Swan, Kenneth D. (Kenneth Dupee), 1887-1970

Kenneth Dupee Swan was born in Massachusetts in 1887. He earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in forestry from Harvard University, then moved to Missoula, Montana, in 1911 to work for the U.S. Forest Service. He worked on the Custer National Forest in eastern Montana and in northern Idaho on the Clearwater National Forest. His early career was in engineering and as a forest inspector.

He began to work for the Northern Region Headquarters of the Forest Service in 1913 and became that organization's first photographer. He was instrumental in eastablishing the Forest Service's servicewide photo storage system, which contained more than 300,000 negatives by the early 1990s. Swan developed and printed his own photographs in a photograph laboratory in the Northern Region Headquarters.

Swan also traveled extensively around the United States and took extensive photographs outside of work. From much of this material, he developed slide lectures on many subjects, including New England history, the Southwestern United States, and the flora and fauna of Glacier National Park in Montana. He contributed images to many national publications, including the Christian Science Monitor . In 1968, he and his son published Splendid Was the Trail, a book of photographs and memoirs of his Forest Service work.

Swan and his wife, Ruth, had two children: Helen and Joe. Swan died in 1990.

From the guide to the Kenneth D. Swan Photographs and Audio Tapes, 1911-1969, (University of Montana--Missoula Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library Archives and Special Collections)