl Oakes at coakes@duke.edu.

Recent Recipients

Recent winners of the Bell Travel Grant award include several graduate students working on doctoral dissertations and professors of history pursuing research on a variety of environmental topics:

Dr. Ranjan Chakrabarti
Professor of History at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India explored the impact of deforestation on wildlife in Bengal and Assam as documented in the John Richards Collection on South and Southeast Asia. He found documents in the collection that were difficult to obtain in India.

Carla Fisher
Ph. D. candidate in History at Purdue University in Indiana, looked at the lives and work experiences of women employed in wilderness or forest areas in mid-20th century America. She used oral histories and other documentation from both the main FHS and the U.S. Forest Service collections to test whether gender influenced attitudes about human interactions with nature.

Jennifer Gold
Ph.D. student in Geography at Cambridge University, examined the records of international organizations such as the International Society of Tropical Foresters and the International Union of Societies of Foresters. Her thesis on the scientific culture of the British Overseas Civil Service during the late colonial and early post-independence period benefited from comparison to U.S. government efforts during the same timeframe. She was especially pleased to find correspondence between some of the leading foresters on both sides of the Atlantic.

Jodi Barnes
doctoral candidate in Anthropology at American University in Washington, D.C. used several collections at FHS, but especially the U.S. Forest Service Headquarters History Collection, to research the history of the Appalachian region of Virginia.

Tony Carlson
working on a Ph.D. in history from the University of Oklahoma, used the records of the American Forestry Association to compare attitudes among Progressive era conservationists toward irrigation and drainage. He also explored the U.S. Forest Service newspaper clipping files on the topic.

Matthew M. Stith
a Ph.D. candidate in History at the University of Arkansas, examined papers and oral history interviews in the FHS collections that indicate differing perspectives on wildlife utilization and protection in the American South, especially in Arkansas.

Linda Upham-Bornstein
a historian at the Center for Rural Partnerships at Plymouth State University in Plymouth, New Hampshire, studied the role of New Hampshire individuals and conservation groups in the passage of the Weeks Act in 1911 and its implementation in the creation of the White Mountain National Forest.

Sara M. Gregg
a post-doctoral fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library put finishing touches on her book: Managing the Mountains: Land Use Planning, the New Deal, and the Creation of a Federal Landscape in Appalachia. She used the FHS collections to find reaction of the forest products industry to purchase of lands by the federal government.

Nathan Roberts
a Ph.D. candidate in history at the University of Washington in Seattle, looked at the relationship between the Philippine Bureau of Forestry and the U.S. Forest Service and attitudes toward colonial forestry.

Kevin Brown
as part of his work on a doctoral dissertation in history at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, looked at "The Nature of Lumber: Work, Culture, and Environment in Minnesota and Louisiana, 1865-1940." He found an abundance of material regarding the migration of industry from North to South, as well as the impact on the people and land in both areas.