After analyzing land surveyors’ 
notes, U.S. Bureau of the Census 
statistics, and inventory records from 
the U.S. Forest Service, Hazel R. 
Delcourt was able to reconstruct the 
changing patterns of land use and 
carbon storage in the Southeast over 
the past 250 years. She has recently 
expanded her work to include all of 
the eastern United States. A research 
associate at Oak Ridge National 
Laboratory in Tennessee, Delcourt 
also pursues her interest in vegeta- 
tional and climatic change through 
the study of pollen and plant macro- 
fossils preserved in the sediments of 
lakes and bogs. Together with her 
husband, Paul, she hopes in the fu- 
ture to calibrate “modern forest com- 
position with atmospheric pollen 
samples in order to reconstruct forest 
history in the eastern United States 
for the past 20,000 years.” 
While studying migration and 
ethnicity in Ghana, Enid Schildkrout 
(right) noticed that to assist them 
in their home industries, women often 
decided to raise children who were 
not their own and that women earned 
more when they had such children 
to help them. Having learned the 
Hausa language in Ghana, she set 
out for northern Nigeria in 1976 
to explore the economic roles of 
women and children more deeply. 
Schildkrout holds a doctorate in so- 
cial anthropology from Cambridge 
University and is the author of Peo- 
ple of the Zongo: The Transforma- 
tion of Ethnic Identities in Ghana. 
Since 1973 she has been an associate 
curator in the American Museum’s 
Department of Anthropology. 
When the Folger Shakespeare Li- 
brary in Washington, D. C., decided 
to mount a traveling exhibition drawn 
from its wide-ranging collection of 
materials related to the Bard of Avon 
and his age, Shakespeare scholar 
Sam Schoenbaum was given the task 
of writing an accompanying catalog. 
Although it meant delving into sub- 
jects with which he could “claim only 
amateur status” — such as the flora 
and fauna of Warwickshire — Schoen- 
baum took on the assignment with 
enthusiasm. “I was here given oc- 
casion to study many unique items 
for the first time,” he comments in 
the catalog’s preface. “Meanwhile, 
the books and manuscripts already 
long familiar to me retained their 
magic; the honeymoon is still on.” 
Distinguished Professor of Renais- 
sance Literature at the University 
of Maryland, Schoenbaum is cur- 
rently coediting the Complete Ox- 
ford Shakespeare. The article in 
Natural History is adapted from his 
Folger exhibit catalog. 
