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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FALL 2003
Archives in Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at
Boston University are World-Renowned Window on History
Archival Holdings of Samuel
Beckett, Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert Frost, Bette Davis,
Ella Fitzgerald, and many others tell the story of our time
Boston -- The Howard Gotlieb Archival
Research Center is one of the largest repositories of documents,
memorabilia, and books chronicling the lives and careers of
important writers, artists, performers, and public figures
of this past century. The collection, begun in 1963 by Howard
Gotlieb, PhD, includes archival material and over 140,000
rare books dating back to the sixteenth century.
Under Gotlieb, Boston University was the
first to specialize in contemporary archiving, and now contains
private papers and artifacts of 2,000 notable twentieth century
figures. The collection, housed in Mugar Library, is contained
in 40,000 linear feet of space, running about seven miles
in length.
These vast holdings offer a rich portrait
of our time, a living history as revealed through the accomplishments
and passions of the century’s great thinkers, politicians,
and personalities. Individual collections include manuscripts
and typescripts in all states and drafts, galleys, notes,
notebooks, journals, diaries, scrapbooks, reviews, photographs,
and personal and professional correspondence, as well as various
editions of published works.
The Archives encompass a cross-section
of notables from the arts and public life. Among the highlights:
The Literary world is well represented with manuscripts, personal
papers, and memorabilia of W. Somerset Maugham, including
letters to him from Raymond Chandler, Winston Churchill, T.S.
Eliot, and E.M. Forster. Among other authors in the archives
are Samuel Beckett, Langston Hughes, Philip Caputo, Gertrude
Stein, Robert Benchley, and Martha Gellhorn, whose collection
includes letters from Ernest Hemingway.
The archives are especially strong in
Film and Theater history, boasting one of the largest collections
of papers and memorabilia from the Golden Era of Hollywood.
Manuscripts and other papers of playwrights Eugene O’Neill,
Samuel Beckett, George Bernard Shaw, Sam Shepard, and William
Saroyan are stored here. So are Bette Davis’ personal
scrapbooks, as well as all the letters her mother wrote to
her. Among the other screen stars represented are Joan Fontaine,
Edward G. Robinson, Gene Kelly, Angela Lansbury, Glenda Jackson,
Claude Rains, and Basil Rathbone. Filmmakers Orson Welles
and Don Siegel are represented here, and the collection contains
the manuscripts of Richard Condon’s “Manchurian
Candidate” and Charles Webb’s “The Graduate.”
Notables in the category of Music range
from classical performers, conductors, and impresarios such
as Rise Stevens, Phyllis Curtin, Kate Smith, George London,
James McCracken, Charles Munch, Igor Kipnis, and Sir Rudoph
Bing, to jazz greats Ella Fitzgerald and Cab Calloway. Arthur
Fieldler has a room dedicated to his collection, which includes
his lucky Boston Pops rehearsal stand.
In the arena of Public Affairs and social
and religious movements, 83,000 documents are in the Martin
Luther King, Jr. archive, including correspondence with Rosa
Parks, Malcolm X, and Medgar Evers. The past century is chronicled
through material of Clarence Darrow and long-time Speaker
of the House John McCormack. The papers of the Nuremberg Medical
Trials are here, and so is the manuscript of Night, Elie Wiesel’s
stark account of the Holocaust. In Journalism, the collection
tells the story of our times through the notebooks, date books,
photos, and other memorabilia of dozens of leading commentators
and reporters, from David Halberstam, Stewart Alsop, Frances
Fitzgerald and Oriana Fallaci to Alistair Cooke, Gail Sheehy,
and Dan Rather.
The literary form of Mystery is another
strong suit. In addition to dozens of authors such as Wilkie
Collins (The Moonstone) and Leslie Charteris (creator of the
British detective “The Saint”), is the archive
of the Mystery Writers of America, holding the illustrious
organization’s files and library. Finally, the archives
are a mirror of this century’s popular culture and humor,
with the comic strips of Harold Gray (“Little Orphan
Annie”), Al Capp (“Li’l Abner”), and
Hank Ketcham (“Dennis the Menace).
The Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center
is also rich in Historical Manuscripts:
Among the treasures are documents of U.S.
Presidents and signers of the Declaration of Independence,
military historical documents, eighteenth century Americana,
and large archival holdings of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt,
and Franz Liszt. Highlights include
James Madison’s annotated copy of
the Federalist papers, nineteenth century slave narratives,
Civil War era books, colonial American documents, and various
documents dating from Henry VIII.
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