Series 4. Radcliffe Publishing Course, 1944-1995
Scope and Contents
The collection contains records of the Radcliffe Publishing Course and of its third director Helen "Doylie" Venn. The records of the course include annual reports, brochures, lists and reports of alumni, clippings, curricular materials, and student evaluations. Venn's papers contain appointment letters from Harvard, correspondence with Radcliffe's presidents, with publishers, alumni, and friends; clippings; speeches; photographs; and awards. There are also records about other seminars taught by Venn.
Curricular materials document the educational offerings of the Radcliffe Publishing Course: a workshop on book editing which covered editorial preparation of manuscripts, book production, advertising and promotion, and a magazine workshop which taught layout and design, and later became a lab for developing proposals for new magazines. Instructors were industry leaders such as Edward Weeks of Atlantic Monthly, William Jovanovich, Pat Carbine from Vogue and Ms. magazine, and writers such as John Updike, Tom Wolfe, Kurt Vonnegut, and Toni Morrison. In the 1960s the Radcliffe Publishing Course was recognized as the leading school for would-be publishers: enrollment increased from 40 to 80 and applications rose from 100 to 400. Venn welcomed older women into the course and students from abroad. An active alumni network, nurtured by Venn, is documented in correspondence and alumni records: Career Opportunity Open Days, reunions in New York City (for many years in the offices of The New Yorker), and an annual summer party at the Venns's home on the North Shore were regular features. In 1982 Radcliffe Publishing Course alumni were granted official status in the Radcliffe College Alumnae Association.
Accession #R2015-CR5 are papers of Daniel McClain (1947-2002), a magazine designer who taught in the Publishing Course. This material is primarily published brochures abuot he Course, as well as alumni and class lists.
Dates
- Creation: 1933-1995
Language of Materials
Materials in English.
Access Restrictions:
Access. Collection is open for research. Student records are closed for 80 years from date of student's separation.
Series 2. Boxes #5, 6, and 12 are closed for 80 years from date of student's separation.
Series 4. Box 1, folders #2-44; Box 2; Box 3; Box 4; Box 5, folders #1-36; Box 6; Box 7; Carton 2, folders #1-28; Carton 4, folders #13-99; Carton 5, folders #74-75; and 96-CR21, Box 2, folders #41-43, are closed for 80 years from date of student's separation.
Extent
41.55 linear feet (26 cartons, 26 + 1/2 file boxes, 1 folio+ box, 1 card file box)Biographical / Historical
The Radcliffe Publishing Course (earlier the Publishing Procedures Course) was founded by Edith Gratia Stedman in 1947 to provide hands-on training in publishing for Radcliffe College graduates. The first director Helen Everitt, literary agent and writer, with extensive contacts in publishing, brought her friends and colleagues to teach. The course became co-ed in 1949 and was directed by Dudley Meek, from 1952 to 1954. Helen (Doyle) Venn, who had worked at Conde Nast publications, was assistant to the director from 1947-1954, and director from 1954 until 1980.
Venn was active in the publishing world: she taught the Franklin Book Program Seminar for publishers from developing countries (1965); led the Radcliffe seminar "Communications for the Volunteer (1965-1968) in which volunteers learned how to conduct meetings, plan publicity and promotion, speak in public, and fund raise; and organized the Brazilian Seminar sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (1967-1969). Venn was honored for her contributions to publishing: she received the Dwiggins Award from Bookbuilders of Boston (1978) was chosen one of Boston's 100 New Female Leaders by Boston Magazine (1980), inducted into the Publishing Hall of Fame (1984), and received a Women's National Book Association Book Women Award (1987). Venn was married to Diggory Venn, writer and editor who died in 1987; she died in 1993.
The Radcliffe Pubilshing Course was administered by Radcliffe College except for the period from 1971 to 1975 when it was administered by the Harvard Summer School. Venn's successor Frank Collins directed the course from 1980 until 1988, and Lindy Hess was appointed director in 1988. In July 2000, the course was moved to Columbia University when Radcliffe College became Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
Physical Location
Collection stored off site: researchers must request access 36 hours before use.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Accession numbers: R96-CR21, R97-20, R2001-CR20, R2015-CR5
The records of Helen (Doyle) Venn (accession number R96-CR21) were given to the Radcliffe College Archives by her son, Christopher Venn, in September 1996. Accession number R2001-CR20 was transferred from the basement of the Cronkhite Graduate Center in July 2001. Accession number R2015-CR5 was a gift of Juliana McClain Lind, transferred from the Harvard University Archives.
Processing Information
Processed: July 1997 by Jane S. Knowles
Updated: August 2017 by Jenny Gotwals
Creator
- From the Collection: Radcliffe College (Organization)
Repository Details
Part of the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute Repository
The preeminent research library on the history of women in the United States, the Schlesinger Library documents women's lives from the past and present for the future. In addition to its traditional strengths in the history of feminisms, women’s health, and women’s activism, the Schlesinger collections document the intersectional workings of race and ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class in American history.