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COLLECTION Identifier: MS Am 2963

Subversion in the Houghton Library collection

Overview

Various materials relating to the Houghton Library staff's production of a 1953 radio-play Subversion in the Houghton Library and the 1954 Houghton Movie.

Dates

  • Creation: 1953-1954

Creator

Language of Materials

Collection materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

There are no restrictions on physical access to this material. Collection is open for research.

Extent

1 linear feet (1 box, 1 volume)

Includes typescript scripts, motion pictures, reel-to-reel audiotapes, audiocassettes, and a videocassette.

Biographical / Historical

In 1953, members of the staff of the Houghton Library participated in a "radio play" Subversion in the Houghton Library. It was a take-off on the Army-McCarthy hearings, written and taped by William M. Howie for Houghton's eleventh birthday on February 28, 1953. In 1954, members of the staff wrote a movie script for, then acted in and filmed a "Houghton movie" featuring staff members and the ghosts of Thomas Hollis, John Donne and Walt Whitman. The movie was filmed for the Library's twelfth birthday. Cast members were listed in the script as including: William A. Jackson, Philip Hofer, Professor Hyder Rollins, Mabel Steele, William Bond, James Walsh, Miriam Erickson, Alice Cauchon, Harold Terrell, Mildred Nickerson, Eleanor Garvey, Caroline Jakeman, and many others. Source: Houghton Library Chronicle, 1942-1992.

Arrangement

Arranged into the following series:

  1. I. Subversion in the Houghton Library
  2. II. Houghton Movie

Physical Location

b, f

Immediate Source of Acquisition

81Z-23. Gift, gratis; received: 1981.

Processing Information

Processed by: Bonnie B. Salt

See curatorial file for information regarding 1992 reformatting of some of these materials.

Creator

Title
Houghton Library. Subversion in the Houghton Library collection, 1953-1954: Guide.
Author
Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
Description rules
dacs
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hou02500

Repository Details

Part of the Houghton Library Repository

Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.

Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.

Contact:
Harvard Yard
Harvard University
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
(617) 495-2440