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Madison Reporter

Thursday, December 19, 2024

Leopold's transcribed journals offer new insights into 'A Sand County Almanac

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Jennifer Mnookin Chancellor | Official website

Jennifer Mnookin Chancellor | Official website

The 75th anniversary of "A Sand County Almanac" is marked by a significant milestone as the handwritten journals of Aldo Leopold, which informed his influential work, have been transcribed and made accessible to the public. This effort was achieved through collaboration among volunteers, the University of Wisconsin–Madison Libraries Digital Collections Center, University Archives and Records Management, and the Aldo Leopold Foundation.

All 1,100 pages of Leopold's Shack journals are now readable and searchable. Stan Temple, who once held the same professorship as Leopold at UW–Madison, expressed that using these archives was challenging due to their handwritten nature. "In my capacity as a professor at the University of Wisconsin – and after my retirement as a senior fellow at the Aldo Leopold Foundation – I have used the Leopold archives a lot," says Temple. "But it was always a challenge because so much of the important raw data that I was looking for was handwritten and it couldn’t be searched."

Jill Kambs from UW–Madison Digital Collections emphasized that adding transcriptions significantly aids research. Buddy Huffaker from the Aldo Leopold Foundation stated that sharing these records provides unparalleled insight into Leopold’s mind.

The project involved over 60 volunteers under Kei Kohmoto's coordination. Kathy Miner, one such volunteer and naturalist at UW Arboretum, found inspiration in reading "A Sand County Almanac." "[Leopold’s] writing came to my attention at a particularly remarkable point in my life," Miner says.

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