William Gould Vinal Papers 1930-1958

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William Gould Vinal Papers 1930-1958

http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/umass/mufs138.html

William "Cap'n Bill" Vinal was the first instructor in nature education at Massachusetts State College and a pioneer in the field. A graduate of Bridgewater State (1904), Harvard (MA 1907) and Brown (PhD, 1922), Vinal worked for several years as a camp director on his native Cape Cod and held a variety of university appointments in nature education before joining the faculty at Massachusetts State College as Professor of Nature Education in the Nature Guide School in 1937. Spontaneous in the classroom and field, enthusiastic, and highly popular with his students, Vinal taught courses in conservation, outdoor leadership, outdoor recreation, and nature guiding, and was an important figure in the Massachusetts Audubon Society, the American Camping Association, the Camp Directors Association, and several conservation groups. After retiring from UMass in 1951, Vinal returned to his home in Norwell, Mass., remaining active as a nature writer and teacher until his death in 1973. A valuable glimpse into the early growth of nature and conservation education, the Vinal collection includes dozens of scarce publications by the exceptionally prolific Cap'n Bill, along with a small quantity of correspondence, talks, and reports. As a collection, these document the origin and growth of the Nature Guide School and the program in nature recreation at MSC and UMass, and more generally the growth of nature, recreation, and conservation education in New England. Of local interest is an extensive report for the town of Amherst Recreation Survey Committee (1948) regarding recreational opportunities for youth. Nearly half of the collection consists of an extensive run of Vinal's quirky, self-published (1935-1951). Nature Guide Newsletter

3 boxes; (1.25 linear ft.)

eng,

Special Collections and University Archives, UMass Amherst Libraries

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SNAC Resource ID: 6323298

Related Entities

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University of Massachusetts Amherst. Program in Nature Recreation.

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University of Massachusetts at Amherst

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Vinal, William Gould, 1881-

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William Gould Vinal Nature education was in its infancy when William "Cap'n Bill" Vinal entered college at the turn of the twentieth century. A native of Norwell, Mass., (then called South Scituate), Vinal attended Bridgewater State Teachers College, graduating with the class of 1904, before taking a second bachelor's degree (1906) and master's (1907) in the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard. One of the first formal nature educators in the nation, Vinal ...

University of Massachusetts Amherst. Nature Guide School.

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