Information Sheet

R Hall, Leonard, 1899‑

408 Papers, 1946‑1983.

Forty-seven folders.

NOTE: THIS COLLECTION IS IN OFF-CAMPUS STORAGE. AT LEAST TWO DAYS' ADVANCE NOTICE IS REQUIRED FOR RESEARCH USE.

These are papers of a conservationist, newspaper columnist, author, and lecturer. Prominent topics include the Ozark National Scenic Riverways, the National Audubon Society, Defenders of Wildlife, and wilderness areas. There are texts and notes for many of his articles, books, and lectures, as well as scripts for several nature films.

Frederick Leonard Hall was born in Seneca, Missouri, on 30 October 1899, the son of Frederick Bagby and Corinne (Steele) Hall. After service in the U.S. Navy during World War I, he attended Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and the University of Wisconsin in Madison. In 1923 he married Frances Mabley, who died in 1937. In 1941 he married Virginia Watson, who thereafter collaborated with her husband on many endeavors, particularly the production of nature films. In 1945 they made their permanent home at “Possum Trot Farm” near Caledonia, Missouri.

In 1943 Leonard Hall became a regular columnist for the St. Louis Post‑Dispatch, specializing in “outdoor” writing. Over the years the focus of the column came to be upon "nature" and the environment. In 1959 he moved the column to the St. Louis Globe‑Democrat, where it appeared regularly until 1980. Hall was also the author of several books, including Possum Trot Farm (1948), Country Year (1958), and Earth’s Song (1981), and many articles.

Hall served as chairman of the Advisory Commission for the Ozark National Scenic Riverways, and on the boards of several environmental advocacy organizations, including Defenders of Wildlife, The Humane Society of the United States, the Missouri Nature Conservancy, and the Missouri Conservation Federation. He was named Missouri’s “Conservationist of the Year” in 1965, and won the Thomas Stokes Award for writing on natural resources in 1959.

Hall’s self‑described “high point” in his “conservation effort” was his advocacy for, and establishment by the National Park Service of, the Ozark National Scenic Riverways on the Current and Jacks Fork rivers in Missouri, the first such designation in the United States.

The Hall papers are most representative of his activities from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. They are arranged alphabetically by topic and have been indexed (see “Index Cards”).

The largest single component of the Hall papers deals with the Ozark National Scenic Riverways (folders 14‑27). There are general correspondence and scripts for “Forever Yours,” a film produced for the National Park Service by Leonard and Virginia Hall; and miscellaneous publications, clippings, and other printed material dealing with the parklands. Another major section deals with motion‑picture films which Leonard and Virginia Hall produced for the National Audubon Society in the 1950s and 1960s. The Halls then showed the films at lecture engagements. There are correspondence and scripts for the films “Pursuit of Summer,” “Ozark Wildflowers,” “Audubon’s Wilderness,” “Birds Over Florida,” and “Ozarks Anthology.”

There are several folders devoted to Hall’s writings, including published articles, an unpublished book (“At Home on Earth”), and a draft of Earth’s Song. There are also groups of his newspaper columns organized for submission for consideration for the Ernie Pyle Memorial Award (1963) and the Thomas Stokes Award (1967). Folders 28 through 34 contain correspondence, note cards, and typescripts for speeches delivered by Hall, 1959‑1982. Another major section (Folders 9 and 10) contains correspondence, mostly with readers of Hall’s newspaper columns. Other folders deal with Defenders of Wildlife and wilderness areas in Missouri. The latter contain newsletters and other materials from the Missouri Wilderness Coalition.

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