a tale of two journals:
FIFTY YEARS
OF ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY—AND ITS PREDECESSORS

THOMAS R. COX

ABSTRACT

In 1996 Forest & Conservation History and Environmental History Review merged to form Environmental History. As a continuation of these earlier journals, in 2007 Environmental History celebrated fifty years of publication. The scope of coverage of the journal and its predecessors changed over time, reflecting not only the emphases of their various editors but also the evolution of the societies behind the journals and of environmental history itself. The merger was not accomplished without strain. The haste with which it was done and the differing cultures of the sponsoring organizations, the Forest History Society and American Society of Environmental History, created problems that were difficult to overcome, but in the end not intractable. Today not only the journal, but both societies are larger and stronger than ever.

UNLIKE WITH HUMANS, the birth dates of scholarly publications are often hard to determine. Truth be known, they evolve more often than they spring forth full grown like Athena from the head of Zeus. Environmental History is a case in point. In 2007 it either was—or was not—fifty years old. Its cover lists the present volume as number thirteen, but that refers to the number of years since Forest & Conservation History and Environmental History Review merged to form today's journal. If one considers Environmental History a continuation of those forerunners, then 2007 was, indeed, its golden anniversary. Whatever its age, this is an appropriate time to retrace the history of the journal and the forerunners from whence it sprang, for its past tells much about the evolution not just of the journal but of environmental history as a field.	1
The beginnings were modest. In the spring of 1957, what was then known as the Forest History Foundation published volume 1, number 1 of the Forest History Newsletter. Elwood R. Maunder, the anonymous editor of the three-page mimeographed production, noted that "a growing number of friends with a serious interest in forest history are trying in a variety of ways to collect, preserve, research, write, teach, and otherwise make use of that history" and the newsletter was "intended to stimulate the growth of that program." Maunder sent the newsletter to seven hundred recipients to "test the waters"; his newsletter thus ante-dated John Opie's Environmental Review, the other ancestor of Environmental History, by almost twenty years.1	2
Figure 1. Forest History Newsletter. Image courtesy of the Forest History Society, Durham, North Carolina. Forest History Newsletter, n.v. (Spring 1957). The Forest History Foundation, a precursor to the Forest History Society, published this first issue of the Forest History Newsletter during the spring of 1957.
Maunder had grander visions; he had a background in journalism and later confessed one reason he took the job of executive director of the fledgling Forest History Foundation was the possibility of editing his own journal. In 1957, shortly before the first issue of the newsletter appeared, Maunder announced his intentions in the Pacific Northwest Quarterly: "We should like to try our hand at publishing a journal devoted to articles on forest history and scholarly reviews of published works. ... [A] journal of this kind would serve to encourage research and writing in this field. ... [T]his aspect of our program is still but a gleam in our eyes."2	. . .