Papers of Martha Stuart, 1955-1988 (inclusive), 1968-1984 (bulk)

This collection documents the personal and professional life of Martha Stuart. Stuart's independent production company, Martha Stuart Communications, allowed her to create and distribute videotapes, photographs, and audiotapes designed to promote community education; enhance communication on the problems of social change, poverty, and discrimination; and to improve human relations. This material includes 118 videotapes, 62 audio tapes, 54 transcripts, correspondence, photographs, project proposals, and reports. Stuart founded her independent production company in 1968, although the idea for her show Are You Listening came to her during the 1964 Democratic Convention while speaking to Adlai Stevenson.

Through Are You Listening, Stuart interviewed people from all walks of life, and these conversations, which were recorded between the late 1960s and the early 1980s, provide insight into changing gender roles in America, women in nontraditional jobs, abortion and family planning, parenting, how women in different countries experienced gender roles and equality, and the economic and rural development in developing countries. Stuart also revealed personal information while conversing with the participants of Are You Listening. For example while recording the episode "People who have Struggled with Abortion," Stuart revealed that her daughter had had an abortion, and during "Single Parents," Stuart shared her own struggle with single parenting. This collection also provides insight into the running of a video production company. With her interest in health, family planning, children, and women's issues, Stuart collaborated with the United Nations and its affiliates, as well as public and private agencies in the United States and around the world.

Between 1969 and 1984, Stuart recorded 55 episodes of Are You Listening. Each show may be documented in the collection by correspondence, project files, proposals, videotapes, photographs, and transcripts. Most episodes are represented by at least one of these formats. Transcripts exist for 54 shows. Four episodes are not available on videotape, but are represented by a transcript. Several shows also have still photographs taken by Stuart during filming. A complete description of most episodes of Are You Listening can be found with the audiovisual material in Series V. The correspondence, project files, proposals, and transcripts related to Are You Listening episodes can be found in Series II. Photographs taken by Martha Stuart during the recording of Are You Listening are located in Series IV.

Stuart's correspondence, which is located throughout the collection, often mixes business and personal information. Topics include Stuart's travel plans, her health, news of her family, her business, requests for funding, her staff, letters of thanks from participants of Are You Listening, and criticism and praise for Stuart's method of production. Stuart often became friends with the people she interviewed for Are You Listening, and received letters from all over the world. Stuart collaborated with Winifred Best from Planned Parenthood, author and social theorist Richard Cornuelle, Dr. William Liu from the University of Notre Dame, and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, III, on multiple projects; their correspondence is found throughout the collection. This collection also documents Stuart's work with Women's World Banking, which was founded in 1976 after the 1975 United Nations World Conference on Women in Mexico City.

Electronic records were received on three 3.5" inch disks. Disks were imaged using FTK Imager and Duke Data Accessioner. Data on all three disks were unrecoverable. Stuart's original folder headings were maintained; titles in brackets were created by the archivist.

A preliminary inventory of accession #87-M126 was created in September 1987 and eventually published online. This finding aid describes all material from that accession, as well as material received since that time. A copy of the preliminary inventory is in Box 1. A finding aid for the Martha Stuart Videotape Collection, 1968-1981 (Vt-43) was created in December 1994 and eventually published online. A copy of that finding aid is also in Box 1.

Series I, PERSONAL, 1959-1987, n.d. (#1.1-2.6, 43F+B.1, SD.1), includes date books, awards, personal correspondence, and an unpublished manuscript regarding Stuart's cancer diagnosis and treatments. Stuart's date books contain appointments, phone numbers, purchases, travel arrangements, notes, and Are You Listening screening dates. Personal correspondence includes topics such as Stuart's health, filming schedule, travel, thank yous, and congratulations. Correspondence sent to Stuart after her cancer diagnosis in 1979 includes letters of encouragement and love, advice, poems, and drawings, as well as an article about Stuart's treatment with the experimental drug Interferon at the Instituto San Rocco in Como, Italy. Stuart often handwrote her replies on letters received, which were then typed by her assistants. Some personal correspondence, which relates to Stuart's health and travel plans, is addressed to Stuart's assistants Sherry Delamarter and Jay Savulich. This series also includes "Under Control: Techniques of Taking Responsibility for One's Own Medical Care" by Martha Stuart and Dr. Harold "Hank" Gardner (#2.6). This unpublished manuscript is written from the point of view of Martha Stuart, the patient, and Dr. Gardner, her friend and doctor. Subjects include Stuart's feelings and reactions to her diagnosis, her treatment, her various doctors, and the advice given to her by friends and family. The manuscript also includes Gardner's reactions to Stuart's decisions regarding her treatments, and his thoughts after Stuart's death. Also found in this series is a gallery poster from Stuart's photograph exhibit in the Equitable Building (#SD.1). This series is arranged alphabetically.

Series II, MARTHA STUART COMMUNICATIONS AND COMMUNICATION FOR CHANGE, 1967-1988, n.d. (#2.7-38.3, FD.1-FD.2, 43F+B.1-43F+B.8, E.1), includes project proposals, discussion guides, publicity, rental lists, funding proposals, correspondence, memoranda, release forms, articles by and about Stuart, by-laws, financial records, transcripts of interviews recorded by Stuart. This series follows Stuart's work with Are You Listening episodes from start to finish, as it contains proposals, project files, correspondence, and transcripts for many of the shows.

Stuart kept both general and named correspondence files, which are found in this series. Stuart's general correspondence is filed chronologically, and consists mainly of Stuart's responses to incoming letters. Incoming letters throughout the collection are often annotated by Stuart with her reply, and include the carbon copy of the outgoing answer typed by Stuart's assistants. The general correspondence also includes letters from Stuart to the ministers of information and publicity in Qatar, Kuwait, and United Arab Emirates regarding screenings of the Are You Listening program "Village Women in Egypt"; as well as letters to former Are You Listening participants artist Judy Spock and business owner Bette Nesmith Graham, which are found throughout this series. Correspondence related to Are You Listening includes distribution reports, financial reports to foundations, travel and production arrangements, notes of thanks from the participants, and funding requests. Letters from participants include topics such as family life, Stuart's health, travel plans, and praise for Are You Listening. Other correspondence includes funding requests, project statuses, customs issues, and projects not related to Are You Listening, such as the oral history interviews Stuart conducted for Planned Parenthood (#12.17). The audiotapes of some of these interviews can be found in Series VI.

Stuart often grouped like Are You Listening proposals together to form a series, such as "Single Parents," "Children of Working Mothers," "Mothers Who Are Part of a Supportive Daycare Center," and "Fathers Who Are Discovering Fathering." These proposals can be found under the "mothers, fathers, and children" series (#21.3-21.6). Proposals that became Are You Listening episodes are identified as such. Project files can include release forms, production notes, financial records, participant lists, and memoranda. Folders titled transcripts include edited and unedited versions from Are You Listening episodes, as well as editing and filming notes. The transcripts of shows filmed in other countries often include both the language the interview was conducted in, as well as the English translation.

Audiovisual material from Are You Listening can be found in Series V. Still photographs taken by Martha Stuart while filming Are You Listening are located in Series IV.

This material also contains proposals and project files not related to Are You Listening but produced by Martha Stuart Communications or Communication for Change. Records related to Communication for Change, Incorporated, found in this series include projects funded by the non-profit foundation, as well as documents related to its disbanding (#3.18). This material also includes documents from various seminars, workshops, and festivals that Stuart participated in. This series is arranged alphabetically.

Series III, OTHER PROFESSIONAL, 1955-1983, n.d. (#38.4-42.4, FD.2), includes correspondence, reports, memoranda, notes, and material from Stuart's work with Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis, Missouri, the State of Oklahoma Semi-Centennial Exposition in 1957, and Planned Parenthood-World Population. This series also contains correspondence and reports from the various boards she served on, including Women's World Banking (#41.7-42.4) and People Matter. This series includes material related to both "The Changing Woman: The Impact of Family Planning" conference that Stuart organized, as well as the published conference proceedings, titled The Emerging Woman: The Impact of Family Planning; an Informal Sharing of Interests, Ideas, and Concerns. This series is arranged alphabetically.

Series IV. PHOTOGRAPHS, 1964-1984, n.d. (#PD.1-PD.115), includes photographs, contact sheets, slides, and negatives removed from folders throughout the collection. This series includes images taken by Stuart during the filming of Are You Listening episodes, or during research trips taken by Stuart for show proposals. Occasionally, contact sheets contain images from multiple episodes of Are You Listening; these folders include both show titles. Photographs from the 1964 Democratic Convention include images of Betty Friedan and the Civil Rights Vigil held during the convention. The correspondence, project files, proposals, and transcripts related to Are You Listening episodes can be found in Series II. Audiovisual material from Are You Listening can be found in Series V. The photographs are arranged to mirror the series above. Negatives and slides are stored separately.

Series V, ARE YOU LISTENING AUDIOVISUAL, 1968-1984, n.d. (#T-346.1-T-346.7, Vt-43.1-Vt-43.91, Vt-43.124), includes 7 audiotapes and 97 videotapes of and related to Martha Stuart's show, Are You Listening. This series is arranged with audiotapes followed by videotapes. Edited and unedited videotapes of Are You Listening episodes are listed together.

This collection consists of 52 shows and 39 unedited tapes from the Are You Listening series, plus seven audiocassettes and three videotapes of shows related to the Are You Listening series. Each show consists of a group discussion facilitated by Martha Stuart. For some of the shows, unedited material from the original shoot is available, noted as unedited source material. The shows were broadcast in 42 countries and by PBS, CBS, NBC, ABC and cable stations in the United States.

The videotapes are arranged in chronological order. Titles were taken verbatim from a list provided by the donor. When the title is not self-explanatory, a description devised by the cataloger is provided; dates are included when known. Are You Listening shows are on Betacam SP and 3/4" U-matic, with sound and color, and in English. The audiocassettes are listed alphabetically by title.

The correspondence, project files, proposals, and transcripts related to Are You Listening episodes can be found in Series II. Still photographs taken by Martha Stuart while filming Are You Listening are located in Series IV. This material was previously listed as the Videotape collection of Martha Stuart, 1968-1981 (Vt-43). A copy of that finding aid is in Box 1.

Series VI, OTHER AUDIOVISUAL, 1965-1984, n.d. (#T-346.8-T-346.62, Vt-43.92-Vt-43.118), includes 55 audiotapes and 26 videotapes produced by Martha Stuart Communications for projects not related to her television show. This series contains audiocassettes from the oral history project, "People Who Pioneered with Margaret Sanger," that Stuart conducted for Planned Parenthood-World Population. Correspondence related to the project can be found in Series II. This series also includes audiovisual material related to The Village Video Network conference, which was held in the Republic of Mali in 1982; some of the conversation is in French. Audiotapes from sessions at the Changing Woman: The Impact of Family Planning conference, which was held at the University of Notre Dame in 1967, are located in this series. Correspondence related to this conference can be found in Series III. Also found here is a videotape on abortion rights sent to Stuart by a Japanese feminist group in 1982. This series also contains the video produced by a group of Stuart's friends and family in honor of her 50th birthday in 1979. This series is arranged with audiotapes followed by videotapes.

Most of the photographs in this collection are or will be digitized and available online.