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A Guide to the Ernest M. Dickerman Papers, 1936-2005 [1962-1999] SC# 3085 Processed by: Chris Bolgiano Preferred Citation: Dickerman, Ernest M. Papers. SC# 3085, Special Collections, Carrier Library, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA. 22807 |
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Ernest M. Dickerman in 1967. From Box 3, Fold. 11 (Series 2) |
Descriptive Summary.
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Scope and Content: These papers include correspondence, maps, field notes, reports, news clippings, wilderness proposals, minutes, financial statements, newsletters and other materials, 1940 - current, with most materials dating 1962-1999, that document Dickerman’s activities as a leader of the movement to designate Wilderness Areas on public lands in the East under the Wilderness Act of 1964 and the Eastern Wilderness Act of 1975. Operating papers of the Virginia Wilderness Committee, a grass roots conservation group of which Dickerman served as president for several years, are also included. Biographical/Historical: Ernest M. Dickerman was born December 22, 1910 in Austin, Illinois, but moved to the Adirondacks in New York at three years of age. When he was about six, the family moved to Richmond, VA where his mother died of TB when Dickerman was nine. Some time later, the family moved to Roanoke. Dickerman attended Gettysburg Academy and Oberlin College (class of 1931). In 1934 he began working for the newly created Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in Knoxville, TN. Immediately, he fell in love with the Great Smoky Mountains, met conservationist Harvey Broome, and became deeply involved in the battles to preserve the Great Smoky Mountains National Park from development. He was a 1936 charter member of The Wilderness Society and knew many of the greatest conservationists of the day, including Bob Marshall, Sigurd Olson, Olaus Murie, and Howard Zahniser. After a few years at TVA, Dickerman took a job with a plastics molding firm (apparently called the Patent Button Co. of TN), also in Knoxville. He retired from a position as production manager in 1966, and in 1969 moved to the headquarters office of The Wilderness Society in Washington, D.C. as a staff organizer. He traveled frequently to teach citizens how to identify, map, and build support for Wilderness areas throughout the East and Midwest. He also lobbied Congress on numerous wilderness bills, wrestled with federal land managing agencies (Forest Service, National Park Service, Fish & Wildlife Service, and was highly instrumental in passage of the 1975 Eastern Wilderness Bill. During the 1960s Dickerman also served as manager for the Robert Marshall Wilderness Fund, as evidenced by a notebook of typed minutes from the first thirteen years of the Fund (established by the will of Robert Marshall), 1940-1953, in which are inserted several 1968 letters to and from Dickerman. When he retired from The Wilderness Society in 1976 and moved to his nephew's recently acquired mountain farm near Buffalo Gap in Swoope, Augusta County, VA, he was almost immediately elected president of the Virginia Wilderness Committee. At that time he inherited the organization's files prior to 1976. The Virginia Wilderness Committee (VWC) had been founded in Williamsburg at William & Mary College by a small group of private citizens in 1969 to promote the federal designation of wilderness in Virginia according to the 1964 Wilderness Act. The VWC also became involved in various other issues relevant to preservation of the natural landscape. VWC volunteers donate issues of the newsletter and occasional other VWC documents to keep these current in Dickerman's papers. Although he held an official position in the VWC only until 1979, Dickerman was the guiding spirit in the movement for Virginia wilderness both before and long after those dates. He was widely renowned for his combination of optimism and canny strategizing, his politeness in dealing with adversaries, and his sense of humor. He died on July 31, 1998. In 1999, friends and colleagues produced a book of tributes, filed in the Obituaries and Biography folder in Series 2. Other Dickerman items are located in the staff and correspondence series in the papers of The Wilderness Society housed in the Denver Public Library, Denver, CO, as indicated in the finding aid for that collection filed in the last series of this collection. Bibliography: "Grandad of the Eastern Wilderness," Sierra Magazine, Nov/Dec, 1986. Use Restrictions: None. Organization: Series 2. Dickerman’s professional and personal correspondence. Includes carbon copies of his outgoing letters, original incoming letters, notebooks, texts for speeches, data sheets he composed about various issues, and other items. One folder contains personal Christmas messages, biographical articles, obituaries and remembrances. Series 3. Virginia Wilderness Committee. Operational documents including minutes, financial reports, newsletters, Virginia Wilderness coalition notes, the 1984 VA Wilderness Bill, and wilderness proposals. Series 4. Finding Aid to The Wilderness Society Papers, Denver Public Library, CO. Aug. 2000 ed. Includes mention of Dickerman in the staff and correspondence series. Series 5. Oversize. 25 Maps. Located in SC Map Cabinet and Storage 1. Contents: Acquisition Information: Donated by E.M. Dickerman in Nov. 1994, with several subsequent additions. After his death, two large additions of papers were donated by his nephew and executor, Robert Dickerman. BOX 1 Series 1: Places and Policies. Folder 1 Alaska - Pipeline, etc. (1971, 73) BOX 2 Continue Series 1: Places and Policies. Folder 1 Little River (1973-74) See also Oversize File for map. (BOX 2, con't: Begin Series 2: Dickerman Correspondence and Personal Files). Folders 22-30 Dickerman Correspondence, 1962, ‘68, ‘74; 1976-80 BOX 3 Continue Series 2: Dickerman Corresp. and Personal Files. Folders 1-9 Correspondence 1981-98 (BOX 3, con't: Begin Series 3: Virginia Wilderness Committee (VWC)). Folder 16 Virginia Wilderness Bill and Hearings, 1984 BOX 4 Continue Series 3: Virginia Wilderness Committee. Folder 1 VWC Newsletters (1970- 2005) (WVC volunteers have added to this file beyond Dickerman's death) (BOX 4, con't. Series 4: Finding Aid). Folder 7 Finding Aid to The Wilderness Society Papers, Denver Public Library (Aug. 2000 ed.) Oversize File. Located in SC Map Cabinet and Storage 1. 25 Maps. 1.) Thornwood Gas, Inc.; Pipeline Gathering Route Location Map; Pocahontas, Pendleton and Randolph Counties, West Virginia; Scale 1”=2000’ 2.) US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service; George Washington National Forest; Virginia and West Virginia; 1936 3.) United States, Department of the Interior, Geological Survey; Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Vicinity; Tennessee and North Carolina; 1949; Scale 1:125000. With lines probably indicating proposed wilderness. 4.) Proposed Southern Nantahala Wilderness Area; Hightower Bald G.A.-N.C. and Dillard G.A.-N.C. 5.) United States, Department of the Interior, Geological Survey; Tennessee Valley Authority, Maps and Surveys Branch; Shooting Creek Quadrangle 159-SW, Rainbow Springs Quadrangle 159-SE, Prentiss Quadrangle 167-SW, North Carolina, 7.5 Minute Series (Topographic) 6.) James River Face Wilderness & Vicinity; March 1976. Storage 1. 7.) United States, Department of the Interior, Geological Survey; Thornwood Quadrangle, Snow Mountain Quadrangle, WVA-VA; 1969 8.) United States, Department of the Interior, Geological Survey; Commonwealth of Virginia; Snowden Quadrangle; 1966 9a.) Proposed Whitetop Mountain Wilderness Area and Addition to the Lewis Fork Wilderness Area; Scale 1” = 2000’. 9b.) Overlay with proposed wilderness boundaries. 10.) Beartown, Roadless and Undeveloped Area, Jefferson N.F. VA., 9/15/77, Hutchinson Rock and Tazwell South Quads, Scale 1:24000. With attached information. Storage 1. 11.) Mountain Lake Wilderness Study Area, Virginia, Jefferson N.F., 1965, Scale 1:24000. Storage 1. 12.) Little Wilson and Thunder Ridge Roadless and Undeveloped Areas, Jefferson N.F. VA., 9/15/77, Trout Dale Quad, Scale 1:24000. With attached information. Storage 1. 13.) Devils Fork and Roaring Branch Roadless and Undeveloped Areas, Jefferson N.F. VA., 9/15/77, East Stone Gap Quad, Scale 1:24000; Roaring Branch, Roadless and Undeveloped Area, Jefferson N.F. VA., 9/15/77, Appalachia & Big Stone Gap Quads, Scale 1:24000. With attached information. Storage 1. 14.) Little Dry Run and Lewis Fork Roadless and Undeveloped Areas, Jefferson N.F. VA., 9/15/77, Speedwell, VA Quad, Scale 1:24000; Lewis Fork, Roadless and Undeveloped Area, Jefferson N.F. VA., 9/15/77, Whitetop Mtn. Quad, Scale 1:24000. With attached information. Storage 1. 15.) Proposed Chattachoochee Wilderness Area, United States, Department of the Interior, Geological Survey; Jacks Gap Quadrangle, Tray Mountain Quadrangle, Georgia, 1950, 1957. 16.) United States Geological Survey; Shenandoah National Park (Central Section); 1969 17.) United States Geological Survey; Shenandoah National Park (Southern Section); 1969 18.) United States Geological Survey; Shenandoah National Park (Northern Section); 1969 19.) Three Ridges Proposed Wilderness Area, United States Geological Survey Quadrangles: Big Levels, Sherando, Massies Mill, Horseshoe Mountain, Citizen Proposal compiled by James Madison University Geography Department, December 1990 20.) Mount Pleasant Proposed Wilderness Area, United States Geological Survey Quadrangles: Forks of Buffalo, Montebello, Citizen Proposal compiled by James Madison University Geography Department, February 1991 21.) Kelley Mountain-Big Levels Proposed Wilderness Area, United States Geological Survey Quadrangles: Big Levels, Sherando, Citizen Proposal compiled by James Madison University Geography Department, February 1991 22.) Skidmore Fork Proposed Wilderness Area, United States Geological Survey Quadrangles: Brandywine, February 1991 23.) The Priest Proposed Wilderness Area, United States Geological Survey Quadrangles: Massies Mill, May 1991 24.) Ramsey's Draft Addition Proposed Wilderness Area, United States Geological Survey Quadrangles: Palo Alto, West Augusta, McDowell, December 1990 25.) Rough Mountain and Rich Hole, George Washington N. F. Va., 1/25/1984, Scale 1:24000. Storage 1 |
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