Overview of the Collection
University of Idaho Library, Special Collections and Archives
MG180
Herbert Baldwin McKean, 1911-
Herbert Baldwin McKean Papers
1932-1985
3 cubic feet
Correspondence, reports on foreign consulting, lectures, articles and presentations, and photographs.
English
Herbert Baldwin McKean was born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, November 28, 1911, the son of Scott Rockwell and Martha (Hutchings) McKean. He entered the New York State College of Forestry, Syracuse University in September 1929, receiving his B.S. degree in Wood Utilization in June 1933. He did graduate work on scholarship and received his Master of Forestry degree from the same university in June 1934. Later, in 1942, he received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Michigan.
He began his career as a tie and log buyer for T.J. Moss Tie Co. in western Tennessee, where he was employed from June 1934 to September 1935. From 1935 to 1942 he taught wood technology and utilization in the forestry department at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. Following receipt of his Ph.D. he became a technologist at the U.S. Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin. From 1945 to 1954 he worked for Timber Engineering Company, Washington, D.C., first as assistant and later as associate director of research.
In 1954 he was hired by Potlatch Forest, Inc., Lewiston, Idaho, to start and build a Research and Development Department. He was elected Vice President of Research and Development in 1968, serving in that capacity until his retirement on December 31, 1976. Some notable developments during his administration at Potlatch include laminated roof decking, stored heat glue curing, the world's first oriented strand commercial plant, coatings for high quality printing papers, new paper grades, and a reduction in operating costs for the sulphite pulp mill. He was the first to conceive and use the idea of measuring the modules of elasticity as a nondestructive test or mechanical method for grading lumber, and was responsible for the development and commercialization of machine stress rating (MSR) of lumber in the U.S. and holds the first U.S. patent on MSR. He also received the Charles Dudley medal from the American Society for Testing and Materials for this work.
From 1955 to 1959 he served as a trustee of the Inland Empire Section of the Forest Products Research Society, serving as chairman in 1957. In 1958 he became a charter member of the organization which later became the Society of Wood Science and Technology. From 1968 to 1990 he served as Chairman of the Board of Review of the American Lumber Standards Committee. Following his retirement from Potlatch he was associated with International Executive Services Corporation as a wood products consultant, working in the United States and foreign countries.
The papers of Herbert B. McKean span the years 1932 to 1985, with the bulk of the material covering the years 1940 to 1976.
The papers include talks given by and articles written by McKean, other articles pertaining to various aspects of forestry, correspondence dealing with specific topics, reports on foreign consulting jobs, and photographs.
Most of the material in this record group was in labeled folders or three ring binders when it was received, but the items were in no apparent order, therefore a series order was imposed during processing.
The first series contains a large collection of typescripts and reprints of McKean's talks before forestry groups and articles written for forestry journals. Some items in this group have research notes or illustrations attached. In a few cases correspondence is also attached to the speech. Also included in this series are his M.A. thesis and Ph.D. dissertation. The items in this series are arranged chronologically, the smaller items being combined three or four to a folder, and the items having a number of pages or attachments having individual folders.
The Oriented Strand Products (OSP) series is divided into two subseries. The first of these, Reports, were removed from three ring binders; their original order was maintained and each section contains its own table of contents. The second subseries contains other articles and notes on OSP found in the collection.
The third series contains correspondence, notes, and reports relating to McKean's status as an international consultant on forest products. Included are items relating to a six week trip to Europe in 1965, and trips to Zambia and Brazil which he made following his retirement from Potlatch.
The next series, entitled Research & Development, contains articles, pencil notes, typed outlines of procedures, correspondence, annual reports, brochures and other publications dealing with his position as vice president for research and development at the Potlatch Company in Lewiston.
The final series contains forest industry related articles, photographs of forest products, and several manuals from his early career with the Forest Products Laboratory.
The papers of Herbert Baldwin McKean of Lewiston, Idaho were donated to the University of Idaho Library by Mr. McKean in August 1986.
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.
Idaho
Forestry and Forest Products
McKean, Herbert B., 1911- --Archives.
Potlatch Forests, inc.
Forest products -- Research -- Idaho -- History -- Sources
Wood -- Testing
Director of research and development, Potlatch Forests, Inc., Lewiston, Idaho, 1954-1976, and developer of machine stress rating of lumber.
Detailed Description of the Collection
Series I. Articles and Talks
1932-1985
1/1
Bibliography
1935-1953
2 items
1/2
Talks
undated
2 items
1/3
The Michigan-California Lumber Company Operation (a paper written as a requirement for graduation from Syracuse University)
1932
1 item
1/4
Motor Truck Transportation of Logs in Central New York (Master of forestry thesis, Syracuse, New York)
1943
1 item
1/5
Production of Sawed Oak Cross Ties in the Lower Tennessee Valley
1936-1938
4 items
1/6-8
1939-1942
12 items
1/9
Glued Laminated Beams Composed of Two Wood Species (Dissertation, University of Michigan)
1942
1 item
1/10-11
1943-1944
13 items
1/12
Mechanical Properties and Design Procedures for Glued Laminated Beams Composed of Two Wood Species. University of Michigan School of Forestry and Conservation, Bulletin no. 11
1944.
1 item
1/13-15
1945-1948
20 items
1/16
National Lumber Manufacturers Association addresses
1949
3 items
1/17-20
1950-1959
17 items
1/21-22
1960-1961
17 items
1/23
Wood Product Development, presented at the 50th anniversary celebration of New York State College of Forestry, Syracuse
April 13, 1961
1 item
1/24-26
1962-1964
8 items
1/27
Forestry at the Top of the Nation, Society of American Foresters, Denver, Colorado
September 28, 1964
1 item
1/28
1965
6 items
1/29
Electro-Mechanical Stress Rating of Lumber, paper for the 3rd CIB Congress, Copenhagen, Denmark
August 1965
1 item
1/30
1966-1967
3 items
1/31
Have the Forest Products Industries Lagged Behind Other Industries in Research & Development, A Paper presented at a Conference on "The History of The Forest Products Industries", Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, Boston
May 1966
1 item
1/32
Apercu of the Wood and Wood Fiber Products Industry, Presented at the 25th Western Conference, The Society of the Plastics Industry, San Francisco
May 2, 1968
2 items
1/33
Some Ideas on How "The Forest Products Utilization Program" Can Aid Western Forest Products Industry, U.S. Forest Service Representatives Meeting, Madison, Wisconsin
May 12, 1971
1 item
1/34
The Future of Softwood Dimension Lumber, Forest Products Research Society Annual Meeting, Dallas
June 19, 1972
1 item
1/35
Oriented Wood Strand Structural Panels (manuscript submitted for publication)
December 1974
1 item
1/36-37
1976-1977
18 items
1/38
Commercializing Newly Developed Products and Processes, Forest Products Research International Symposium, Pretoria, South Africa
April 1985
12 items
1/39
Ten Years of Oriented Strand Board (OSB), Forest Products Research International Symposium, Pretoria, South Africa
April 1985
9 items
Series II. Oriented Strand Products (OSP)
1970-1985
A. Reports
1970-1976
1/40-42
Physical properties
1970-1976
42 items
1/43
Products
1972-1973
7 items
1/44
Species and wood variables
1973-1976
8 items
1/45
General
1972-1976
7 items
2/46
Pilot plant
1972-1975
4 items
2/47-48
Marketing
1973-1975
9 items
2/49-50
Operating variables
1972-1976
22 items
2/51
Cost & economics
1970-1976
5 items
2/52
Equipment
1973-1976
9 items
B. Related Papers
1973-1985
2/53-54
General information
1975-1985
61 items
2/55
Cross ties
1977-1981
3 items
2/56
Marketing
1976
4 items
2/57
Seminar
undated
8 items
2/58
Statements of income and production
1976
10 items
Series III. International Consulting
1965-1985
2/59
European trip
1965
72 items
2/60
International Executive Service Corporation
1977-1985
45 items
2/61
Saab Systems
1977-1983
32 items
2/62
Notebook on trips to Zambia and Brazil
1980-1982
1 item
2/63-64
Food and Agriculture Organization, U.S. and Zambia
1980
24 items
2/65
Notes for a report on the trip to Zambia for the World Bank
1980
14 items
2/66
Brazil trip, correspondence
1981-1984
58 items
2/67
Articles about Brazil
1981-1984
6 items
2/68
Report of Brazil trip: Research Management and Research Objectives and Priorities for CPPF (Centro de Pesquisa de Produtos Florestias)
1982
1 item
Series IV. Research and Development
1946-1984
2/69
Aspinate and waferboard
1975-1976
7 items
2/70
Commercializing PFI products
1964-1965
2 items
2/71
The Competitive Position and Manufacture of Goss Fiberboard, by Timber Engineering Company
1946
1 item
2/72-75
Eastern Study: A Proposed Northeast Division for Wood Products Group
1968-1983
42 items
3/76-77
Elmdorf Research, Inc.
1954-1982
24 items
3/78
Machine stress rating
1984
1 item
3/79-81
Management material
1965-1981
84 items
3/82
Measuring research & development
1967-1972
6 items
3/83-84
Metric conversion
1974-1982
41 items
3/85
Plystran analysis after 18 months
1977
2 items
3/86
Reports: annual, miscellaneous & lists of Wood Products Research and Development Department
1968-1980
47 items
3/87-88
Research management meetings
1968-1970
3 items
3/89
Seasoning of wood
1976-1978
19 items
3/90
University of California patent
1978
1 item
3/91
Whole tree chipping
1976-1983
9 items
3/92
Miscellaneous articles on wood products
1963-1982
2 items
Series V. Photographs and Other Papers
1935-1984
3/93
American Plywood Association publications
1974-1984
7 items
3/94
The Influence of Wood Furnish Type on Properties of Oriented Strand Panels, by Manoel Sobral Filho (dissertation, University of Idaho)
1979
1 item
3/95
Michigan Technological University. Agreement
1975
5 items
3/96
Other timber industry articles
1973-1982
10 items
3/97
Renewable Resources for Industrial Materials. National Research Council
1976
1 item
3/98
Wood and Fiber. Journal of the Society of Wood Science and Technology
1976
1 item
3/99
Travel itineraries and other personal information
1965-1974.
33 items
3/100
Photographs: National Lumber Manufacturers Association Applied Research Award
1962
2 items
3/101
Slides: used for talk on commercialization
undated
17 items
3/102
Photographs and negatives: Oriented Strand Products
1978
12 items
3/103
Slides: Potlatch Plant, Lewiston, Idaho
1976
11 items
3/104
Slides: trial marketing
1973-1976
21 items
3/105
Photographs: McKean with Governor Evans; McKean with Mr. Booth of Borden Chemical Co.
undated
3 items
3/106
Forest Products Laboratory. Wood handbook
1935
1 item
3/107
Forest Products Laboratory. Technical notes
1953-1945
1 item
3/108
War Department, Ordnance Office. Packaging manual
1942
1 item