Not for Ourselves Alone: Sportsmen and the Birth of Progressive Conservation

Incorporating evidence from many books, journal articles, primary sources, dissertations, websites, and newspapers, this thesis examines the role of sportsmen and the origin of conservation in the United States. It explains how the code of sportsmanship emerged from upper class recreational hunters and anglers during the 19th century. The sportsmanship code of restraint while hunting and angling was a bulwark against the market gunning industry that was decimating American wildlife. Progressive Era sportsmen were the primary drivers that launched the conservation movement during the late 19th and early 20th century. Nationally, their efforts led directly to the landmark conservation platform of the Theodore Roosevelt administration. Also, Progressive Era Sportsman Conservationists established state agencies to create and enforce game laws. In Pennsylvania this took the form of the State Game Commission in 1895. The Pennsylvania Game Commission was initially resisted by rural and working-class hunters as it was seen as an encroachment into their long-standing traditions. However, the Commission gained support as it created public hunting lands and began to reestablish decimated wildlife. From this sprang forth an inclusive field sports culture. The Game Commission was funded by hunting license fees. This revenue provided for game officers, the successful re-establishment of near extinct wildlife, and land access for all licensed hunters. Upper class dominance of recreational hunting and fishing was upended by the hunter funded Pennsylvania State Game Commission and the creation of public hunting lands. Other states emulated the success of the newly formed system of wildlife conservation in Pennsylvania.