NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF MINNESOTA:

While many people were involved with the Natural History Society of Minnesota through the years, it was a consuming passion for one of its original incorporators, Dr. Clayton G. Rudd. The purpose of the nonprofit society was to bring together people interested in the outdoors, including both amateur and professional naturalists, by conducting meetings, exhibits, lectures, and conferences and publishing a journal on natural history. Its founders hoped that by living the society's motto, "conservation through education," members' awareness about threats to the environment would be heightened and they would become active in promoting conservation legislation and education.

Though Dr. Rudd's vocation was dentistry, he spent most of his free time speaking about conservation, arranging programs for the Natural History Society, and editing the society's journal. Though an amateur naturalist, Dr. Rudd was at the forefront of the environmental movement in Minnesota because of his persistent promotional and lobbying activities. It was no coincidence that many of the first members of the Natural History Society of Minnesota were Rudd's patients.

The Natural History Society held eight or nine meetings per year (often the same program repeated on consecutive nights) featuring programs on nature, adventure, travel, exploration, and scientific research. These meetings featured color movies or slides, personally narrated by scientists, explorers, and world travelers recruited largely through the personal efforts of Dr. Rudd. A member could be entertained and learn about places all over the globe including Europe, Africa, India, Australia, South America, Canada, Antarctica, as well as places in the United States.

The other educational activity of the Natural History Society of Minnesota was its quarterly journal, The Minnesota Naturalist, eventually simplified to Naturalist. Clayton Rudd was its editor for its entire run, 1950-1985. To keep from becoming a dry nature magazine, Rudd secured illustrations from such prominent artists as Francis Lee Jaques, Florence Page Jaques, and Les Kouba and later the magazine featured the color photography of Les Blacklock, J. Arnold Bolz, and others. Articles were engaging, if sometimes controversial, and each issue contained contributions from prominent ecologists, scientists, researchers, and nature writers including Sigurd F. Olson, Grace Lee Nute, Frank and John Craighead, Olaus Murie, Robert Lucas, Miron "Bud" Heinselman, and many others. This magazine, run on a shoestring out of Rudd's office and home, was kept afloat through membership dues and donations, and grants from individuals and foundations. Many issues of Naturalist were devoted to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) along the Minnesota-Ontario border and to the Rocky Mountain West (particularly the Jackson Hole, Wyoming area were the Rudds had a summer home), prairie lands, and the desert southwest. Other parts of North America received little attention.

One particular issue of Naturalist, in 1964, showed Rudd's outrage about logging management in the BWCA. While the Wilderness Act of 1964 did not prohibit logging or motorboat use in the BWCA, the Shipstead-Newton-Nolan Act of 1930 prohibited logging within 400 feet of any shoreline. Twelve pages of photographs published in Naturalist showed clear violations of the 1930 Act at Finn Lake, just off the Gunflint Trail. Lumber companies had actually bulldozed soil into the water and built a road "through" Finn Lake. The Finn Lake incident became a rallying cry for further protection for the BWCA. Though it took another fourteen years until passage of the 1978 BWCA Wilderness Act to ban logging in the BWCA, Clayton Rudd helped change attitudes through article after article in Naturalist , which stressed the aesthetic and spiritual values of wilderness.

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This collection contains the administrative records of the Natural History Society of Minnesota, as well as files on its nature-adventure series, manuscripts from and correspondence with contributors to their Naturalist magazine, subject files maintained by Clayton Rudd, and six audio tapes from two conferences dealing with the preservation of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA).

The administrative files contain articles of incorporation and bylaws, annual meeting minutes and letters to members (1949-1956). Minutes of the board of directors are extant for only the first few years of the society (1949-1957) and detailed financial records exist for only these few years as well, though documentation of financial donations and grants from individuals and foundations exist for the life of the society. There are a number of files containing general information, news clippings, and photographs on the history of the Society. About half of the administrative records consists of miscellaneous correspondence maintained by Clayton Rudd (1949-1993) pertaining to operation of the society and other conservation issues.

The nature-adventure series begins with brochures, which announce that year's programs, locations, dates, and times. A number of meeting files, arranged by exact date come next, followed by files arranged only by year. No attempt has been made to arrange documents within the yearly files into chronological order. A number of files arranged alphabetically by geographical place come next, followed by files on a number of the scientists, photographers, and world travelers who presented films and slides over the years to the Natural History Society of Minnesota. The series concludes with several files concerning arrangement of rental facilities for these nature-adventure programs with the Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and the Minneapolis Public Schools.

The series dealing with the Naturalist, contains a brief list of major themes (in chronological order), correspondence dealing with subscription and ordering of back issues, promotional items, copyright statements, and several folders of miscellaneous manuscripts submitted for publication. Some of these articles were published and some were not, but no attempt has been made to determine exact dates. Other files concern dated issues of the Minnesota Naturalist or Naturalist and contain original manuscripts and correspondence with contributors, covers, and tables of contents. Though complete copies of every issue are not extant in this series, they have been kept since they show Rudd's skills as an editor as well as his relationship with contributors. Researchers wanting articles lacking from this series, should refer to the run of this publication, cataloged separately, in the serials collection of the Minnesota Historical Society.

The subject files contain items maintained by Rudd from the 1950s to late 1970s dealing with issues from acid rain to the management of Yellowstone National Park. Other files deal with potential copper nickel mining in northeast Minnesota, the Echo Park Dam in Colorado, solar power, and the Wolf Springs Forest Conservation Camp, near Minong, Wisconsin, run by the Natural History Society of Minnesota. There are files of articles and clippings dealing with general environmental issues and education, but a large part of this series concerns the management of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. Most of the BWCA material, dating from the early 1960s to the mid-1970s, is correspondence from a small group of individuals, politicians, and U.S. Forest Service personnel such as Bill Magie, Bill Rom, Sigurd Olson, Hubert Humphrey, Gaylord Nelson, Orville Freeman, Miron "Bud" Heinselman, and Robert C. Lucas. There are also files of general correspondence and clippings dealing with BWCA issues, photographs (including Finn Lake during logging), and publications on the BWCA.

The reel-to-reel audio tapes are from two conferences: the Quetico-Superior Foundation Conference of May 22-23, 1964 and the Perpetuation of Wildness Conference of February 26, 1966. Files on these conferences with some transcripts and data on some of the presenters are found in the subject files.

The scrapbooks were kept by Clayton G. Rudd and were then disassembled and foldered by his son Robert. They include correspondence, news clippings, photographs, artwork, magazine drafts and articles, and minutes and reports of the Society.

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These documents are organized into the following sections:

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Natural History Society of Minnesota Records. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 15,912 ; 16,202

Processing Information:

Processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with a Basic Project grant awarded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).

Catalog ID number: 990035988990104294

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Bound copies of the Minnesota Naturalist/Naturalist magazine are in the Minnesota Historical Society serials collection.

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Biological diversity conservation.

Environmental education.

Environmental literature.

Environmentalists -- Minnesota.

Forest conservation.

Wildlife conservation.

Wilderness areas--Minnesota.

Places:

Boundary Waters Canoe Area (Minn.).

Quetico-Superior Country (Ont. and Minn.).

Superior National Forest (Minn.).

Echo Park Dam (Colo.).

Teton Range (Wyo. and Idaho).

Persons:

Freeman, Orville L.

Heinselman, Miron L.

Magie, Bill, 1902-.

Olson, Sigurd F., 1899-.

Rom, Bill

Rudd, Clayton G., 1904-1997.

Types of Documents:

Audio Tapes.

Photographs.

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