FORBES, JOHN RIPLEY.
John Ripley Forbes papers, 1913-2006

Restrictions on Access

Special restrictions apply: Collection stored off-site. Researchers must contact the Rose Library in advance to access this collection.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

All requests subject to limitations noted in departmental policies on reproduction.

Additional Physical Form

text

Source

Gift from Ripley Forbes and Anne Spengler, 2018.

Custodial History

Ripley Forbes and Anne Spengler are the children of John Ripley Forbes. Curator of Modern Political and Historical Collections, Randy Gue, packed the materials at the Forbes home and transferred them to the Rose Library.

Citation

[after identification of item(s)], John Ripley Forbes papers, Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University.

Appraisal Note

Curator of Modern Political and Historical Collections, Randy Gue, acquired the collection as part of the Rose Library's holdings in Georgia activism.

Processing

Arranged and described at the collection level by Katy Lindquist, October 2019.

Biographical Note

John Ripley Forbes (1913-2006) was an American naturalist and conservationist. He was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, and spent most of his early life in Massachusetts and Stamford, Connecticut. His father, Kenneth Forbes, was an Episcopal Church bishop and amateur naturalist who often took Forbes on long nature walks. In 1927, Forbes met and befriended zoologist and conservationist William T. Hornaday, who is known for founding the Bronx Zoo (New York) and developing exhibits at the Smithsonian Institution (Washington, D.C.) that would eventually become the National Zoo. Forbes studied at but never graduated from the University of Iowa (Iowa City) and the Boston University School of Fine Arts (Massachusetts). From 1935-1936, Forbes attended Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. Over fifty years later, in 1987, Bowdoin awarded Forbes an honorary doctorate. Following his year at Bowdoin, Forbes, serving in the role of ornithological collector, went on a 1937 Arctic expedition led by explorer Donald MacMillan. During World War II, Forbes served with an Army Air Force medical unit at bases in Alabama and Tennessee where he attended to returning injured airmen by taking them fishing and on nature walks. Forbes helped found hundreds of nature museums for children in over 200 communities and thirty states across the United States. His museums are known for their interactivity including live animal exhibits and animal lending libraries. In 1937, Forbes founded the William T. Hornaday Foundation for children's museums, which later became the Natural Science for Youth Foundation. Later Forbes turned his attention to preservation and in 1976 founded the conservation group the Southeast Land Preservation Trust. In 1989, Forbes saved what is now called the John Ripley Forbes Big Trees Forest Preserve in Sandy Springs, Georgia, from becoming a car dealership. Forbes was married to Margaret Sanders and had two children, E. Ripley Forbes and Anne Forbes Spengler. He died in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2006.

Biographical Source: text

Scope and Content Note

The collection consists of the papers of John Ripley Forbes from 1913-2006 and includes museum files, organizational files, personal files, writings by Forbes, photographs, and negatives. Museum files include correspondence, memos, newsletters, newspaper clippings, notes, maps, and printed material about the museums, zoos, and nature preserves Forbes founded or with which he was affiliated over the course of his career, arranged alphabetically by state. Organizational files include correspondence, memos, newsletters, newspaper clippings, notes, and printed material about the youth and conservation organizations in which Forbes was involved, primarily the National Audubon Society and the Natural Science for Youth Foundation. Personal files include correspondence, newspaper clippings, awards, and files related to independent conservation projects, including Forbes' involvement in a 1937 Arctic expedition led by explorer Donald MacMillan. Writings include both published and unpublished manuscripts written by Forbes.

Arrangement Note

Arranged by record type.