RS 13/25/51
Errington, Paul Lester (1902-1962)

Papers, 1929-2006, n.d.

Special Collections Department
403 Parks Library
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011-2140


Descriptive summary

creator:

Errington, Paul Lester (1902-1962)

title:

Papers

dates:

1929-2006, n.d.

extent:

14.7 linear feet (35 document boxes)

collection number:

RS 13/25/51

repository:

University Archives, Special Collections Department, Iowa State University.

 

Administrative information

access:

Open for research

publication rights:

Consult Head, Special Collections Department

preferred citation:

 Paul Lester Errington Papers, RS 13/25/51Special Collections Department, Iowa State University Library.

 

Biographical note

Dr. Paul Lester Errington was born June 14, 1902 near Bruce, South Dakota. He earned a B.S. (1930) from South Dakota State College (University). He received his Ph.D. (1932) from the University of Wisconsin, where he studied under Aldo Leopold.

Dr. Errington joined the Iowa State faculty as a Research Assistant Professor (1932-1938) in zoology to establish and lead the first Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit in the United States. During his years at Iowa State, he was promoted to Research Associate Professor (1938-1948) and to Research Professor (1948-1962). Dr. Errington was considered an international authority on the phenomena of predation and automatic mechanisms of population regulation. His professional area of expertise included vertebrate ecology and population dynamics.

During his lifetime he was a member of numerous professional societies and was awarded the Aldo Leopold Medal in 1962. He wrote more than 200 articles and authored four books. His book Muskrat Populations (1963) was awarded the Iowa State University Press award for faculty publications in 1962.

Dr. Errington married Carolyn Storm in 1934. They raised two sons: Peter and Frederick. Dr. Errington died in 1962.

 

 

Collection description


This collection (1906-2006, n.d.) contains correspondence with numerous colleagues including Durward L. Allen, Marston Bates, Kai Curry-Lindahl, Jay N. Darling, Charles Elton, Ira N. Gabrielson, Joe Hickey, David Lack, A. Starker Leopold, Aldo Leopold, G.W. Malaher, W.L. McAtee, Margaret M. Nice, Lauri Siivonen, Herbert L. Stoddard, and William Vogt. The documents also contain articles, papers and stories, a bibliography of his writings, and manuscripts of books, which include Muskrats and Marsh Management (1961), Muskrat Populations (1963), Of Men and Marshes (1957), Of Predation and Life (1967), and The Red Gods Call (1973). Also in the collection are research and lecture notes pertaining to vertebrate ecology, population dynamics. In addition there are materials regarding the professional organizations to which Dr. Errington belonged including American Ornithologists' Union, Iowa Conservation Commission, Ecology Society, National Audubon Society and the Wildlife Society.

 

Organization


This collection listing is arranged alphabetically.

 

Container List  

Box

Folder

Title

Dates

32

5

Academic Concerns – Abstracts, reprints, and memoranda of colleagues

n.d.

32

6 - 8

Academic Concerns – Accounts of departmental and administrative friction at Iowa State

1954-1962

12

7

Academic Concerns – Eastern Lecture Tour

1960

12

3

Academic Concerns – Journal of Wildlife Management – editorial board correspondence

1956-1958

31

7

Academic Concerns – Lectures and talks

n.d.

31

8

Academic Concerns – Maps of Squaw and Skunk Rivers

n.d.

31

5 - 6

Academic Concerns – Reports, outlines, National Science Foundation applications, project reports

1929-1962

32

2 - 4

Academic Concerns – Research notes

n.d.

34

8

Articles –  “Predators and the Northern Bob-White”

1935

18

7

Articles – “”Additional Studies on Tagged Young Muskrats”

1944

18

6

Articles – “1934 drought and Southern Iowa Bob-White”

1935

13

5

Articles – “About a ‘General Practitioner’ the Great Horned Owl”

n.d.

14

30

Articles – “About those Wild Dogs, the Foxes,” with related correspondence

1953-1954

14

31 - 32

Articles – “American Visitor’s Impressions of Scandinavian Waterfowl Problems,” with related correspondence

n.d.

14

33 - 34

Articles – “Analysis of Mink Predation Upon Muskrats in North-Central United States,” with related correspondence

n.d.

18

8

Articles – “Another Winter’s Quail Study”

1933

18

9

Articles – “Banding Studies of Semi-Domesticated Mallard Ducks”

1935

18

10

Articles – “Bob-White Winter Survival on Experimentally shot and unshot areas”

1934

13

6

Articles – “Bob-Whitetail Quail on the Northern and Northwestern Frontiers of Its Range”

n.d.

18

11

Articles – “Breeding Season of the Muskrat in Northwest Iowa”

1937

13

7

Articles – “Canadian North”

n.d.

13

8

Articles – “Central Iowa Streams and Associated Habitats”

n.d.

15

1

Articles – “Closer Look at the Killers,” with related correspondence

n.d.

13

9

Articles – “Cold”

1929

13

10

Articles – “Comparative Ability of the Ring-Necked Pheasant and the Bob-Whitetail Quail to Withstand Cold and Hunger”

n.d.

18

12

Articles – “Comparison of Two Iowa Duck Nesting Seasons”

1935

15

4

Articles – “Concerning Fluctuations in Populations of the Prolific and Widely Distributed Muskrat,” with related correspondence

1951

13

11

Articles – “Concerning Limiting Factors in Population of Higher Vertebrates”

1955

15

5 - 6

Articles – “Concerning the limiting factors in Populations of the Prolific and Widely Distributed Muskrat,” with related correspondence

1955-1956

18

13

Articles – “Conclusions as to the Food Habits of the Barred Owl in Iowa”

1937

13

12

Articles – “Cyclic Low”

n.d.

15

7

Articles – “Decline of the Muskrat Population,” with related correspondence

1962-1963

18

15

Articles – “Differences in Nutritive Values of Winter Game Foods”

1936

15

8

Articles – “Disease Cycles in Nature (Epizootiology of a Disease in Muskrats),” with related correspondence

1961

18

16

Articles – “Drowning as a Cause of Mortality in Muskrats”

1937

15

9

Articles – “Ecological Problems Relating to the Northern Bob-White,” with related correspondence

1931-1932

18

17

Articles – “Emergency Values of Some Winter Pheasant Foods”

1937

16

1

Articles – “Esthetics and Wildlife Conservation,” with related correspondence

1937-1938

18

19

Articles – “Evaluation of Nesting Losses and Juvenile Morality of the Ring-Necked Pheasant”

1937

12

13

Articles – “Experimental Evidence on the Eating of Bob-Whitetail Quail Eggs by Small Sciuridae”

n.d.

13

14

Articles – “Experimental Tagging of Young Muskrats for Purposes of Study”

n.d.

18

18

Articles – “Experimental Tagging of Young Muskrats for the Purpose of Study”

1937

18

20

Articles – “Factors Limiting Higher Vertebrate Populations”

1956

13

15

Articles – “Field Studies of Habit Selection in Relation to Mammal and Bird Populations”

1960, n.d.

18

21

Articles – “Food Habits of Burrowing Owls in Northwest Iowa”

1935

18

22

Articles – “Food Habits of Buteo Hawks in North-Central United States”

1938

18

23

Articles – “Food Habits of Iowa Red Foxes During a Drought Summer”

1937

18

14

Articles – “Food Habits of Marsh Hawk in the Glaciated Prairie Region of North Central United States”

1936

18

24

Articles – “Food Habits of Midwest Foxes”

1935

18

26

Articles – “Food Habits of Southern Wisconsin Raptors”

1933

18

25

Articles – “Food Habits of the Red Fox in Iowa”

1937

13

16

Articles – “Food Habits Study of Foxes”

1932, n.d.

18

27

Articles – “Foods of the Bob-White in Wisconsin”

1939

13

17

Articles – “Glacial Marshes”

n.d.

18

28

Articles – “Great Horned Owl as and Indicator of Vulnerability in Prey Populations”

1938

16

2 - 3

Articles – “Great Horned Owl,” with related correspondence

1939-1940

13

18

Articles – “How Much Do Quail Move”

n.d.

16

4

Articles – “In Appreciation of Aldo Leopold,” with related correspondence

1948

13

19

Articles – “In Defense Not of Gobbledygook, but of Workable Standards in Technical Writing”

1952, n.d.

13

20

Articles – “Innocence”

1936, n.d.

13

21

Articles – “Integration of Wildlife Management with the Soil Bank Program”

n.d.

18

29

Articles – “Iowa Duck Studies”

1934

13

22

Articles – “Iowa Marsh” (original title for “Of Birds and a Marsh and Thirty Years”

n.d.

13

23

Articles – “Life’s Resilience and the Balance of Nature”

n.d.

13

24

Articles – “Long-Eared Owl as a Ratter”

1933

16

5

Articles – “Lost Legions,” with related correspondence

1933

18

30

Articles – “Managing of the Bob-White Quail in Iowa”

1933

18

31

Articles – “Marsh Hawk and Its Hunting”

n.d.

13

25

Articles – “Mink Feces”

1933

13

26

Articles – “Misappraisal”

n.d.

16

6

Articles – “Modern Science and Predators,” with related correspondence

1938

18

32

Articles – “Modifications in Predation Theory Suggested by Ecological Studies of the Bob-White Quail”

1938

13

27

Articles – “Muskrat Ramblings”

n.d.

18

33

Articles – “Muskrats in Corn”

1940

18

34

Articles – “Natural Restocking of Muskrat Vacant Habitats”

1940

18

35

Articles – “Nesting and the Life Equation of the Wisconsin Bob-White”

1933

13

28

Articles – “No Quarter”

1938, n.d.

13

29

Articles – “Norrtälje Skärgåden – Where the Land Comes out of the Sea”

n.d.

16

7

Articles – “North Country,” with related correspondence

n.d.

16

8 - 9

Articles – “Northern Bob White,” Ph.D. Thesis from University of Wisconsin

1932

13

30

Articles – “Observations on Fungus Skin Disease of Iowa Muskrats”

1942, n.d.

18

36

Articles – “Observations on Muskrat Damage to Corn and Other Crops in Central Iowa”

1938

13

31

Articles – “Observations on Predation of Wasps Upon Beetle Larvae”

n.d.

18

37

Articles – “Observations on the Effects of a Spring Drought on Reproduction in the Hungarian Partridge”

1938

18

38

Articles – “Observations on Young Muskrats in Iowa”

1939

14

1

Articles – “Of concepts and Conceits – an Essay on Anthropocentrisms”

n.d.

14

2

Articles – “Of Lynx and a White Cedar Swamp”

n.d.

16

10

Articles – “Of Man and the Lower Animal,” with related correspondence

1941-1960

16

11

Articles – “Of Population Cycles and Unknowns,” with related correspondence

1957-1958

18

40

Articles – “On the Analysis of Productivity in Populations of Higher Vertebrates”

1942

14

3

Articles – “On the Effects of Acute Emergencies on Animal Populations”

n.d.

17

1

Articles – “On the Hazards of Overemphasizing Numerical Fluctuations in Studies of ‘Cyclic’ Phenomena in Muskrat Populations,” with related correspondence

1954

18

41

Articles – “On the Social Potentiality of Wildlife Management”

1940

34

6

Articles – “Over-Population and Predation: a Research Field of Singular Promise

1935

34

7

Articles – “Pellet Analysis Method of Raptor Food Study”

1930

17

2

Articles – “Pheasant in the Northern Prairie States,” with related correspondence

1942

17

3

Articles – “Phenomena of Predation,” with related correspondence

1963

14

4

Articles – “Population Recovery of the Muskrat” (abstract)

n.d.

17

5 - 8

Articles – “Predation and Vertebrate Populations,” with related correspondence

1946

14

5

Articles – “Preface to Teaching Unit 5: Owls”

n.d.

17

4

Articles – “Pricelessness of Untampered Nature,” with related correspondence

1946

34

9

Articles – “Publication Standards in Wildlife Management”

1939

14

6

Articles – “Quail Appreciate Brush Piles”

n.d.

14

7

Articles – “Quail Do Not Need to Have Their Corn Cracked”

n.d.

14

9

Articles – “Quail Having it Easy This Winter”

n.d.

14

8

Articles – “Quail Like Edges”

n.d.

34

10

Articles – “Quail Winter Food and Cover”

1931

14

10

Articles – “Queer”

n.d.

15

2 - 3

Articles – “Question of Values,” with related correspondence

n.d.

14

11

Articles – “Quotations for Science Service from ‘Population Recovery of Muskrat”

n.d.

34

11

Articles – “Reactions of Muskrat Populations to Drought”

1939

14

12

Articles – “Redheads and Realities”

1962

34

12

Articles – “Reduction in Production of Muskrat Pelts on an Iowa Marsh Through Depredations of Red Foxes”

1945

14

13

Articles – “Rovdyrene Og Deres Virkninger” (Danish)

1960

14

14

Articles – “Saprolengnia Parasitica and Bacillus Columnaris; Their Relation to Disease in Fish”

n.d.

17

9

Articles – “Scanian Wetlands,” with related correspondence

1962

34

13

Articles – “Some Contributions of a Fifteen Year Local Study of Northern Bob-White to a Knowledge of Population Phenomena”

1945

18

2

Articles – “Some Contributions of Fifteen Year Local Study of the Northern Bob-White to a Knowledge of Population Phenomena,” with related correspondence

1945

34

14

Articles – “Special Report on Muskrat Disease”

1946

18

3

Articles – “Special Responsiveness of Minks to Epizootics in Muskrat Populations,” with related correspondence

1954

34

15

Articles – “Studies on the Behavior of the Great Horned Owl”

1932

34

16

Articles – “Suggestions for Appraising Effects of Predation on Local Areas Managed for Bob-Whites”

1939

14

15

Articles – “Suggestions for Appraising Predator Control”

n.d.

14

16

Articles – “Summary of Studies of Animal Populations, Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin, 1929-1944” (written with Aldo Leopold)

n.d.

17

10

Articles – “Summary of Studies of Bob-White Population Near Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin, 1929-1943,” with related correspondence and research data (1of 2)

n.d.

18

1

Articles – “Summary of Studies of Bob-White Population Near Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin, 1929-1943,” with related correspondence and research data (2 of 2)

n.d.

34

17

Articles – “Summer Food Habits of the Badger in Northwestern Iowa”

1937

14

17

Articles – “Survey of Rat Populations in Urban and Rural Areas and Development of Better Techniques of Estimating Rat Populations”

n.d.

34

18

Articles – “Tagging Studies of Red Foxes”

1937

18

4

Articles – “Talon and Fang,” with related correspondence

n.d.

14

18

Articles – “Ten Rounds”

n.d

34

19

Articles – “To Babes Really Lost in the Woods”

1944

14

19

Articles – “To the Memory of a Young Man” [see also correspondence with Arthur Gilkey]

1960

14

20

Articles – “To What is Gone”

n.d.

18

5

Articles – “Towards a Better Understanding of Animal Life,” with related correspondence

1956

14

21

Articles – “Triangle, a Story”

1953

14

22

Articles – “Utmost Height”

n.d.

14

23

Articles – “Valedictory, a Story”

n.d.,

34

20