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
- Houghton Library (Organization)
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:
- I. Subversion in the Houghton Library
- 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
- Houghton Library (Organization)
- 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.
Harvard Yard
Harvard University
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
(617) 495-2440
Houghton_Library@harvard.edu