Frank Egler Archives

Frank Egler & Aton Forest Archives

In addition to the lands that we steward, other important resources that Aton Forest maintains are myriad archives, created, collected and acquired by Frank Egler and his followers. The categories of sub-archives include:

Frank Egler’s published books, monographs, and peer-reviewed articles
Frank’s manuscripts, revised drafts, and associated materials. See Communications from Aton Forest 1934-1991
Correspondence of Frank Egler & Rachel Carson. For more about Frank Egler & Rachel Carson’s friendship and collaboration on her seminal work, Silent Spring see website tab Frank Egler and Rachel Carson; see short write-up about their relationship: Frank Egler and Rachel Carson, Aton Forest 2024; and see Norfolk Earth Forum 2024 Rachel Carson Lecture: Connecting Community and Nature
Correspondence with noted ecologists and other scientists, including Murray Buell, Pierre Dansereau, Garrett Hardin, Ray Fosberg, William Niering, Henry Gleason, William Cooper, Shirley Briggs, Eugene & Howard Odum, Richard Pugh, Henry Meier, Roland Clement, Frederick Clements, Henry C. Cowles, Harold Buchner, Paul Ehrlich et al.
Scientific Library, including books, manuscript material, photographs, audio-visual materials, etc.
Records of Aton Forest North Egler Preserve and South Spaulding Pond Preserve land acquisition records
Aton Forest Herbarium. For more information, see Aton Forest Herbarium
Documents related to the Estate of Frank Egler
Egler Family Archive, including family photographs, personal correspondence, and materials related to the Egler Bakery
Cultural Library, including fiction, literature, memoirs, world and local history, antiques and antiquities, etc.
Connecticut Conservation Association organizational materials
Records related to the Aton Forest Fellowship
Kitchel Wilderness
Michael LeFor’s library and related materials

Frank Egler’s Publications

A collection of over 400 publications spanning the 1930’s through the 1990s, including Frank Egler’s major scientific works, books, monographs, and peer-reviewed articles, plus his commentaries and popular writings in the local press.

Frank Egler’s Manuscripts, Revised Drafts, and Associated Materials

Frank was a prolific author, who retained multiple revised drafts, and associated materials and related correspondence. This allows researchers to track the evolution of Frank’s theories over time, and shed light on his writing process.

Frank Egler’s Correspondence with Rachel Carson

Aton Forest maintains an important collection of the correspondence of Frank Egler & Rachel Carson, with 26 letters from Rachel to Frank and many of Frank’s retained carbons of his letters to Rachel. They document their collaboration on her classic work Silent Spring; in particular Chapter 6 “The Earth’s Green Mantle,” which mentions Egler by name. “… Fully adopting my views,” he later wrote, “citing many of my papers, with many of my papers cited in the references at the end. I could catch other statements in the book that clearly revealed my influence.”

The chapter generates outrage over the loss of roadside right of way, citing their beauty and their importance as pollinator habitat. When she describes Frank’s work with selective spraying to create stable shrub habitat that preserves the scenery and the habitat integrity, it could not appear a more perfect solution. Frank called it “the greatest success yet in my life.”

He was a staunch defender of her book when the chemical lobbies sought to discredit it.

For more about Frank Egler & Rachel Carson’s friendship and collaboration on her classic work, Silent Spring, see: Frank Egler & Rachel Carson and contact us.

Frank Egler’s Correspondence with Other Scientists

Correspondence with noted ecologists and other scientists, including Murray Buell, Pierre Dansereau, Garrett Hardin, Ray Fosberg, William Niering, Henry Gleason, William Cooper, Shirley Briggs, Eugene & Howard Odum, Richard Pugh, Henry Meier, Roland Clement, Frederick Clements, Henry C. Cowles, Harold Buchner, Paul Ehrlich et al.

Frank’s Scientific Library

Frank’s scientific library contains more than 2500 volumes, including books, monographs, peer reviewed articles and offprints, periodicals and scientific proceedings, maps, and audio-visual resources, etc.

Records of Aton Forest Preserve and Spaulding Pond Preserve

Materials related to the history of the Aton Forest Preserve, beginning in 1926, and the Spaulding Pond Preserve, beginning in 1962. These include items related to the lands, flora, fauna, and low-cost, long-term, research into forest succession.

Aton Forest Herbarium

Aton Forest maintains an impressive collection of more than 500 botanical samples collected from the lands of The Egler Preserve. They include all manner of Aton Forest flora: grasses, trees, flowering plants, mosses, lichens, etc. We are currently working with scientists to remap these plants to lands where they were collected.

We are also the owner of the Mason Hale, Jr. Collection of the Lichens of Aton Forest, currently on loan to the New York Botanical Garden. The lichen samples were collected during the summer of 1949, and have been the subject of continuing long term lichen studies. We are currently working with lichenologists doing followup research on the lichens of The Egler Preserve and Spaulding Pond.
For more about Mason Hale, Jr., and his pioneering lichen research, please check out:
The Lichens of Aton Forest

Land Acquisition Records

Aton Forest maintains a richly detailed, and well-researched archive, of maps, deeds, and property transfer documents related to the history of land acquisition related to the Aton Forest and Spaulding Pond Preserves.

Estate of Frank Egler

Legal and financial documents related to the estate of Frank Egler following his death, including inventories, probate, and the subsequent establishment of Aton Forest, Inc., as a 501(c)3 Forest Preserve and Research Station.

Egler Family Archive

The family archive includes family photographs, personal correspondence, and materials related to the Egler Bakery, in New York City. The Egler family was one of two families of “Bread Barons” of New York City, starting in the 1890s.

For a New York Post article about the bakery, please check out the link below:
Bakery Barons: Egler Bakery and Rockwell’s Bakery

Aton Forest Fellowship Records

Aton Forest maintains a small collection of materials related to past and current Aton Forest Fellows. For more about the current Aton Forest Fellow, please check out the Aton Forest Fellow page.

Frank’s Cultural Library

Frank’s cultural library (as distinct from his scientific library), represents Frank as a polymath and autodidact, with wide ranging interests, including opera, fiction, literature, memoirs, world and local history, antiques and antiquities, etc.

Connecticut Conservation Association

Aton Forest maintains a collection of documents related to the C.C.A., which was established in 1968 with the help of Frank Egler.

The Kitchel Wilderness

Aton Forest maintains a small collection of materials related to the Kitchel Wilderness, preserve of 600 forever wild acres, gifted by Helen Binney Kitchel (Happy Kitchel Egler’s mother) to the Algonquin State Park in Colebrook, CT.

Library of Michael Lefor and Related Materials

Michael Lefor served as President of Aton Forest, Inc. from 1994 until his death in 2000. He was a longtime professor of botany at UConn, and served as a consultant on coastal wetlands for the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. He left his books and papers to Frank Egler. See 2024 Michael LeFor Grant: Hormonal response to overwintering conditions in freeze tolerant Wood Frogs — Samantha Tracy (Yale University – School of Environment),
CT Association of Wetlands Scientists

Learn More

Get an overview of Frank Egler and other ecologists, and their contributions.

Research

Explore the scope of research conducted at Aton Forest. Gain deeper insights into the ecological discoveries made over the years by reviewing studies.