Identifying the First Generation Leaders in Agricultural Education: The Lost Stimson Manuscript

Abstract

Agricultural Educators are typically pragmatic and have generally neglected to document the history of the profession. This is unfortunate because educated, well-rounded professionals should have an understanding and appreciation for the history of their profession. Other than two journal articles in which the authors (Camp and Crunkilton, 1985; Foor and Connors, 2010) attempted to identify the early leaders of the profession and a random assortment of biographical sketches in The Agricultural Education Magazine, there has been little effort to systematically identify the historically significant leaders in agricultural education. However, there was one systematic effort to identify the early leaders of the profession. In the mid-1940s Rufus Stimson worked at compiling a book on the early leaders in agricultural education. The agricultural education leadership in each state was asked to identify five historically important leaders in their state. Photographs and biographical sketches were then collected from these early leaders. Unfortunately, before the book could be published Stimson died. He had collected the information but the book was never published. This historically important work was lost to the profession. This article describes the effort to find the lost Stimson manuscript and thus identify the early leaders in agricultural education.