Organizing of The Lost Files of Ansel Hall Collection

The project entails arranging and describing approximately a thousand folders of documents, diaries and other ephemera related to Ansel Hall and his organization of the 1930s Rainbow Bridge Monument Valley Expedition. Ansel Hall joined the Park Service a year after its founding spearheading the development of interpretation of park sites as the service’s first year ‘round full time employee for interpretation, and raising funds to build the first National Park museum, at Yosemite. One of the early active members and presidents of the American Association of Museums, Hall established a museum of natural history at Yosemite National Park, was appointed the first Chief Naturalist of the National Park Service in 1923 and its first Chief Forester in 1930. An enthusiastic visionary with exceptional management skills, Hall organized the educational division of the Park Service in 1925. He organized the RBMVE from 1933 to 1938 and the files that Jenna is organizing are files that have not been seen by the public as they were part of Ansel Hall's family collection. This project will help to make these files more discoverable.