Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Virginia Wildlife Calendar
By Molly Kirk/DWR
As we began putting together the 2027 Virginia Wildlife calendar, we realized that this edition would mark the 50th Virginia Wildlife calendar produced. Over the decades, the calendar has become a tradition for many Virginia outdoor enthusiasts, and it’s fun to look back at all the ways it’s both changed and stayed the same.
A black and white cover of a calendar with simple type and drawings of an angler and hunter.
The Virginia Wildlife calendar began with the 1978-79 edition, which included the months of September 1978 through August of 1979—aligned to start with the beginning of hunting seasons—and was titled the “Virginia Wildlife Sportsman’s Calendar.” An advertisement in the July 1978 Virginia Wildlife magazine announced the debut of the calendar, hailing it as “one of the most useful as well as the most beautiful items of outdoor equipment an outdoorsman can own.”
A top page of a calendar with an illustration of a gray squirrel and multi-paragraph species description.
The 1978-79 calendar was a larger format—15″ x 12″—than today’s version and was printed on a thick, uncoated paper. The cover featured illustrations of an angler and a hunter, with artwork of each species featured in the months, except for the barn owl in January, which was a photo. The format was very akin to today’s, with each month featuring a species and educational text describing it. The species description was more extensive, taking up one third of the top page of each month.
The fishing and hunting times have appeared in all versions of the calendar, with the colored fish in the bottom right corner of each day denoting the anticipated conditions. In 1978, the peak hunting and fishing times were just a.m. or p.m. Sunrise and sunset weren’t indicated on the days in 1978, but moon phases were. There were also the snippets of wildlife information on a few select days, which continues today in a more extensive fashion. The hunting and fishing seasons were also included on the back page of the 1978-79 calendar.
A calendar page with text of hunting seasons and sunrise/sunset table.
Over the years, the calendar has changed in many ways, with a few different sizes and paper choices. Throughout the ’80s, the illustrations of the species included both artwork and photos, with photos becoming more prevalent as the decade continued. By the ’90s, the calendar was all photographs, and the production value of the paper and printing was on the upswing. The hunting and fishing seasons continued to be included on the back page, but as they became more and more complex, the font size got smaller and smaller. By the early 2000s, the hunting and fishing season information had been dropped from the calendar. In 2008, the first January through December calendar was produced.
It’s interesting to see the evolution of the calendar—every few years, something changed, whether it be typeface, amount of text about the species, illustration of the species, or other aspects. This year, in homage to the 1978-79 edition, we’ve brought back different fish species silhouettes for the hunting and fishing peak times indicators. Those different species had appeared for the first few years of the calendar, but shifted to a generic fish shape in the ’80s. We also refreshed a lot of the wildlife information tidbits that appear on the day blocks. What hasn’t ever changed is the celebration of the beauty and diversity of Virginia’s wildlife.
As we shape the calendar’s future, we’re dedicated to continuing to honor its past along with making subtle improvements. We’re proud that in an increasingly digital world, the Virginia Wildlife calendar remains such a treasured part of many outdoor enthusiasts’ year. Here’s to another 50 editions of the Virginia Wildlife calendar!
Molly Kirk is DWR’s Creative Content Manager and oversees Virginia Wildlife magazine, the Virginia Wildlife calendar, and the Notes from the Field email newsletters.
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