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Historical Maryland Wye Oak Photos Featured on NAL Web Site

In the week after Maryland’s famous Wye Oak was felled in a June 6 thunderstorm, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Library (NAL) has made available a web site featuring historic photos of the majestic tree.

The photos of the Wye Oak are in the Forest Service Historical Photograph Collection, part of nearly 60,000 mounted black-and-white photographs in the NAL's special collections. Photographs from the 1920s and 1930s show the Wye Oak as a tree that is an important part of Maryland's history.

Housed at the National Agricultural Library since 1985, the Forest Service Historical Photograph Collection is one of the library’s most frequently used resources. The photographs document an array of subjects dating back to the 1890s, including homesteading, Smokey Bear (the real cub), the Civilian Conservation Corps, early logging techniques and equipment, smokejumpers, forest fires, cowboys, miners, famous conservationists including John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt, and famous trees including the Wye Oak.

For access to the Wye Oak photographs and other resources in the NAL’s special collections, contact staff at (301) 504-6503 or e-mail speccoll@nal.usda.gov.

The National Agricultural Library is the world’s largest and most accessible agricultural library. The library’s web site is its electronic gateway to a wealth of agricultural resources. The NAL is part of the Agricultural Research Service, USDA’s chief scientific research agency.