Special Collections Manuscripts: MS161
MS 161
AUTHOR : Smith, Wintfred
TITLE : Wintred Smith Reelfoot Lake Collection
DATES : 1816 - 2006
SIZE :  
ARRANGEMENT : Inventory Arranged in alphabetical order
CONTENTS : Dr. Wintfred L. Smith is a limnologist and the acknowledged expert on the history and culture of the Reelfoot Lake area in northwest Tennessee. A native Tennessean, he took degrees in biology at Tennessee Technological University. He pursued a PhD in limnology (lake ecology) at the University of North Dakota, which was awarded in 1972, while holding a faculty position in biology at the University of Tennessee at Martin. His expertise in aquatic plants led him toward the unique challenges faced at Reelfoot Lake, geologically formed during the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-1812. Between 1986 and 2000 he coordinated activities at the Reelfoot Lake Research and Teaching Center, a field station operated by the University's Department of Biological Sciences.

Seeking to understand the human uses of the lake and that effect on its ecology, Dr. Smith became well known to the lake's bordering communities. He began collecting material documenting the lake and its history in the 1980s, and was instrumental in the acquisition of the Sabin photographic collection by the Tennessee State Library and Archives. He retired in 2001 but remains active as a collector, eventually amassing the single largest collection of cultural, historical, and professional literature on the Lake and its surrounding area.

HISTORY NOTE :  
SUBJECT : Reelfoot Lake
Night Riders
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