The Archive and Disciplinary Formation: A Historical Moment in Defining Mass Communications

Abstract

The archive serves as a site for defining and legitimating mass communications as an area of research and, especially, in constructing a sense of history. The creation of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin's Mass Communications History Center in 1958 provides an illuminating entry point into conceptions of mass communications. Archivists grappled with the definition of mass communications in order to develop a collecting policy. They called on experts to help define mass communications, its scope, and what sorts of materials were necessary for its study. While not the job of archivists to stimulate research, they played a considerable role in shaping the contours of the discipline, particularly within social science frameworks.

Notes

The Wisconsin Historical Society (WHS) formally used to be named the State Historical Society of Wisconsin (SHSW), particularly in the timeframe discussed in this article. All in-text references to the Wisconsin Historical Society are the Society.

“The David Sarnoff Library,” accessed October 25, 2014, http://www.davidsarnoff.org; “NBC: A Finding Aid to the Broadcasting Company History Files at the Library of Congress,” Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division, accessed October 25, 2014, http://lcweb2.loc.gov/mbrs/eadmbrs/eadpdfmbrsrs/2000/rs000001.pdf.

“NBC Records to Date,” September 10, 1960, MCHC Files MA-PE, Box 4, NBC File 1959–1960, WHS.

“State Society Receives Grant,” History News, September 1959, Office of Collection Development Archivist (Unprocessed), MCHC History, WHS.

David W. Park and Jefferson Pooley, The History of Media and Communication Research: Contested Memories (New York: Peter Lang, 2008); Jefferson Pooley, “The New History of Mass Communications Research,” in The History of Media and Communication Research: Contested Memories, ed. David W. Park and Jefferson Pooley (New York: Peter Lang, 2008), 43–70; Karin Wahl-Jorgensen, “How Not to Found a Field: New Evidence on the Origins of Mass Communication Research,” Journal of Communication 54, no. 3 (2004): 547–564; J. Michael Sproule, “‘Communication’: From Concept to Field to Discipline,” in The History of Media and Communication Research: Contested Memories, ed. David W. Park and Jefferson Pooley (New York: Peter Lang, 2008), 163–178.

The term “figured” comes from Antoinette Burton, “Introduction: Archive Fever, Archive Stories,” in Archive Stories: Facts, Fictions, and the Writing of History, ed. Antoinette Burton (Durham: Duke University Press, 2005), 1–24.

“The Mass Communications History Center,” Journal of Broadcasting 3 (1957): 212.

Mark Greene, “The Power of Meaning: The Archival Mission in the Postmodern Age,” American Archivist 65, no. 1 (January 2002): 42–55.

Luke J. Gilliland-Swetland, “The Provenance of a Profession: The Permanence of the Public Archives and Historical Manuscripts Traditions in American Archival History,” American Archivist 54, no. 2 (1991): 160–175.

Lester Cappon, “Historical Manuscripts as Archives: Some Definitions and Their Application,” American Archivist 19, no. 2 (April 1956): 101–110. Gilliland-Swetland explains this tension as the difference between the public-archives tradition and the historical-manuscripts tradition. The public-archives tradition pushed for scientific methods in the selection and preservation of materials, particularly an adherence to provenance. The historical-manuscripts tradition adopted the professional practice, especially provenance, but rejected the notion that archives only served administrative functions. See Gilliland-Swetland, “The Provenance of a Profession,” 166–170.

Clifford L. Lord and Carl Ubbelohde, Clio's Servant: The State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1846–1954 (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1967).

F. Gerald Ham, “Archival Standards and the Posner Report: Some Reflections on the Historical Society Approach,” American Archivist 28, no. 2 (1965): 223–230.

Lord and Ubbelohde, Clio's Servant.

Clifford Lord, “Notes on Mass Communications Center 1955–1956,” Memo, c. 1956, 3, Office of Collection Development Archivist (Unprocessed), Mass Communications History Center Folder, WHS.

“Timeline Notes, HVK Files,” 1958, Library-Archives Division Collections Correspondence, MCHC Donor Correspondence, Box 1, Formal Opening of MCHC, WHS.

SHSW, “Mass Communications History,” Wisconsin Then and Now, August 1956, Office of Collection Development Archivist (Unprocessed), MCHC History, WHS.

Lord, “Notes on Mass Communications Center 1955–1956”; Peter Draz, “Wisconsin, State Historical Society of,” in Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, vol. 33, ed. Allen Kent, Harold Lancour, and Jay E. Daily (London: CRC Press, 1982), 173–176.

Ordean Ness, “Speech Department's Preliminary Thinking Concerning ‘Research Collection in Mass Communications,’” November 1, 1955, SHSW Library and Archives Division, MCHC Correspondence, Box 1, Formal Opening of MCHC, WHS.

MCHC, “Minutes of the Meeting of the Advisory Committee,” March 19, 1959, Office of Collection Development Archivist (Unprocessed), Mass Communications History Center Folder, WHS. This was the origin of the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research. See Fred Haberman and Robert Hethmon, “Proposal for a Research Center in Theatre and Cinema at the University of Wisconsin,” 1960, Administrative Subject Files, Box 3, Field Reports and Policies, WHS.

Scott Cutlip to Clifford Lord, “Idea of a Mass Communications Center,” October 26, 1955, SHSW Library and Archives Division, MCHC Correspondence, Box 1, Formal Opening of MCHC, WHS.

MCHC, “Working Papers for a Conference on Mass Communications History,” 1960, SHSW Divisional Files, Box 26, Folder 1, WHS.

The decision to name the MCHC as a “center” rather than an “archive” or “special collections” was a deliberate choice. The Society Director “felt that University faculty who do not now consider mass communications a useful area for research will be inclined to use the mass communications resources more readily if they are integrated with our other collections.” Yet the MCHC needed to be a separate center and not integrated into the larger institution as a “promotional device” to help solicit collections and generate researcher interest. MCHC, “Meeting of MCHC Staff Committee,” September 25, 1959, SHSW Paul Vanderbilt's Subject Files, Box 5, Folder 12, WHS.

Barbara Kaiser, “Annual Report MCHC,” June 1959, Administrative Subject File of the State Archivist (1990/180), Box 3, Mass Communications History Center Background, WHS; SHSW, “Launching the MCHC in Style,” Wisconsin Then and Now, February 1958, Office of Collection Development Archivist (Unprocessed), MCHC History, WHS. Note that after the launch, the MCHC's interest in pursuing movies would drop out of the list of goals.

Louis Lochner, “Communications and the Mass-Produced Mind,” Wisconsin Magazine of History, Summer 1958, Office of Collection Development Archivist (Unprocessed), Feature Articles on MCHC (1956–1959).

MCHC, “Brochure,” 1958, 2–3, Office of Collection Development Archivist (Unprocessed), MCHC History, WHS.

Jane Neuhseisel, “Mass Communications—New Pipeline to History, Reprint,” Wisconsin Alumnus, May 1960, Office of Collection Development Archivist (Unprocessed), MCHC History, WHS. The Society-produced documents, such as brochures and newsletters, as well as materials written by Kaltenborn and other MCHC enthusiasts such as Louis Lochner, reflected the current wave of mass communications research, such as the work of Harold Lasswell, Paul Lazarsfeld, Elihu Katz, and Bernard Berelson's “The Great Debate on Cultural Democracy,” Studies in Public Communication, Summer (1961): 3–14.

MCHC, “Brochure.” The third point about democratic purposes conjures up the Hutchins Commission on Freedom of the Press and similar reports as representative examples.

Hanno Hardt, Critical Communication Studies: Essays on Communication, History and Theory in America (London: Routledge, 1992); Peter Simonson, Janice Peck, Robert T. Craig, et al., “The History of Communication History,” in Handbook of Communication History, ed. Peter Simonson (Routledge, 2013), 54.

MCHC, “Meeting of MCHC Staff Committee.”

MCHC, “Status Report National Advisory Council,” December 10, 1959, Office of Collection Development Archivist (Unprocessed), MCHC History, WHS.

Barbara Kaiser, “Field Trip, Washington, DC–New York,” December 18, 1958, SHSW Divisional Files, Box 15, Folder 6, WHS; Barbara Kaiser, “Field Report, Washington, DC–New York,” March 9, 1959, SHSW Divisional Files, Box 15, Folder 6, WHS.

Lord, “Notes on Mass Communications Center 1955–1956.”

Josephine Harper to Barbara Kaiser, November 17, 1959, Office of Collection Development Archivist (Unprocessed), Mass Communications History Center Folder, WHS.

“Staff Proposals for a Collection Policy for the State Historical Society of Wisconsin,” May 1, 1959, p. 7, SHSW Library and Archives Division, Collection Development Correspondence, Box 1, WHS.

Ibid., 13–14. Emphasis in original.

Ibid., 13–14.

Ibid., 14.

MCHC, “Meeting of MCHC Staff Committee.”

Kaiser, “Annual Report MCHC,” 4. Emphasis added.

Paul Vanderbilt to Barbara Kaiser and Les Fishel, Memorandum with Diagram, October 12, 1959; AES to LHF, Memo (November 7, 1959), Office of Collection Development Archivist (Unprocessed), Mass Communications History Center Folder, WHS. Memorandum from AES to LHF, November 7, 1959, Office of Collection Development Archivist (Unprocessed), Mass Communications History Center Folder, WHS.

Ben Wilcox to Les Fishel, October 9, 1959, Office of Collection Development Archivist (Unprocessed), Mass Communications History Center Folder, WHS. Harper to Kaiser, November 17, 1959.

For example, see J. Michael Sproule, “‘Communication’: From Concept to Field to Discipline,” in The History of Media and Communication Research: Contested Memories, ed. David W. Park and Jefferson Pooley (New York: Peter Lang, 2008), 163–178.

Minutes of the Advisory Committee, MCHC, March 19, 1959, Office of Collection Development Archivist (Unprocessed), Mass Communications History Center Folder, WHS.

“List of Proposed Participants,” 1959, Office of Collection Development Archivist (Unprocessed), Mass Communications History Center Folder, WHS.

Ibid.

MCHC, “Working Papers,” 9.

While Lasswell's famous dictum applies to communication broadly, the archivists used this to refer to mass communications. MCHC, “Working Papers,” 4.

Les Fishel, “Conference Summary,” March 28, 1961, 10–12, SHSW Divisional Files, Box 26, Folder 1, WHS. Most of the conference proceedings come from Fishel's summary, which was written nearly a year after the event, most likely in preparation for the next grant proposal to study how to promote the Society's holdings. The date of this summary presents some problems about the accuracy, but given the presence of handwritten notes from the conference and progress reports, this document is judged as a reliable account of the conference in terms of broad ideas and discussions. Many of Fishel's points also appear in an article he published in History News a month after the conference.

MCHC, “Ideas Expressed about the History of Mass Communications,” 1960, SHSW Divisional Files, Box 26, Folder 1, WHS.

Fishel, “Conference Summary,” 5–10.

Ibid., 3.

Les Fishel, “The Massive Field of Mass Communications History,” History News (May 1960): 87–88; MCHC, “Progress Report MCHC Conference,” April 9, 1960, SHSW Divisional Files, Box 26, Folder 1, WHS; this last point was suggested by Lazarsfeld, who perhaps was referencing Robert Merton's 1946 study, Mass Persuasion: The Social Psychology of a War Bond Drive.

Fishel, “Conference Summary,” 4, 8.

Les Fishel, “Field Report,” September 12, 1960, SHSW Divisional Files, Box 13, Folder 7, WHS.

Sproule, “‘Communication’: From Concept to Field to Discipline.”

Fishel, “The Massive Field of Mass Communications History,” 5.