Walter M. Rosene Collection
A selection of lantern slides, photographs, field notes, checklists, and other documents related to Rosene's ornithological work
Contents: About the collection | Related resources | Accessibility| Tech
About the collection
Walter Melvin Rosene was born on December 17th, 1880 in Ogden, Iowa to parents Charles and Augusta Rosen. After graduating from high school in 1896, Walter joined the family business of harness making, a career that only lasted a few years. In 1902, after briefly living in Chicago, Rosene returned home to Ogden and got a job at the local City State Bank. The job he took was bookkeeper, and by his retirement in 1935, Walter Rosene was the president of the bank. In 1903 Walter married Freda Karlen and the couple had three children together. Rosene, along with a group of local bird watchers, helped to found the Iowa Ornithologists’ Union in 1924, which is still in operation today. During the first organized meeting of the IOU, Walter Melvin Rosene was elected as the first official president of the organization. From 1923-1926 Rosene served as the president of the Iowa Ornithologists’ Union, and along with his friend Walter Bennett, planned many state-wide events and found new members for their organization from all across the state. Rosene was also a devoted lecturer at the American School of Wildlife Protection.
This collection includes lantern slides (many of them hand-colored), photographs, field notes, checklists, and other documents related to Rosene’s ornithological work.
Related resources
Avian Archives of Iowa Online (avIAn)
“Our Trip…Will Long Be Remembered:” Following the Trail of a Bird Watching Road Trip exhibit catalog
Accessibility information
The Iowa State University Library is committed to providing access to its digital content. Certain material, particularly older materials, handwritten documents, and visual content, present unique challenges in providing fully accessible resources. If you are experiencing barriers to accessing, viewing, or navigating the Digital Collections site please contact us for assistance or to request additional formats.
Technical Credits - CollectionBuilder
This digital collection is built with CollectionBuilder, an open source framework for creating digital collection and exhibit websites that is developed by faculty librarians at the University of Idaho Library following the Lib-Static methodology.
Using the CollectionBuilder-CSV template and the static website generator Jekyll, this project creates an engaging interface to explore driven by metadata.