Jump to content - Jump to section navigation
The Robert D. Farber University Archives houses a variety of moving image collections, many of which remain in their original reel-to-reel format and are too fragile for public use. The University Archives is making a concerted effort to reformat these valuable collections in order to preserve them, and enhance their accessibility to researchers.
The Robert D. Farber University Archives was awarded a grant from the National Television & Video Preservation Foundation (NTVPF) to preserve ten videotapes from its Morse Communications Research Center Collection . The reformatted collection of early televised political broadcasts (1962) is a rich resource for historians, political scientists, communications and media specialists, and early television enthusiasts interested in studying the history of televised political campaigns in the United States. A copy of Brandeis University's grant proposal to the NTVPF can be found here: grant proposal.
Comprising hundreds of 16mm films, reel-to-reel audiotapes, and two-inch videotapes, the political broadcast collection was originally housed at the Morse Communications Research Center at Brandeis University. The Center was founded in 1961 as a research institute for the study and analysis of communication in modern society. Headed by Louis G. Cowan, former President of CBS Television, and Henry Morgenthau III, former Executive Producer of WGBH-TV (Boston), the Morse Communications Research Center was created to analyze specific areas of communication affecting contemporary life, namely politics, education, and international relations; its primary aim was to improve educational radio and television in the United States and abroad, particularly in developing countries.
Toward that end, staff of the Morse Communications Research Center created an audio-visual archives documenting local, state, and national political campaigns across the United States, with the goal of making the materials available for research. Louis G. Cowan acquired the broadcasts from advertising agencies and television networks around the country. By the time the Center closed in the mid-1960s, he had amassed over 400 films, audiotapes, and videotapes covering key political campaigns in the United States and Europe, from 1959-1964.
With funding from the NTVPF, the University Archives has reformatted onto DVD ten two-inch (quad) videotapes documenting several televised political campaigns from 1962: the Michigan gubernatorial campaign, the New York gubernatorial campaign, and the state and U.S. senatorial campaigns in New York. Debates, interviews, and advertising spots address the political platforms and ideologies of major and minor party candidates of the time, including George Romney and John Swainson (MI), and Carl Feingold, Richard Garza, Eric Hass, Jacob Javits, Robert Morgenthau, and Nelson Rockefeller (NY).
For more information about the collection, please contact the University Archivist at (781)736-4701 or kabramso@brandeis.edu
The University Archives has a large collection of videos documenting programs, events, and activities on the Brandeis campus. The University Video Collection is arranged into subject series, which are listed below. Please contact the University Archives at (781) 736-4701 to search for a particular video. In the future, the University Archives hopes to provide an online database for searching its video collection.
| All-Scholastic Awards Alumni Awards Dinners BUNWC (National Womens Committee) Brandeis Art Brandeis Creative Arts Awards Brandeis Presidential Candidate Series Brandeis Summer Odyssey Brandeis Television Recollection (WGBH) Campus Scenes Celtics Commencements Conferences Convocations The Creative Faculty (pilot) The Creative Process Dedications Dinners Forefront: Topics in Science Founders' Day Gralla Journalism Seminar Heller School Hiatt Career Development Center Honorary Degree Ceremonies Lectures Living Biography Program Memorial Services |
"Millionth Book" Celebration Orientations Presidential Addresses Presidential Inauguration Promotional Public Safety Puppet Shows Red Cross Retirements Rose Art Rosenstiel Retreat Sachar Seminars Senior Slide Show Student Activities Student Dance Student Fashion Shows Student Support Services Program Student Theatre Summer Schools Symposium Testimonials TYP Series WBTV Raw Footage WBTV Shows Women's Studies Programs |
