The collection includes over seven hundred pages of holograph manuscripts and
holograph-corrected typescripts by Aldo Leopold, published and unpublished essays, as well
as manuscripts and articles written about Leopold. The materials were collected by Leopold's
student and later colleague, Robert A. McCabe, who wrote his own manuscript about Leopold.
The materials range from the 1920s to the 1940s, with the bulk of the collection from the
1940s. The collection is separated into three series: materials by Leopold, materials about
Leopold, and photographs and other media.
Series 1: Materials by Leopold include his handwritten manuscripts, both published and
not, as well as book reviews, digests of books, speeches, talks, and correspondence.
Included are eight miniature field diaries/notebooks in Leopold's hand, dated from 1944 to
1946. Course files for Leopold's work at the University of Wisconsin, including material
from courses on game management and wildlife ecology, are mostly mimeographed, mainly from
the 1940's. The collection also includes many offprints and photocopies of articles by
Leopold.
Series 2: Materials about Leopold has a range of materials about Leopold, including
articles and offprints by others, Leopold Centennial materials, and other memorabilia. The
collection also includes McCabe's correspondence with Gary Laib and others, McCabe's
manuscript for "Aldo Leopold the Professor", his analysis of Leopold's contributions to
Wisconsin agriculture and farming, and material on McCabe's efforts to reassemble Leopold's
essays originally published in Wisconsin Agriculturalist and Farmer. Additional items
include materials by Gary J. Laib, including activity and curriculum guides for elementary
and secondary grades based on Leopold's writings. A manuscript by Clay Schoenfeld of an
article for Audubon Magazine is supplemented by letters commenting on the draft. Some
materials are by or relate to other members of the Leopold family, including Nina Leopold
Bradley and Frederic Leopold.
Series 3: Photographs and other media include photographs and negatives, some taken by
McCabe, slides of Leopold's essays made by McCabe, computer disks of Gary Laib's booklets,
and three audio cassettes of various interviews about Leopold.
For more information about the collection, see "Seeing the headwaters," in the Libraries'
Messenger Magazine, no. 37 (winter 1998-1999), pp. 18-21, available online:
https://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/LJTEFM4MCMOBN8C.
Some other materials relate to or are by other members of the Leopold family. Individually
cataloged titles can be found in the UW Madison library catalog under the call number "Coll.
ZH".