Professor Emeritus of Botany and Plant Pathology, Dr. Leon R. Kneebone (1920-2020) directed mushroom research at Penn State for twenty-six years. When the Mushroom Research Center opened in 1959, it was under his direction. In 1956 he initiated the University's Mushroom Industry Short Course and chaired it for twenty-two years before retiring in 1978. Dr. Kneebone was elected to life memberships in mushroom growing associations in the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. He also served as president of the International Commission on Mushroom Science. Dr. Kneebone was a driving force behind mushroom research at Penn State. After his retirement in 1978 he donated his private library to Penn State's University Libraries.
The Kneebone Collection was created as a working library for researchers in all fields of mushroom cultivation and mycology. It is comprised of books, journals, several Penn State mycology dissertations, and article reprints and includes works on the mushroom industry, mushroom cultivation and culinary uses, and the history and mythology of mushrooms. There is a regional emphasis on materials from the Pennsylvania area.
Contents of the Kneebone Mushroom Reference Collection
Copyright is retained by the creators of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.