The collection is composed primarily of color slides and black and white photographs documenting Wayne Scott Gardner’s research and teaching in plant pathology, dating from 1952 to 1987, with the strongest coverage from the 1960s through the mid 1980s. The materials focus on virus diseases of plants, particularly wheat streak mosaic virus, along with tobacco mosaic virus, barley stripe mosaic virus, maize dwarf mosaic virus, and other viral infections affecting wheat, corn, barley, tobacco, and related crops. Visual documentation includes field symptoms, laboratory preparations, ultrastructural studies, and comparative analyses of disease development across crop varieties and environmental conditions.
In addition to plant viruses, the collection contains extensive visual records of fungal and physiological plant diseases, including rusts, powdery mildews, charcoal rot, septoria, and other pathogens. Environmental and abiotic crop injuries are well represented through slides illustrating the effects of air pollution, sulfur dioxide, ozone, smog, frost, heat, drought, wind, hail, sleet, and winter stress on agricultural crops. Teaching slide sets, seminar materials, and student research components are included, as well as scientific reprints, correspondence, and literature that document Gardner’s research activities, instructional use of electron microscopy, and contributions to plant disease education and agricultural research at South Dakota State University.
This collection documents evidence of mid twentieth century research and instruction in plant virology and plant pathology at South Dakota State University. The extensive documentation of wheat streak mosaic virus and related cereal crop diseases supports historical research into disease management, crop response to environmental stress, and the development of microscopy based plant pathology. The materials also contribute to the study of agricultural conditions in the northern Great Plains and the impact of air pollution and climate related factors on crop health.