Jacob Nolde

Who was Jacob Nolde?

Jacob Nolde was an American industrialist and environmentalist who was largely responsible for the creation of Nolde Forest Environmental Education Center, a Pennsylvania state park in Berks County, Pennsylvania in the United States.

Nolde was a German immigrant who came to the United States in 1880. He was born in 1859 in Berleburg, Westphalia, Germany. Nolde may have been descended from a family of foresters, but this fact is unclear. It is thought that his grandfather was a forester who cared for one of the many "beautifully manicured princely forests" of 18th and 19th century Germany. Nolde may have been inspired by the forests of his native land when he began the project of creating a coniferous forest on his property in Cumru Township just south of Reading.