Tell About the South: Rob Shapard

Please join us at the Center for a lunchtime discussion with Rob Shapard, a doctoral student in U.S. History and 2014-15 McColl Fellow at CSAS. In his talk, “Calculating Eye and Rough Hand: Turning Longleaf into Board Feet and Sawdust,” Shapard will describe the perspective of one sawmilling firm, the Louisiana Central Lumber Company, toward the old-growth Louisiana longleaf pine forests that it felled and milled into lumber in the early twentieth century. The language that the company used to describe longleaf and other trees, a kind of “lumber lexicon,” reveals this perspective and helps to explain the company’s effectiveness in making lumber from longleaf. The topic is one aspect of Shapard’s doctoral dissertation on attitudes toward longleaf pine across the American South. Shapard is a native of the erstwhile textile town of Griffin, Georgia, a former journalist, and a student/scholar of environmental history and oral history.

This event is free and open to the public, and light refreshments will be provided. Please RSVP to Patrick Horn at pathorn@unc.edu.