The Washington State College Forestry Club was organized by school students on Oct. 3, 1908, with the intent of organizing education events, primarily speakers and tours. As of 2026, it remains active on the WSU campus, apparently now merged (date unknown) with the student chapter of the Society of American Foresters.
1940 was their first Fire Prevention Week; in 1950 the name would be changed to Forest Conservation Week, or just Conservation Week, and it can be documented continuing at least to 1958.
A 36 page scrapbook documenting the Washington State College Forestry Club’s Fire Prevention Week programming, which took place 1940 May 6-12. The scrapbook contains correspondence (March-May), planning and review documents (March-May), newspaper clippings (May), a few photographs (May), and fire prevention brochures (circa 1937-1940).
The scrapbook has been dismounted, and the pages mostly remain in their original order. However, some of the pages had torn free and were sitting loose in the scrapbook, so the current order is a best guess and may not be 100% correct.
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[Item description]
State College of Washington Forestry Club Fire Prevention Week Scrapbook, 1940 (Archives 431)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
This scrapbook was found in a desk in Heald Hall (possibly room 301D, though that is not certain) in 2026 when that building was being emptied for demolition, and brought to the Washington State University Libraries’ Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections’ MASC by student Kieran Campbell and professor John Hinz on 2026 May 6. It was retained without an accession number and processed shortly thereafter.
University Archivist Mark O’English processed this collection in May, 2026. As over half the pages in the scrapbook were loose, the whole thing was dismounted and the covers discarded. An attempt was made to put the loose pages back in their recreated original order, but is likely not 100% accurate.
A few unrelated WSC Forestry items from later years were obviously later drop-ins, and those
were filed in the MASC’s Washington State University Publications, 1891-2018: Forestry and Range Management Department
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.