Incidental Environmentalists on Earth Day 2015, with Jeannie Whayne and Special Collections

Special Collections, University Relations Photos (MC 1302)

Professor George Templeton at work in his office, ca. 1987. University of Arkansas Libraries

The University of Arkansas Libraries and Special Collections are celebrating Earth Day with a presentation by professor Jeannie Whayne on two Arkansas-based champions of the environment.

Whayne will speak on "The Incidental Environmentalists: Dale Bumpers, George Templeton and the Origins of the Rosen Alternative Pest Control Center at the University of Arkansas" next  at 2 p.m. Wednesday, April 22, inside Mullins Library, room 104.

Dale Bumpers has long been celebrated as one of the most distinguished senators to have represented Arkansas, but he receives little public recognition for his work on behalf of the environment. Similarly, little is known about George Templeton and his cohorts in the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food, and Life Sciences, who worked tirelessly to create the Rosen Alternative Pest Control Center. The center's goal is to develop effective and environmentally responsible biological alternatives to chemical management of agricultural pest problems.

Historians have given too little attention to agricultural scientists like Templeton, who represent an unsung tradition within agricultural education dating back to the early 20th century.  Templeton, a professor of plant pathology whose research centered on rice diseases and fungal toxins, received significant assistance from Dale Bumpers in securing federal funding to launch the center. The center's facilities are used by scientists in the departments of plant pathology; crop, soil and environmental sciences; and horticulture and entomology. Dr. Templeton taught at the University from 1958-1996, ultimately receiving the rank of Distinguished Professor.

Whayne's presentation is derived largely from research conducted in Special Collections in the Dale Bumpers papers, the George Templeton papers, and Agricultural Experiment Station bulletins.  "The collections of Sen. Bumpers and Dr. Templeton document the roles of these Arkansans and the University of Arkansas in advances in environmentally sensitive agricultural practices," said Timothy G. Nutt, head of special collections. "Dr. Whayne has mined these materials and brought to light an understudied aspect of agricultural history."

Whayne is Professor of History and co-director of the university's Teaching and Faculty Support Center.  In addition to teaching Arkansas and Southern history courses, Whayne frequently teaches Agricultural History, the American History Survey, honors classes, and graduate seminars.  Fulbright College recognized her outstanding teaching in 2008, naming her a Master Teacher, and she won the college's Master Research Award in 2013. 

Whayne was president of the Agricultural History Society in 2013-2014, now serves on the society's executive committee, and a version of her talk was delivered as her presidential address to the Agricultural History Society last June.  Whayne is a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians since 2008, a fellow of the Agricultural History Society since 2010, and she has been a fellow at the Smithsonian Institution and at the Carter Woodson Institute at the University of Virginia.  She was also editor of the Arkansas Historical Quarterly for thirteen years and the secretary-treasurer of that organization for eighteen years.  In 2014, the Arkansas Historical Association honored her with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

This lecture is sponsored by the University of Arkansas Libraries Special Collections Department and Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences' Department of History.  The lecture is free and open to the public. For more information about this and other events, or to inquire about the manuscript collections in Special Collections, please call 479-575-8444 or email specoll@uark.edu.