Scope and Content Note
The papers of Joseph Sanford Wade (1880-1961) span the years 1898-1955 and pertain to agricultural science, particularly to the study of the control of insects affecting cereal and forage crops during the first half of the twentieth century.
The collection includes manuscripts and extensive source notes for scientific articles published by the Department of Agriculture, including annotated bibliographies on the Hessian fly, sugar cane insects of the world, a documented checklist of the immature stages of the North American coleoptera, and a bibliography on the ecological study of the genus phyllophaga. There are also articles of a nonscientific nature concerning early American naturalists such as John Muir, John Audubon, and John Burroughs and a collection of Wade’s book reviews.
Correspondence between Wade and banker and insurance agent Ralph Early Gilbert reflect conditions in Kansas and Oklahoma, with comments on national affairs, 1898-1954. Other correspondents are Edward O. G. Kelly of the Bureau of Entomology’s laboratory in Wellington, Kansas, F. M. Webster of the Washington D.C., office, and W. L. McAtee. The papers also contain Wade’s daily journals depicting life in Nebraska and Kansas, 1914-1949.
The bulk of the collection consists of index cards of titles and authors compiled by Wade that are devoted to his special interests in science, art, history, biography, and the early American West.