Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. : records
Overview
Scripts and copies of "Book of Life" albums for the PBS television show, Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Dates
- Creation: 2012-2022
Creator
- Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. (Host, Person)
Language of Materials
English
Conditions Governing Access
Restricted: limited access; consult curatorial staff (series: scripts).
This collection is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine what material is offsite and retrieval policies and times.
Extent
23 linear feet (24 boxes)Collection includes reproductions of the "Book of Life" album given to each guest which outlines their family history and the documents used to illustrate it. There is also a production script for each guest, written by the Finding Your Roots team and annotated by Gates and guests. The guest annotations note their reactions to their family history and their experience on the show.
Biographical / Historical
Finding Your Roots is a Public Broadcasting Service television show written by a collaborative group and hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The show, through genealogical research and DNA analysis, traces the ancestry of selected influential people. Each season is comprised of 10 episodes, each episode featuring several public figures. Each individual is given a "Book of Life" scrapbook that contains photographs and copies of documents relating to their family tree. The scripts are annotated by the guests on each episode; they are asked to share their reactions to and feelings about learning about their family history.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He is an American literary critic, teacher, historian, filmmaker and public intellectual.
Arrangement
Collection material is arranged in order as received. The finding aid is arranged in two series: Book of Life albums; and Scripts. Within each series, names of guests are arranged alphabetically. The 2020 accrual has been interspersed into the alphabetical arrangement of each series.
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2019MT-141. Gift of Henry Louis Gates, Jr.; transferred from the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, 2019 May.
2020MT-94. Gift of Henry Louis Gates, Jr.; transferred from the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, 2020 January.
2023MT-32. Gift of Henry Louis Gates, Jr., 2022 December 7 (seasons 7, 8).
Processing Information
Processed by Melanie Wisner, 2019 May. Accrual processed by Betts Coup, 2020 January.
Creator
- Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. (Host, Person)
- Public Broadcasting Service (U.S.) (Organization)
- Title
- Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. : records, 2012-2022 (MS Thr 1949): Guide
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard University
- Date
- 2019 May 31
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- hou03187
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.
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