The Ecological Society celebrates its 100th birthday in 2015. For historians of science, 2015 is just around the corner. In 2010, ESA’s Historical Records Committee (HRC) has been reconstituted with a new chair and sense of mission, and will be working closely with a special Centennial Committee as it determines the shape of the Centennial Celebration and its “products.” We are scrambling to locate official ESA records that never made it to the ESA archives, and ESA-relevant records that could be anywhere: offices, storerooms, family attics, museums, historical societies, archives.
Results/Conclusions
Good history requires good records; interesting history requires the “back story” often hidden in unofficial records, including correspondence of those involved in key turning points in ESA history. In order to work most efficiently, researchers need to locate and use available materials easily, often by long distance. Ecologists can try to locate ESA-relevant records at their institutions, identify subjects for (and perhaps organize) oral histories, and suggest other sources to the HRC. In addition, ecologists can work with archivists to help expand the “finding aids” of already-curated collections so that ESA-relevant material can be found easily.
