Professor Emeritus
Russell S. Nelson Donates Collection

Dr. Russell S. Nelson, Professor of History at UWSP from 1963-1992, has donated his collection of over 1,600 books, albums, videos, compact discs and cassette tapes to the University Library. The materials cover early American and Native American history, classical music, art, feature films and cookbooks.

Professor Nelson was originally appointed as a specialist on colonial America, but later developed additional expertise in the history of Native Americans and the nation's changing environment.  In his retirement interview, he recalled that one of his most unusual experiences was spending part of a summer in northern Wisconsin in an educational program that re-created the way Woodland Algonquin Indians once lived.  After several weeks of roughing it, when some of the Indian participants decided to return to their modem homes for weekends, Nelson followed suit. 

In 1973, Nelson co-edited, with David R. Wrone (Emeritus Professor of History at UWSP, 1964-1995) the classic Who's the Savage: The Documentary History of the Mistreatment of the Native North Americans (Greenwich, Connecticut: Fawcett Publications, 1973).  The book jacket describes the work as "a chilling insight into the tragic legacy of the white man's exploitation of the Native American."

A native of Adamstown, Pennsylvania, Nelson received a BA at Franklin and Marshall College in his home state and a master's degree from UW-Madison.  He began a teaching career in 1959 for UW Extension, with classes at the two-year center campuses in Wausau and Menasha.  He took a year off to work on a PhD degree before joining the UWSP Faculty in 1963.  He received his doctorate in history from UW-Madison in 1968.  His dissertation was titled Backcountry Pennsylvania, 1709 to 1774: the ideals of William Penn in practice.

At UWSP, he served as chair of the Graduate Council during the period it was developing new graduate programs in education and communications.  He served as a faculty leader for a Semester Abroad group in England in 1976.

Nelson currently resides in Pennsylvania, near his family.

Parts of this story are based on a UWSP News Services press release from 1992
Photo courtesy of University Archives