History Archives - Page 2 of 15

Celebrating 85 Years of NELMA & Over a Century of Promoting White Pine

Posted on October 2, 2018October 21, 2021 by S.A. Rogers

White Pine Historic Monographs

The Northeastern Lumber Manufacturers Association (NELMA) celebrated its 85th birthday this year with a gathering in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, bringing together over 140 members and guests to play golf, network and learn about the latest technology. Founded in 1933 to administer and monitor the provisions of the newly-founded Lumber Code Authority in the Northeast following President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, NELMA quickly became a voluntary trade organization after support for the Recovery Act waned, and it has provided essential support for the Northeastern lumber industry ever since.

Meanwhile, the White Pine Bureau formed in 1915 to represent two trade organizations: the Northern Pine Manufacturers Association of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan as well as The Associated White Pine Manufacturers of Idaho. Carrying out advertising campaigns on behalf of the White Pine manufacturing industry, the Bureau began publishing the White Pine Series of Architectural Monographs 3 to 6 times each year. The issues focused on highlighting early American buildings made of white pine, exploring different architectural styles or structures in specific towns.

White Pine Historic Monographs

After 10 years, the White Pine Bureau passed the publication of the White Pine Monographs on to its editor, Russell F. Whitehead with the support of Weyerhaeuser Forest Products Company. The original series lasted 27 years, and after a long break, NELMA resurrected it in a new form. 2006 saw the start of a new era for the Monographs, maintaining their original look and feel while highlighting modern trends and examples. Today, NELMA provides access to the entire run of the publication at the Eastern White Pine Monograph Library.

All 98 of the original historic booklets and 10 contemporary issues are available to be read and printed, and they give us a fascinating look at the history of white pine in the United States. Not only are they packed with articles and photographs, they offer a glimpse at historic conditions like the challenge of advertising during World War I as well as a fun range of old advertisements.

Check out the whole collection here.

Celebrating 85 Years of NELMA & Over a Century of Promoting White Pine

Posted on October 2, 2018October 21, 2021 by Jeff Easterling

White Pine Historic Monographs

Check out the whole collection here.

Elaborate Eastern White Pine Woodwork at New Hampshire’s Historic Langdon House

Posted on August 15, 2018October 21, 2021 by Jeff Easterling

Governor John Langdon House in Portsmouth

We took a look at the history of Eastern White Pine in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in Volume XXVIII of the White Pine Series of Architectural Monographs, published in 2009, exploring its origins as a major purveyor of white pine lumber and the legacy of the architecture that was built with it. Now, let’s zoom in on one of Portsmouth’s most beautiful and celebrated historic structures, the Governor John Langdon House.

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Built in 1784 by John Langdon – merchant, shipbuilder, Revolutionary War leader, signer of the United States Constitution and three-term governor of New Hampshire – the Georgian mansion is a sight to behold, even from far across its lawns. Praised for its beauty by George Washington, who visited in 1789, the house boasts grander proportions than most residences of that era as well as an elaborate entryway sheltered by a portico topped with a balustrade.

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But the defining feature of the Governor John Langdon House might just be its spectacular interior woodwork, all carved from Eastern White Pine. The extraordinarily high level of craftsmanship seen in the trim, staircases, ceiling medallions and other elements of the home are attributed to master joiner Ebenezer Clifford, who also worked on many other old homes along New Hampshire’s Piscataqua River. During that time, millions of board-feet of Eastern White Pine would have been flowing down the river to the port of Piscataqua, headed to the colonies.

Langdon House carvings

Langdon spared no expense on these Rococo-style carvings, and it shows. Visitors admire them in person at the mansion, which is now a National Historic Landmark and open for events and private tours. A recent artist residency at the house by regional sculptor Amanda Fisk even focused on “the overlapping roles of eastern white pine in our nation’s history and in Langdon’s life and career,” noting the importance of the species in the mansion, the ships Langdon built and the local economy.

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To see the oldest white pine house in Portsmouth along with details on the Buckminster House, the Wendell House and other notable Eastern White Pine structures in the city, check out the White Pine Monographs.

Paul Bunyan Talk: The Lost Language of American Loggers

Posted on April 18, 2018 by Jeff Easterling

old fashioned loggers

Big blue, bindlestiff, bullock, donkey doctor, clam gun, homeguard: do you know what any of these terms mean? Probably not, unless you’re a logger of the old-fashioned variety, working for a company that still uses traditional methods and the terminology to go with them. You might even think you know what words like cruiser, highball, macaroni and schoolmarm mean, but in the old logging parlance, you’re probably wrong. That’s because the old language of loggers is so specific to the industry, it almost sounds like gibberish to the untrained ear. In 1942, writer Elrick B. Davis created ‘Paul Bunyan Talk,’ a glossary of logging terms tied to the old tradition, and it’s a delight to peruse.

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‘Macaroni,’ for example, referred to sawdust. A ‘hoot-nanny’ was a gadget used to hold a crosscut saw when a log is sawed from underneath. A schoolmarm is a somewhat uncouth nickname for a crotched log, while a ‘cookee’ is the camp cook’s helper. A ‘gandy dancer’ is a “pick-and-shovel man.” Many of the terms are technical in nature, referring to very specific equipment and techniques. Others, you’ll note, have become a part of American English parlance – like ‘haywire,’ and the age-old warning cry of ’Timberrrrrrrr!’

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“Lumberjacks call themselves loggers,” says Davis in the opening. “To call them lumbermen is an invitation to brawl, and it is safer to call a sailor a marine than to refer to a logging camp as a lumber camp, wherever trees are logged. To a logger, a lumberman is a sawdust eater down at the macaroni mills.”

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By the time this glossary was composed, much of this language was already on its way out. Reading through it is like being temporarily transported to a time and place long gone. Check it out in full over at JSTOR.

Top image via Wikimedia Commons

Bunnell House: Historic Example of Rural Gothic Architecture in Minnesota

Posted on January 2, 2018 by Jeff Easterling

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Few architectural styles conjure fairytale visions quite like Carpenter Gothic, a style of architecture that flourished in the mid-1800’s in North America. Though serious appreciators of more staid and refined Colonial structures – like many of the authors who contributed to NeLMA’s White Pine Monographs – found it inauthentic and needlessly frilly, the style produced some of our nation’s most unique vernacular architecture. Perhaps best well known for its inclusion in Grant Wood’s classic 1930 American Gothic painting, Carpenter Gothic was a “picturesque improvisation” upon traditional Gothic architecture, typically made of wood by carpenters as the name suggests.

american gothic

These charming structures, found throughout the United States, aren’t trying to be perfect. They don’t care about hewing to standards. They’re a bit freewheeling, full of pointed arches, towers, steep gables and mass-produced scroll saw wood moldings, but they’re far less ornamental than the High Gothic structures they emulate for a relaxed, informal result. It’s most often seen in private homes and small churches.

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One notable example of rural Carpenter Gothic can be found in Winona, Minnesota. The Bunnell House was built around 1850 by Willard and Matilda Bunnell of Eastern White Pine. The couple paddled down from Green Bay, Wisconsin with a canoe full of 4,000 pounds of furs to trade with Native Americans along their journey and settled in Winona before Minnesota was even a state. Their story is now dramatized in live theatrical performances right in the house they built. The historic house museum is operated by the Winona County Historical Society, with performances taking visitors back in time with the Bunnells.

bunnell house

Bunnell House itself is a real stunner, exemplifying the style’s darker, more rustic rural side with its weathered board and batten siding and jigsaw details, and as you can see, it has held up beautifully over the centuries. If you’re curious, you can find some photos of the interiors at the Winona Daily News website.

Proud State Tree: The Eastern White Pine’s Legacy in Michigan

Posted on October 27, 2017 by Jeff Easterling

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Maine isn’t the only state to make the proud Pinus strobus, a.k.a. the Eastern White Pine, its official state tree. Just like New England’s own rich history with the tree, which provided lumber for some of the United States’ earliest colonial structures, Michigan acknowledges the tree that helped build so may of its towns, including Cadillac. Multiple sources have waxed poetic about the beauty and significance of the tree, including a recent piece in the Cadillac News.

According to the Michigan Natural Features Inventory, the detailed notes taken by the land surveyors included information on the location, species, and diameter of each tree used to mark section lines and section corners. The surveyors also commented on the general quality of timber along each section line. Biologists from the MNFI developed a method to translate those survey notes into a digital map. The maps they created show that there was a 10-mile wide swath of forest dominated by white pine that extended from Cadillac to Lake City. Between 1870 and 1890, most of these pines were harvested and turned into lumber. The harvesting and milling of the white pine timber helped to establish the towns of Cadillac and Jennings.

They also note that Eastern White Pines are still valued today, particularly for timber frame buildings and interior millwork. They’re also some of the country’s most beautiful Christmas trees, with superior needle retention. These trees help provide deer with thermal cover in the winter, as well as perches for birds of prey.

MyNorth contributor Russ Capaldi shared some of this thoughts about the Eastern White Pine’s importance in an essay called ‘In Praise of White Pines: An Essay on Michigan’s State Tree.’

Pinus Strobus. Eastern White Pine. When the English approached the eastern seaboard of North America for the very first time their eyes must have bugged right out of their heads. For from the virgin forests, staring out at them as they bobbed and heaved on the New World waters were—by the millions—what the world’s greatest navy was then in very short supply of: ship masts, and by extension, mast pines. By definition, white pine trees: at least 120 feet in length, four feet in diameter at the base, and two and a half feet in diameter at the tall mark. If a particular tree was qualified, three quick axe strokes at eye level left the king’s mark of immediate title: the King’s Broad Arrow. The British built two ships that could transport 50 stems at a time. How many white pines were taken from the colonies? Records are unclear. But the de facto seizures so rankled the colonists, it became their habit to chop down and make off with every King’s pine they came across; pines shoulder-to-shoulder with stamps and tea for revolution.

Walking farther into the woods, we’re surprised to see now and then a giant white pine left to itself and dwarfing every tree around. We see them on the edge of the sparkling stream or on a bare promontory, and we’re pleased to wonder: did old-time timber men and prospectors leave these trees standing as some mark of reverence, or simply as cynosures to the next stand.

It’s a beautiful essay, and a fitting tribute to the tree we all hold so dear – read the whole thing at MyNorth.com.

Photo by John Paul Endicott / Flickr Creative Commons 2.0