Cline Library’s Hanks Scholar, Sarah, has been hard at work combing through historic photos found in myriad collections here at Cline Library’s Special Collections and Archives. She has been looking for images (anything older than five years) from 10 specific geographic locations across Northern Arizona. This research will enable Sarah to visit these sites and take repeat photographs that will detail changes to the vegetation since the time of the historic images. These historic and repeated images will form part of the dataset for the Southwest Experimental Garden Array (SEGA) project here at NAU. Click here to learn more about the SEGA project and the vital role that Sarah is playing as part of this project.

Sarah has found images that are located in close proximity to a number of these sites. Collections in SCA from which these images come from include:

• The Dave Lorenz Collection, which  includes information on and photographs of the Forest Fire Lookout Associations of New Mexico and Arizona (1909-2013). This includes measurement and other information of various lookouts, articles about the Association and lookouts, conferences and symposiums, presentations, and National Historic Lookout Register information.
• The Mary K. Allen Collection, which contains correspondence, writings by herself and others, annotated maps, field notes, drawings, and photographs, almost all of which related to the rock art left by the ancient peoples who inhabited the western United States, particularly the Colorado Plateau (1990-2005). Most of the collection consists of detailed photographs of rock art sites and the surrounding country. Mary’s particular interest was in the pictographs and petroglyphs of the Grand Canyon region, but her interests took her to sites in California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico as well as locations all over Arizona. The manuscript portion of the collection includes field notes and annotated maps, formal manuscripts prepared by Mary Allen detailing her explorations and theories about stylistic elements in rock art, unpublished writings by others on archaeological topics, and correspondence with other rock art enthusiasts.
• The Clay McCulloch Collection, Research files pertaining to the members of the original John Wesley Powell survey, as well as materials pertaining to wildlife and habitat living along the Powell route. Materials include reports, articles, diaries, bulletins, field notes, maps, photographs, newspaper clippings, correspondence, and personal research notes (1986-2008).

There are other collections that have been consulted; these are just some highlights for the time being!

Other images have been found at the Museum of Northern Arizona, and additional research has been undertaken at the Williams (Ariz.) office for Kaibab National Forest to locate images from specific locations in their jurisdiction. We wish to thank our archives colleagues across the state for willingly assisting us during the research phase of this internship.

Now that the snow has (mostly) melted on the north rim of Grand Canyon (Kaibab National Forest), Sarah is excited to begin the process of finding these historic geographic locations and taking the contemporary repeat image.

Stay tuned for future updates as this project rolls along!