page_title: Gifford Pinchot
section_title: Progressive Party
hierarchical_section_title: Gifford Pinchot / Later career, 1910–1935 / Progressive Party
caption_attribution_description: English: View of Gifford Pinchot, Yale College B.A. 1889, visiting students at the Yale School of Forestry summer camp at Gray Towers, the estate belonging to the Pinchot family, in Milford, Pennsylvania. Pinchot is in the front row with the dog.
context_page_description: Gifford Pinchot was an American forester and politician. He served as the 4th Chief of the U.S. Division of Forestry, as the 1st head of the United States Forest Service, and as the 28th Governor of Pennsylvania. He was a member of the Republican Party for most of his life, though he joined the Progressive Party for a brief period.
  Born into the wealthy Pinchot family, Gifford Pinchot embarked on a career in forestry after graduating from Yale University in 1889. President William McKinley appointed Pinchot as the head of the Division of Forestry in 1898, and Pinchot became the first chief of the U.S. Forest Service after it was established in 1905. Pinchot enjoyed a close relationship with President Theodore Roosevelt, who shared Pinchot's views regarding the importance of conservation. After William Howard Taft succeeded Roosevelt as president, Pinchot was at the center of the Pinchot–Ballinger controversy, a dispute with Secretary of the Interior Richard A. Ballinger that led to Pinchot's dismissal. The controversy contributed to the split of the Republican Party and the formation of the Progressive Party prior to the 1912 presidential election.
context_section_description: At Roosevelt's request, Pinchot met Roosevelt in Europe in 1910, where they discussed Pinchot's dismissal by Taft. Roosevelt subsequently expressed disappointment with Taft's policies and began to publicly distance himself from Taft. Along with Amos Pinchot and several other individuals, Pinchot helped establish the Progressive Party, which nominated Roosevelt for president in the 1912 United States presidential election. The Pinchots represented the more ideologically left wing faction of the party, and they frequently feuded with financier George Walbridge Perkins. Though Pinchot campaigned extensively for Roosevelt, Roosevelt and Taft were both defeated by Democrat Woodrow Wilson.
  Pinchot continued to affiliate with the Progressives after the 1912 election, working to build the party in Pennsylvania. He ran as the Progressive nominee in the 1914 U.S. Senate election, but was defeated by incumbent Republican Senator Boies Penrose. The Progressive Party collapsed after Roosevelt refused to run in the 1916 presidential election, and Pinchot subsequently re-joined the Republican Party. He supported Republican Warren G. Harding's successful campaign in the 1920 presidential election, but, despite some speculation that he would be appointed as Secretary of Agriculture, did not receive a position in Harding's administration.
caption: Pinchot visiting summer campers attending the School of Forestry camp at Grey Towers (Pinchot is with the dog), 1910
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