The Lorrie Otto papers document Otto's interest, involvement, and leadership in environmental conservation in Wisconsin, particularly in those conservation matters having to do with the banning of the pesticide DDT, and the natural landscape movement. The papers date from 1930 through 2008, with the bulk of materials created or gathered between 1960 and 1996. The collection consists of research materials, including articles, notes, publications, news clippings, and correspondence Otto created and gathered in the crucial years of the DDT hearings, as well as biographical news clippings, a scrapbook, subject files, transcripts of radio broadcasts, audio recordings of radio shows and interviews, VHS tapes of a cable television show she produced, and photographs.
The papers are divided into eight series: BIOGRAPHICAL AND PERSONAL MATERIALS, CORRESPONDENCE, DDT MATERIALS, RADIO SHOW TRANSCRIPTS, SUBJECT FILES, WRITINGS, AUDIO MATERIALS, and VISUAL MATERIALS. Within each series the materials are arranged either alphabetically or chronologically. The RADIO SHOW TRANSCRIPTS series is divided into three headings arranged chronologically by year to facilitate item level listing of the transcripts by date and title. The VISUAL MATERIALS series is divided into Biographical and Personal Materials and Subject Files headings to mimic arrangement of the textual files. Item level listing is provided for radio broadcasts on audio cassette and for photographs.
The BIOGRAPHICAL AND PERSONAL MATERIALS briefly highlight her childhood and the years between college and marriage, and comprehensively summarize her conservation work between the early 1960s and mid 1990s in a run of news clippings and magazine articles. The collection of biographical and personal materials is key to understanding the context of Otto's interest in environmental preservation, and provides glimpses into important moments of her career.
The CORRESPONDENCE series documents relationships and points of connection Otto had with family, friends, colleagues, and the general public. Specific letters and runs of correspondence are included here that were not kept by Otto in any particular arrangement or subject file, or that did not deal specifically with DDT. Correspondence of a more personal nature is housed in this series, although the series is not exclusively personal. The majority of correspondence is incoming.
The DDT MATERIALS series is a unique collection of research, publication, and publicity materials in the form of correspondence, legislative documents, reports, bulletins, newsletters, clippings, and personal notes from crucial years surrounding the DDT controversy. It documents the idiosyncratic nature by which Otto gathered research about DDT, from whom or where she gathered information, in some instances who sent the information to her, who she collaborated with in the years leading up to, including, and following the DDT hearings, and who she kept in contact with after DDT was banned. There is evidence of strong professional relationships between Otto and agency employees and scientists involved in the hearings, in particular Walter Scott of the Wisconsin Department of Conservation (now the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources) and Charles Wurster of the Environmental Defense Fund.
The RADIO SHOW TRANSCRIPTS series includes typed transcripts, many of them hand-marked with edits by a friend or by Otto herself, of Otto's broadcasts on WHA-FM radio in Madison between 1977 and 1979. The transcripts provide examples of Otto's writing and speaking style and represent her overall approach to communicating and promoting natural landscaping through the medium of radio programming. A subset of 1978 radio broadcasts not documented in typed form is provided on audiocassette in the AUDIO MATERIALS series.
SUBJECT FILES provide a sense of the variety and depth of Otto's environmental interests and the functions she performed as a naturalist, teacher, natural landscaping advocate, prominent member of the environmental professional community, and public speaker. The series provides evidence of the subjects that interested her most, were gathered to support a cause, or were used in support of her many writings and activities. The series is littered with examples of Otto's writings and correspondence about particular subjects, which for the most part are not duplicated in other series. With few exceptions the materials largely date from 1970.
The WRITINGS series is a unique combination of Otto's very specific writing projects as well as her general writings and ideas that spanned several topics and several years. Both the BIOGRAPHICAL AND PERSONAL MATERIALS and the SUBJECT FILES series should be cross referenced for examples of Otto's writing.
The AUDIO MATERIALS series contains recordings of a subset of Otto's radio broadcasts in 1978 and two interviews. The radio broadcasts fill the gap in programming documented by typewritten radio transcripts. They also capture Otto's voice and speaking style in the 1970s, which is complemented by later interviews. The Storycorps interview is particularly insightful about Otto's involvement in the Wisconsin DDT hearings.
The VISUAL MATERIALS series is arranged into headings for biographical and personal materials and subject files to match the textual collection. The biographical visual materials include photographs and transparencies, most of Otto herself, which were loose in the collection or were associated with scrapbook clippings, and a scrapbook of tributes to Otto's career made by friends and colleagues. Also included in this series are video tapes of four of Otto's Earthcare cable television shows. Background information about the television series is provided in the SUBJECT FILES.
