Seminar: American Civilization on the American Broadcasting Network records, 1952-1953

Seminar: American Civilization on the American Broadcasting Network records, 1952-1953

Summary Information

At a Glance

Call No.:
UA#0192
Bib ID:
9698514 View CLIO record
Creator(s):
American Broadcasting Network. Public Affairs Department
Repository:
Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Physical Description:
.42 linear feet (1 document box)
Language(s):
Material is in English.
Access:
You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.

This collection is located off-site. You will need to request this material at least three business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room.

This collection has no restrictions.

Description

Summary

Thirty-three transcripts from the network broadcast of Seminar in 1952-1953.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged in two series of scripts in order to easily distinguish between the first and second part of the semester.

Using the Collection

Restrictions on Access

You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.

This collection is located off-site. You will need to request this material at least three business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room.

This collection has no restrictions.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

Reproductions may be made for research purposes. The RBML maintains ownership of the physical material only. Copyright remains with the American Broadcasting Company. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.

Preferred Citation

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Seminar: American Civilization on the American Broadcasting Network records; Box and Folder; University Archives, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University in the City of New York.

Accrual

No additions are expected

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Source of acquisition--Pamela Peterson. Method of acquisition--Gift; Date of acquisition--2011.

About the Finding Aid / Processing Information

Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Processing Information

Papers processed Susan Hamson 2012.

Finding aid written Susan Hamson 2012.

Revision Description

2012-09-26 xml document instance created by Carrie Hintz

2019-05-20 EAD was imported spring 2019 as part of the ArchivesSpace Phase II migration.

Biographical / Historical

In 1952, the Communications Materials Center of Columbia University Press and the American Broadcasting Network collaborated on a public service series that was one of 300 television classes offered to the general public. Franklin Dunham, Chief of Radio of the U.S. Department of Education, spearheaded the effort which included 80 colleges and universities, and 30 public and parochial schools throughout the United State of America. Seminar was patterned on the American Civilization course which studied the factors contributing to American civilization through the reading of great books. Viewers purchased a syllabus from Columbia University's School of General Studies for twenty-five cents and, over the course of semester, followed Professor Bigelow and his students as they discussed specific topics each week. Over three hundred students wrote for the booklet for the course that ran from October 1952 through May 1953. Though no credit was given to television viewers for the course, participants did have the option of requesting an exam--which would be graded free of charge. Western Reserve College in Cleveland, Ohio estimated that television-taught students scored 20%- 25 % higher than matriculated seminar participants. There are no statistics for the Columbia course.

Subject Headings

The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches for other collections at Columbia University, through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, and through ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.

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Name
American Broadcasting Company
Bigelow, Donald N (Donald Nevius)
Columbia University
Place
America -- Civilization

Series I: Seminar Programs:, 1952


Box 1

Newspaper and magazine clippings, October 1952


Box 1

Civilization on Trial, Arnold J. Toynbee,, October 4, 1952


Box 1

Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Frederic Engels,, October 11, 1952


Box 1

Civilization and its Discontents, Sigmund Freud,, October 18, 1952


Box 1

The City of God, St. August ine and Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin,, October 25, 1952


Box 1

Treatise of Civil Government, John Locke,, November 1, 1952


Box 1

Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith, November 8, 1952


Box 1

The Bloudy Tenet of Persecution, Roger Williams and The Day of Doom, Michael Wigglesworth,, November 15, 1952


Box 1

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin , November 22, 1952


Box 1

Declaration of Independence and Selections of the Letters of Thomas Jefferson,, November 29, 1952


Box 1

Letters from an American Farmer, Hector St. John de Crevecoeur,, December 6, 1952


Box 1

The Federalist, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, James Madison,, December 13, 1952


Box 1

Nature, Ralph Waldo Emerson, December 20, 1952


Box 1

A Disquisition of Government, John C. Calhoun,, December 27, 1952

Series II: Seminar Programs:, 1953


Box 1

Moby Dick, Herman Melville, January 3, 1953


Box 1

Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe,, January 10, 1953


Box 1

Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville,, January 17, 1953


Box 1

Review by Home Viewers, January 24, 1953


Box 1

Review of the First Semester of "American Civilization,", January 31, 1953


Box 1

Democratic Vistas, Walt Whitman, February8, 1953


Box 1

The Gospel of Wealth, Andrew Carnegie, February15, 1953


Box 1

The American, Henry James, February22, 1953


Box 1

What Social Classes Owe to Each Other, William Graham Sumner,, March1, 1953


Box 1

Progress and Poverty, Henry George, March8, 1953


Box 1

Looking Backward, Edward Bellamy, March15, 1953


Box 1

Pragmatism, William James, March22, 1953


Box 1

The Autobiography of Lincoln Steffans , March29, 1953


Box 1

The Education of Henry Adams¸ Henry Adams,, April 12, 1953


Box 1

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, T.S. Eliot,, April 19, 1953


Box 1

Babbitt, Sinclair Lewis, April 28, 1953


Box 1

1919, John Dos Passos, May 3, 1953


Box 1

TVA: Democracy on the March, David Lilienthal,, May 10, 1953


Box 1

A Philosophy of Labor, Frank Tannenbaum, May 17, 1953


Box 1

Art and Technics, Lewis Mumford, May 24, 19853