USDA Pink Bollworm Project Photograph Collection

Collection

Identifier: MS0129

Staff Only

Content Description

The USDA Pink Bollworm Project Photograph Collection documents the work of the Plant Quarantine and Control Administration on bollworm detection, prevention, and quarantine measures. Photographs show scientists' processes for cleansing the soil of bollworms, views of infested fields, and the effects of bollworms on cotton and other plants. There are photographs of inspection sites in Texas and New Mexico; field clean-up activities in Arizona; and an album of colleagues' portraits presented to the chief of the division, Paul A. Hoidale, in 1941.

Dates

Creation: 1930-1998

Conditions Governing Access

Contact Special Collections for access.

Organizational History

The Plant Quarantine and Control Administration (later named the Bureau of Plant Quarantine) was established in 1928 as a central agency to regulate activities related to research on insects and plants for the Bureaus of Entomology and Plant Industry of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The agency assigned regulatory work to several divisions, including one for Pink Bollworm and Thurberia Control. In 1934, the Bureau of Plant Quarantine merged with the Bureau of Entomology to form the Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine. Currently, USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) administers the Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) program. The PPQ's Cotton Pest Programs conduct research and eradication efforts for the southwest pink bollworm using pesticides and sterile insect release.