Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Guide to the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions / Princeton University Files
Mss 253
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Title: Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions / Princeton University Files
Dates: 1957-1969
Bulk Dates: 1962-1965
Collection number: Mss 253
Creator:
Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions.
Collection Size:
95 linear feet
(74 cartons and 27 document boxes)
Repository:
University of California, Santa Barbara. Library. Dept. of Special Collections
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Abstract: The collection mainly contains post-1961 administrative files which the Center had microfilmed, then shipped to Princeton
University, and which subsequently were transferred from Princeton University to UCSB in 1999.
Physical location: SRLF.
Languages:
English
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE. Advance notice required for access.
Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or
quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given
on behalf of the Department of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply
permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.
Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions / Princeton University Files. Mss 253. Department of Special Collections,
Davidson Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Transfer from Princeton University in 1999.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection mainly contains post-1961 administrative files which the Center had microfilmed, then shipped to Princeton
University, and which subsequently were transferred from Princeton University to UCSB in 1999. Some of the microfilmed material
not sent by CSDI to Princeton subsequently was dispersed and comingled with other CSDI files (Mss 18), while the remainder
apparently was not retained. Only the post-1961 boxes were transferred back from Princeton; earlier files were retained by
Princeton. The container list includes references to original Princeton box numbers and related microfilm reel numbers. Copies
of the microfilm are housed in the CSDI Collection (Mss 18, Series 08).
Arrangement
The collection contains the following series:
Series I: Administration, 1962-1965. Files, arranged by year, then alphabetically by folder title, containing correspondence, financial statements, mailings,
membership lists, memoranda, minutes, papers, press clippings, press releases, proposals, reports, and speeches. Boxes 1-73.
Series II: Basic Issues Program. Study of the American Character, 1961-1965. Mainly alphabetically arranged correspondence files kept by CSDI Staff Director
John Cogley. Boxes 73-74.
Series III: Transcripts, 1957, 1959-1969. Contains two subseries: Chronological and Alphabetical. Transcripts of conference sessions, dialogues, library conversations,
and other programs tape by the Center. Related tape numbers are indicated for many of the sessions. The tapes themselves,
as well as a number of other transcripts, are included in Mss 18. Boxes 75-101.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions.
Ashmore [Harry S.] Collection, ca. 1940s-1997. Addresses and speeches, awards, biographical information, correspondence, writings, photographs, audiotapes and videotapes
of the newspaperman, writer, editor-in-chief of Encyclopaedia Britannica, and executive for the Center for the Study of Democratic
Institutions. Awarded the first double Pulitzer Prizes in history for distinguished service in the Little Rock school integration
controversy of the 1950s. (Mss 155).
Ashmore [Harry S.] Oral History. Interviews with Ashmore, about his life, with an emphasis on his days with the Santa Barbara-based Center for the Study of
Democratic Institutions. (OH 11).
Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions [CSDI] Audio Archive. Thanks to donors Neal Linson, Ceil Pulitzer, and Stanley Sheinbaum, some of the most important conference proceedings, talks,
and dialogues recorded by CSDI are available on the web for listening and downloading. Dating back to the early 1960s, the
topics covered in these tapes remain as critical today as they were then. Issues include peace and war, democracy, dissent,
community action, ecology and the environment, elections and the electoral process, freedom of the press, immigration, international
relations, law and order, the media, race and ethnicity, and religion.
Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions [CSDI] Collection. Records of the internationally renowned Santa Barbara-based think tank, emphasizing issues such as education, freedom of
the press, international relations, public policy, religion, and science and technology in modern society. Included are materials
relating to CSDI leaders such as Robert Hutchins, Harry Ashmore, Elisabeth Mann Borgese, W. H. Ferry, Frank Kelly, Stanley
K. Sheinbaum, and Harvey Wheeler. Also includes papers, talks, correspondence, and other materials relating to hundreds of
other well known figures such as Mortimer Adler, Alexander Comfort, William O. Douglas, Mircea Eliade, J. William Fulbright,
Hubert H. Humphrey, Clark Kerr, Eugene McCarthy, Gunnar Myrdal, Reinhold Niebuhr, Linus Pauling, James A. Pike, B. F. Skinner,
Adlai Stevenson, Arnold Toynbee, UN Secretary-General U Thant, and Earl Warren. (Mss 18).
Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions (CSDI) Scrapbook, 1961. Scrapbook of the 1961 CSDI Seminar in Athens, assembled by Carolyn H. Wack. (SC 793).
Hutchins [Robert M.] Collection, ca. 1960-1991. Correspondence, memoranda, reports, programs, and other materials mainly regarding Hutchins' role as founder and long-time
chief executive officer of the Center for Democratic Institutions (CSDI). (Mss 154).
Kelly [Frank K.] Oral History. Interviews re Kelly's days as a speechwriter for Harry Truman, and work with the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions
(CSDI), as well as the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. (OH 123).
Mitchell [Maurice B.] Collection. Correspondence, reports, and other, relating to his work with Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Center for the Study of Democratic
Institutions, and other foundations and institutions such as the Annenberg. Also contains material relating to his interest
in the history of printing. (Mss 160).
Wheeler [Harvey] Oral History. Interviews with Wheeler about his career, including collaboration with Eugene Burdick on the bestseller Fail-Safe (also a
1964 movie) and his days with CSDI. (OH 102).
Wheeler [Harvey] Papers, ca. 1940s-1990s. Correspondence, writings, and administrative files, mainly relating to Wheeler's long-term association with the Center for
the Study of Democratic Institutions. (Mss 201).