Peeling Back the Bark is an award-winning blog maintained by the staff of the Forest History Society. Our blog features posts discussing new acquisitions, new online exhibits and photo galleries, as well as highlights from the rich resources held in the Society’s Archives and Photo Collection. Other posts feature discussion of forest history in the contemporary world.
The Forest History Society (FHS) is a nonprofit educational institution that links the past to the future by identifying, collecting, preserving, interpreting, and disseminating information on the history of interactions between people, forests, and their related resources — timber, water, soil, forage, fish and wildlife, recreation, and scenic or spiritual values.
The Forest History Society’s Alvin J. Huss Archives houses a wide array of primary source materials, including such items as: photographs, scrapbooks, diaries, newsclippings, reports, pamphlets, memoranda, correspondence, financial records, and audio-visual materials recorded in a variety of formats. Most materials date from the twentieth century. Descriptive “finding aids,” summarizing the contents of collections, are searchable in the archives, and a growing number of them are accessible in electronic format through our web site.
In addition, the FHS Photo Collection features over 25,000 photographs, slides, negatives, and glass plates documenting the history of human interaction with the environment. Indexed by subject, the main collection covers a wide array of topics while focusing on the history of forests, the forest products industry, and lumbering and sawmilling practices.
Below you will find a guided video tour of the facilities, programs, and collections of the Forest History Society hosted by Larry Tombaugh, a longtime member and past Chairman of the Board.
For questions about the blog, more information, or research assistance, please contact:
Forest History Society
701 William Vickers Avenue
Durham, North Carolina, 27701
Phone: (919) 682-9319
Email: Eben Lehman, eben.lehman@duke.edu
Additional Resources:
The Forest History Society’s YouTube Channel
Featured photos on the Forest History Society Flickr page
Follow the Forest History Society on Twitter
