Scholarship & Research
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Item What one knows one loves best : a brief administrative history of science education in the national parks, 1916-1925(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2004) Smith, Diane Marie; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Mary Murphy.This study focuses on the early administrative history of the National Park Service (NPS) science education and interpretation programs. In particular, it examines 1) how publicists, academics, and park rangers initiated science and natural history programming in the early years of the National Park Service; 2) how these three approaches eventually gave way to the more pragmatic NPS emphasis on hiring ranger naturalists with training in the sciences to implement park educational programs; and, briefly, 3) how the establishment of the NPS education division in 1925, as equal to the engineering and landscape divisions, effectively institutionalized the ranger naturalist approach to science education of park visitors. The study relies primarily on documents from the National Park Service, including reports, proceedings, correspondence, training manuals, and materials produced for the visiting public to document the evolution of science education within the service as evidenced in Yosemite and Yellowstone National Parks. While every effort has been made to understand the economic, social, and political context of this particular chapter of NPS history, the study does not attempt to look beyond the administrative history of the National Park Service itself. Rather, it is meant to serve as a baseline for additional research into how these early science education programs can be viewed in the context of other social and cultural movements, as well as the history of science and science education in early twentieth century America.Item Animals and artifacts : specimen exchanges and displays in Yellowstone National Park, The National Museum, and The National Zoo, 1846 to 1916(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2012) Smith, Diane Marie; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Mary Murphy.While much has been written about Yellowstone National Park, few historians have discussed the history of its wildlife, particularly before 1916 when the National Park Service was established. "Animals and Artifacts" investigates how Yellowstone came to be identified as wildlife's last refuge in the American West while also trying to understand how the U. S. Cavalry concurrently trapped and shipped animals to the National Zoological Park and, eventually, to zoos around the country. It also questions how animal displays and exchanges came to be so integral to the Park's administration, overall mission, and national identity during these formative years. This study relies on primary documents from the National Park Service and the Smithsonian Institution, including annual reports and correspondence dating from the establishment of the Smithsonian in 1846 until 1916 when the cavalry turned administration of the Park over to civilian control. Additional sources, including publications and newspapers from the period, were also consulted, as were secondary sources as appropriate. The research documents that the Smithsonian Institution, with its own well-established culture of specimen exchange initiated during its earliest years, viewed Yellowstone National Park as a primary source of specimens. In particular, it looked to the Park for animals of the American West, both living and dead, to display in Washington, D. C., entering excess specimens into its network of exchange. This special relationship helped define Yellowstone National Park's development and eventually transformed it into a center of animal displays. To understand how Yellowstone managers still haze animals back into the Park today requires a better understanding of how tourists, military administrators, and Smithsonian scientists alike all looked to Yellowstone to protect the wildlife of the American West while also expecting to see those animals on display. "Animals and Artifacts" looks at the early history of Yellowstone to better understand how this all came to pass.