December 30, 1938 “Elizabeth Moody, age nineteen and very beautiful, accompanied her Uncle, Dr. Walter C. Lowdermilk and family on an official trip for the United States government, using their personal car and paying their own expenses, to study old Roman lands for the benefit of the US soil conservation service, and American farmers toContinue reading “Lowdermilk’s niece diary entry: Africa to Beirut”
Category Archives: Lowdermilk Roman Land Tour
Lowdermilk in Fascist Italy – December 1938
Walter Lowdermilk was recruited by Rexford Tugwell in 1933 to serve as the second-in-command of the new Soil Erosion Service, later called the Soil Conservation Service. In 1938, he was tasked with studying how soil affects human life and well-being. He spent two years exploring lands once ruled by the Romans to find answers. ThisContinue reading “Lowdermilk in Fascist Italy – December 1938”
Italy – December 7-11, 1938
Lowdermilk’s 1938 Buick pulled into Italy on December 7, 1938. I’ll let the niece, Elizabeth Moody introduce herself: “Elizabeth Moody, age nineteen and very beautiful, accompanied her Uncle, Dr. Walter C. Lowdermilk and family on an official trip for the United States government, using their personal car and paying their own expenses, to study oldContinue reading “Italy – December 7-11, 1938”
He may be the most influential man you have never heard of—unless you are Israeli.
Lowdermilk believed that restored soil would yield more than crops. Protect the land, manage the water, prevent famine—and allow people to live in harmony with nature and with one another. The land, he was certain, could be redeemed by science and stewardship.
Whether human conflict could be redeemed as well was another matter.
Postcards from 1938-1939
In 1938, Walter C. Lowdermilk, Vice-Director of the Soil Conservation Service, was dispatched by then Secretary of Agriculture, Henry Wallace, on a world tour to learn of soil conservation successes and failures. Lowdermilk called the enterprise, “agricultural archaeology.” Lowdermilk packed the family Buick with provisions and his wife, son and daughter, niece, and his ownContinue reading “Postcards from 1938-1939”
Nullius in Verba 