Ralph Edward Hodgson Papers

The Ralph Edward Hodgson Collection consists of 4 linear feet of autobiographical and biographical information, writings, studies, speeches, trip reports, bulletins, reprints, and publications.

Of significance to those interested in Hodgson's life during his formative years is his 1970 autobiographical work titled "From the Sands of Mazomanie: A Story of a Wisconsin Farm Boy" (Series I, Box 1, Folder 4). Hodgson's purpose in writing the autobiography was to convey the interesting tales of growing up and working on a diversified livestock and dairy farm in America's heartland during the early twentieth century. He and his family lived in rural Dane County, Wisconsin where growing up on a farm meant hard, manual labor, and lack of material goods, but also the joy of living close to plants, animals, and people. Throughout his childhood years, he saw the coming of electricity, the automobile, the tractor, and the milking machine.

Hodgson was a prolific writer and the majority of this collection consists of his publications, manuscripts, notes, speeches, reports, and trip itineraries (Series II). Topics of writings include cattle breeding, grassland farming, dairy research programs, forage crops, and the nutrition of dairy cattle. He co-authored frequently with Joseph Carlton Knott, Ollie Ezekiel Reed, and H.K. Murer. Knott, dairy husbandry, Washington Agricultural Experiment Station, played an important role in the research in the land-grant college system, working in cooperation with the state experiment stations (Box 5, Folder 223). Reed, Chief of the Bureau of Dairy Industry for all but the first two years of its existence, was widely known for his work on breed improvement through production testing and fostered the development in this country of high grade cheese and butter (Box 10, Folder 373). Murer was a dairy chemist, Department of Dairy Husbandry, Washington Agricultural Experiment Station, State College of Washington.

During the early 1940s, Hodgson conducted studies of Gulf and Caribbean lands (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama) and South American countries of Colombia and Venezuela (Series III). In 1961, Hodgson and Reed wrote a handbook for the people of these countries to improve their dairy industries and food supply. The publication was a cooperative project of the Interdepartmental Committee on Cultural and Scientific Cooperation in which the Bureau of Dairy Industry and the Office of Foreign Agricultural Relations of the United States Department of Agriculture and the Central Translating Division of the United States Department of State participated. Hodgson's collection contains a manuscript of "A Dairy Handbook for Tropical America." (Folders 373-377). Included in the manuscript are original, black and white photographs illustrating different aspects of dairying and animals.

A list of photographic negatives of animals is included in this collection (Series IV). It is a substantial list of negative numbers and captions. Dates range from 1904-1951. Subjects relate to Hodgson's work with USDA on animal nutrition and other studies. The whereabouts of the negatives is unknown, but the captions tell the story of animal work in the USDA during the twentieth century. There are also portraits of Hodgson and photographs of him attending meetings throughout his career.