Be the first to transcribe the penciled writings that inspired A Sand County Almanac.
Become a volunteer transcriber with the Aldo Leopold Foundation (no experience required!) so more current and future students, scholars, writers, educators, enthusiasts, and more can engage with Leopold’s work.
The Leopold family made weekly visits to the Shack between 1935 and 1948, where Aldo, et al, compiled the Shack Journals—over 1,000 pages of handwritten entries that portray intimate accounts of the Leopolds’ activities, such as detailed phenological events, experiments on ecological restorations and land management, and color the time that the family and friends spent at the Shack. These Journals document an important period in the evolution of Leopold’s rise to conservation fame and also contain the many observations that inspired the beloved essays in A Sand County Almanac.
A scan from Leopold’s Shack Journals.
Though currently viewable online, the Shack Journals are neither easily read nor keyword searchable. With your help, we will completely transcribe the four Shack Journals by summer 2023. This process will open up more opportunities for researchers, Leopold enthusiasts, students, and the general public to read, explore, and more deeply understand the time that the Leopolds spent at the Shack in the 1930s and 40s. Your work transcribing these Journals will also create a priceless asset for the conservation community and this foundation as we deepen our care for the Leopold Shack and Farm property—and you will relish in the fact that you played a huge role in the world’s insight into it.
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