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Guide to the Elsa Knight Thompson Papers
BANC MSS 2004/101 c
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Table of contents
Collection Title: Elsa Knight Thompson papers,
Date (inclusive): 1935-1987
Collection Number: BANC MSS 2004/101 c
Creator:
Thompson, Elsa Knight
Extent:
Number of containers: 1 box, 8 cartons, 1 oversize box
Linear feet: 13.3
Linear feet: 13.3
Repository: The
Bancroft Library.
Berkeley, California 94720-6000
Abstract: Consists of personal papers documenting the broadcasting career of Elsa Knight Thompson from World War II through the 1970s.
Contains family and personal correspondence, business files, legal files related to litigation with KPFA including transcripts,
a draft autobiography, calendars, photographs, and ephemera.
Physical Location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Languages Represented:
English
Collection open for research.
Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts
must be submitted in writing to the appropriate curator or the Head of Public Services for forwarding. Permission for publication
is given on behalf of The Bancroft Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission
of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.
Elsa Knight Thompson papers. BANC MSS 2004/101 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Materials Cataloged Separately
- Printed materials have been transferred to the book collection of The Bancroft Library.
The Elsa Knight Thompson Papers were given to The Bancroft Library by Lincoln Bergman on December 19, 2003.
The Elsa Knight Thompson Papers, 1935-1987, consist of Thompson's personal papers spanning her career at the British Broadcasting
Corporation (BBC) in the 1940s until her death in California in 1983. The collection contains family and personal correspondence,
business files, legal files related to her litigation against KPFA, including trial transcripts, a draft autobiography with
a series of interviews with Thompson during the 1970s and 80s, calendars, and ephemera.
Thompson, who grew up in Seattle, Washington, was a progressive journalist and one of the first women to break into international
broadcasting as a news anchor and commentator during World War II. She spent a large part of her career as Public Affairs
Director at KPFA in Berkeley, California. Career highlights at KPFA include the first-ever radio broadcast on what is now
called gay liberation and interviews with Paul Robeson, James Baldwin, Malvina Reynolds, and Black Panther members.