CLIR Grant Supports Efforts to Archive and Showcase Apperson-Schaefer Collection

Grass Roots Activism and the American Wilderness: Pioneers in the Twentieth Century Adirondack Park Conservation Movement
The Council on Library and Information Resources
Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives Program
Award Amount: $164,600 | Effective Dates: 06/01/2014 – 11/30/2015
Project Personnel: Annette LeClair and India Spartz (Schaffer Library)
Project Summary: The CLIR grant supports efforts to archive and showcase the Apperson-Schaefer collection at Union’s Kelly Adirondack Center. The project will provide access via a dedicated website to the collections of John S. Apperson and Paul Schaefer, lifelong conservation activists of the Adirondack Park, the largest protected parkland in the contiguous United States. Their papers, dating from 1899 – 1996, collectively cover 20th Century political activism to conserve the Adirondack Forest Preserve and to expand the Adirondack Park. The papers also shed light on the important role Adirondack Park activism played in shaping national conservation and wilderness efforts. Their correspondence with conservationists and developers reflects the tensions between conserving the land as wilderness and the impact of commercial use, an issue we wrestle with today.