James Whaples Sinden papers

Papers in the Sinden collection fall within the terminal dates 1923 to 1952. The bulk of the material dates from 1933 to 1952. Although the collection includes research reports, photographs, telegrams, news clippings, company brochures, blueprints, and published booklets by Sinden and his colleagues, by far most of the collection consists of correspondence. Roughly half of the correspondence is purely scientific, between Sinden and fellow mycologists. The other half includes letters to and from mushroom growers and food producers that are international as well as nationwide, containing correspondence from Hungary, England, France, Canada, Brazil, and South Africa. While the correspondence with growers mostly concerns business, it frequently serves as a record of the success of the application of Sinden's synthetic compost. In this respect, the business correspondence has scientific value as well.

The Sinden papers are contained in one carton and 1 box (3 cubic feet). Since much of the correspondence with food producers and mushroom growers details how productive Sinden's compost and other developments were, to the point of including exact figures on volume of compost used, and mushroom volume yields, Sinden kept and utilized the growers' progressive applications partly for their experimental scientific value. For this reason it is hard to distinguish between business and scientific correspondence. But the letters to and from research colleagues represent one series. Letters to and from companies and individuals with in companies represent another series. Sinden gave much of the correspondence with individual growers and companies its own separate folders, labeled with individuals' names or company names. However, he had only 2 minor amounts of correspondence with some companies, and he had a separate file of folders labeled 'A', 'B', 'C', and so on. This series has been interfaced alphabetically with other series on companies. Sinden gave the correspondence to and from his research associates separate files labeled with the men's names, which have also been alphabetized.

A third series, Research, contains special reports on the condition of mushroom industry, diseases, synthetic composts, and a special contract for Quartermaster corps in Philadelphia on Cellulolytic Fungi. Finally there is a fourth Miscellaneous series containing a list of mushroom growers in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland and a personal file.

The Sinden papers, together with the papers of Sinden's successor, Leon Kneebone, constitute a detailed record of Penn State's commitment of research and service to Pennsylvania top-ranked cash crop, mushrooms. The collection will be of value for its documentation of the modernization of the mushroom industry, the history of mycology, and the record of University ties to commercial agriculture.