Summary Information
Raymond J. Penn Papers
1924-1978
- Penn, Raymond J., 1911-1982
Mss 638
1.8 c.f. (5 archives boxes)
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Papers of an agricultural economist who was actively involved in the Wisconsin rural planning movement from the 1940s through the 1960s. Included are correspondence, reports, land use planning data, and a reference file of Wisconsin county and local zoning ordinances. The collection includes reports on various planning projects in which Penn or the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Wisconsin was involved including assessments of rural zoning during the 1930s and the northern resettlement project. Also included are materials on his involvement in the Forest Crop Advisory Committee during the 1960s and in the attempt to strengthen Wisconsin's water pollution legislation during the 1950s. The zoning reference file most extensively documents Penn's zoning work in Eau Claire and Oneida Counties.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00638 ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
Raymond J. Penn was born in Morris, Minnesota on May 25, 1911. A 1932
graduate of the Wisconsin State Teachers College in River Falls, he received his Ph.D. in 1941 from the University of Wisconsin. During the intervening years (1935-1940) he was a member of the faculty of South Dakota State
College. He was also the regional research supervisor for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Division of Land Management from 1940 to 1943 and from 1943 to 1946 was an officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve.
In 1946 Penn joined the faculty of the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Wisconsin; from 1948 to 1955 he served as chairman of the department. From 1951 to 1969 he was the University's representative on the Natural Resources Committee of the State Agencies. After playing an important role in its founding, he served as the first director of the University's Land Tenure Center from 1962 to 1965. Throughout his career, Penn served as a consultant to a variety of state, federal, and international agencies.
Penn had a strong interest in land use planning, rural zoning, and the public forest system. In the early 1960's he played a key role in strengthening and making permanent the county/state forestry partnership.
After his retirement in 1974 Penn remained active as an emeritus professor and he continued to write articles and papers until his death on May 6, 1982.
Scope and Content Note
The papers illustrate Raymond Penn's interest in and commitment to land use planning, although they afford very incomplete coverage of his career. There are no personal papers in the collection and only a small amount of correspondence documents his direct, professional activities. Nevertheless, the collected materials do provide a broad outline of rural planning in Wisconsin from the 1930's through the 1960's.
The collection includes correspondence, reports, zoning ordinances, and reference data and is divided into subject files and local zoning reference files.
The Subject Files, which are arranged alphabetically, primarily contain correspondence and annual and narrative reports pertaining to various rural planning projects and studies beginning in the 1930's and to various water resources study committees on which Penn served. The narrative annual reports are extremely valuable in documenting the planning activities of Penn and others in his department. Also filed here, although it predates Penn's tenure with the department is a file of reports on the resettlement effort in Northern Wisconsin during the 1930's. Also of interest here is the information on Penn's role in the attempt to pass water pollution legislation in 1957. The file on the Forest Crop Advisory Committee contains minutes, reports, and draft legislation and administrative rules. Also included is a file of Penn's miscellaneous writings and teaching materials.
Possibly of greater value because of the difficulty of locating copies of local laws is the Local Zoning Reference File which includes printed and draft copies of zoning ordinances passed by Wisconsin counties and local communities, related correspondence, and reports. This file includes a large amount of reference material which Penn borrowed (and apparently never returned) from departmental libraries, and it includes a number of examples of important ordinances passed during the 1930's and 1940's. Most extensively represented are the counties with which he was involved in planning work: Eau Claire County and Oneida County. These files are arranged alphabetically by county.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Presented by the Steenbock Memorial Library via Emily Wixson and by the Natural Resources Reference Center via Ugljesha A. Pirocanac, both of Madison, Wisconsin, 1979-1982. Accession Number: M79-155, M79-180, M82-93, M82-348
Processed by John N. Wright, 1984, and Carolyn J. Mattern, 1987.
Contents List
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Series: Subject Files
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Box
1
Folder
1
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Conferences on land use planning, 1946-1958
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Box
1
Folder
2
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Forest Crop Advisory Committee, 1961-1963
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Box
1
Folder
3
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Irrigation Committee, 1977
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Box
1
Folder
4
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Legislation on rural zoning, 1951
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Project material
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Box
1
Folder
5
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Land utilization project, 1938
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Box
1
Folder
6
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Land use planning and zoning project (#10), Annual reports, 1957-1961
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Box
1
Folder
7
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Rural zoning adjustment project, 1941
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Box
1
Folder
8
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Settlement and relocation project, 1935-1937, n.d.
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Box
1
Folder
9
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Miscellaneous reports, 1946-1949
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Box
1
Folder
10
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Recreational land use planning, 1930's
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Box
1
Folder
11
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Rural zoning in Wisconsin-Background materials, 1935-1954
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Box
2
Folder
1
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Transportation planning, 1970
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Box
2
Folder
2
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Water Pollution Committee, 1956-1957
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Box
2
Folder
2
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Writings and teaching material, 1959-1978
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Series: Local Zoning Reference File
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Box
2
Folder
4
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Ashland County, 1939-1940
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Box
2
Folder
5
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Barron County, 1941, n.d.
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Box
2
Folder
6
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Brown County, 1966
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Box
2
Folder
7
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Buffalo County, 1965, n.d.
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Box
2
Folder
8
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Burnett County, 1969, n.d.
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Box
2
Folder
9
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Chippewa County, 1946, 1950
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Box
2
Folder
10
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Columbia County, 1961, n.d.
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Dane County
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Box
2
Folder
11
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General, 1960-1973, n.d.
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Box
2
Folder
12
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NCLTC data, ca. 1948
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Box
2
Folder
13
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Dunn County, n.d.
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Eau Claire County
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Box
2
Folder
14
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General, 1950-1956, n.d.
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Box
2
Folder
15
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Forestry and Zoning Committee reports, 1951-1959
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Box
3
Folder
1
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Florence County, 1950, n.d.
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Box
3
Folder
2
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Fond du Lac County, 1939
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Box
3
Folder
3
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Jackson County, n.d.
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Box
3
Folder
4-5
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Juneau County, ca. 1939-1966, n.d.
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Box
3
Folder
6
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Kenosha County, 1959, n.d.
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Box
3
Folder
7
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Langlade County, ca. 1947
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Box
3
Folder
8
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Lincoln County, 1968
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Box
3
Folder
9
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Manitowoc County, 1967
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Box
3
Folder
10
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Marathon County, 1940
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Box
3
Folder
11
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Marinette County, 1939-1952
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Box
3
Folder
12
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Menominee County, 1969
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Box
3
Folder
13
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Milwaukee County, 1944
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Box
3
Folder
14
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Monroe County, n.d.
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Box
3
Folder
15
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Oconto County, 1939-1942
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Box
4
Folder
1
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Oconto County, continued
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Oneida County
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Box
4
Folder
2
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Zoning ordinance, 1940, n.d.
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Box
4
Folder
3
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Correspondence, 1949-1953
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Box
4
Folder
4
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Erling Solberg study, 1950
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Box
4
Folder
5
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Historical marker, 1968-1969
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Box
4
Folder
6
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Land use planning project report, n.d.
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Box
4
Folder
7
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Report on farm crops and livestock, 1939
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Box
4
Folder
8
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Outagamie County, n.d.
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Box
4
Folder
9
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Ozaukee County, 1966
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Box
4
Folder
10
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Pepin County, n.d.
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Box
4
Folder
11
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Pierce County, n.d.
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Box
4
Folder
12
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Portage County, n.d.
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Box
4
Folder
13
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Price County, n.d.
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Box
5
Folder
1
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Rock County, 1948-1960
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Box
5
Folder
2
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Sauk County, 1942
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Box
5
Folder
3
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Sawyer County, 1951-1952
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Box
5
Folder
4
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Trempealeau County, 1939
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Vernon County
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Box
5
Folder
5
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NCLTC data, ca. 1947
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Box
5
Folder
6
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Zoning ordinance, 1973
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Box
5
Folder
7
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Vilas County, 1941-1967
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Box
5
Folder
8
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Walworth County, 1946-1960
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Box
5
Folder
9
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Waushara County, ca. 1939
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Box
5
Folder
10
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Washburn County, 1965
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Box
5
Folder
11
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Waukesha County, 1960-1961
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