Lucille Vinyard was an environmental activist who championed the preservation of the environment in Northwestern California. Her efforts led to the creation of Redwood National Park in 1968 and the subsequent expansion of the Park. Vinyard helped establish the North Group of the Sierra Club’s Redwood Chapter and was a founding member of both the Northcoast Environmental Center and Redwood Natural History Association. Known as the “Mother of Redwood National Park,” Vinyard worked tirelessly to establish local environmental preservation efforts that continue to this day. For more information about Lucille Vinyard’s life and work, please see her obituaries in the Mad River Union and Times-Standard.

The Lucille Vinyard Papers include many items relating to her life and activism work. Her collection contains newspapers, diaries, letters, photographs, legal documents, historical publications and other sources. Of high interest to researchers are her daily journals that document her life, travels, and environmental work. Vinyard’s journals are digitized and publically available online.

Select items from the Vinyard Papers were added to a digital database. To search this website, enter your terms in the search window in the top right corner of the page. A description of the process for creating the digitized database can be found in the ideaFest article “A Home for Lucille Vinyard’s Lifework in Humboldt State University Library’s Special Collections.”

Support for this collection and Library Scholar Interns is provided through generous donations to the Cal Poly Humboldt Library Vinyard and Van Kirk Trust. Portions of the collection were digitized by Library Scholar Interns: Brittani Alberto, Xi Bromley, Victoria Bruner, Blanca Drapeau, Cathlyn Garibay, Allie Jones, Nicole Martensen, KayCie Voigt, and Luke Wages.

The Lucille Vinyard Papers are still being processed, and are not currently available to researchers.