Joseph L. Blau papers, 1912-1987

After clicking 'Submit Request', users will login with their UNI and password (Columbia affiliates) or their special collections account (external users). Appointments are required and will be arranged according to each individual repository's policy.


Series VII: Professional Activities


Subseries VII.1: American Council for Learned Societies, 1953-1975

Primarily photocopies of minutes, miscellaneous typed reports and photocopies and original correspondence in connection with the ACLS Lecture Series on the History of Religions.

The bulk of this series is correspondence. Most of it relates to lectures which Blau delivered at Harvard, Duke and other universities in 1964 and 1965. The rest relates to a 1971 lecture series which Blau helped to arrange.

Most of the minutes and reports relate to the financial status and publication plans of the ACLC Committee on the History of Religion.

Minutes, correspondence and reports are arranged separately. Minutes and correspondence are arranged chronologically except that correspondence relating to the controversy surrounding the ACLS attempt to publish Thornkild Jacobsen's lectures has been segregated and filed together as the "Jacobsen matter." Other reports are unarranged.



Box 25 American Council for Learned Societies, 1953-1975


Subseries VII.2: American Society for the Study of Religion, 1959-1964

Photocopied minutes of meetings which Blau attended as a member of the Executive Council as well as copies of memoranda notifying scholars of conferences given by the Society, which was founded as an outcome of a 1953 ACLS conference.

Arranged chronologically by year; undated materials are filed after this chronological sequence.


Box 25 American Society for the Study of Religion minutes and memoranda, 1959-1964


Subseries VII.3: Association for Jewish Studies, 1970-1971

Correspondence and copies of correspondence relating to the controversy surrounding a Jewish Studies appointment at Brooklyn College. Blau wrote an interim report on the matter.

Unarranged.


Box 25 Association for Jewish Studies correspondence, 1970-1971


Subseries VII.4: Society for Ethical Culture/American Ethical Union, 1941, 1952-1963 1952-1963, 1941, 1952-1963, bulk 1952-1963

Miscellaneous correspondence and typescripts of reports relating to the Society or to the Union, the Society's parent institution. Also includes a few photocopies of minutes of the Advisory Committee on the Institute for Ethical Studies, of which Blau was the first Director, as well as some correspondence relating to the Society's Special Fraternal Commission.

Most of the material falls within the years 1952-1963.

Arranged chronologically; undated materials are filed after this chronological sequence.


Box 25 Society for Ethical Culture/American Ethical Union, 1941, 1952-1963


Subseries VII.5: Conferences/Meetings, 1950-1982

Materials from conferences and meetings in which Blau participated, including a symposium on General Education and a conference on Creationism vs. Darwinism.



Box 26 Conference and meeting materials, 1950-1982


Subseries VII.6: Radio/Film/TV

This series consists of one radio play, one film proposal, and one TV documentary proposal ("Sacred Journeys") for which Blau was a consultant (1980).


Box 26 Radio, Film, and TV