More than ten years ago, Howard Zinn’s children donated Zinn’s personal papers to NYU’s Tamiment Library. Included in the donation were Zinn’s personal correspondence, school and military records, FBI files, datebooks, biographical articles, interviews, student papers, and news clippings. A daylong symposium was held at New York University in 2014 to celebrate the donation and discuss Zinn’s roles as a historian, activist, and educator.
File box.
Folder of news clippings.
The generous donation made Zinn’s papers available to the public. However, other than 12 boxes of audiovisual materials, most of the materials remained unindexed for many years — leaving it difficult to know what was included and time consuming for researchers.
Lauren Cooper, HowardZinn.org Digital Curator, at a conference for social studies teachers.
Lauren Cooper, the HowardZinn.org Digital Curator for Teaching for Change, proposed a multi-year plan to create item-level cataloging (or an inventory) of the 73 cartons of documents and clippings. Her goal was to broaden general understanding of the collection and increase access and use. The Howard Zinn Revocable Trust concurred and supported the endeavor.
Cole Stallone at the Tamiment Library.
With staff support from independent scholar Cole Stallone and access provided by the Tamiment Library, the momentous undertaking began in the summer of 2022. Each year, Cooper and Stallone returned for a total of 14 weeks: 2 weeks in 2022 (with assistant Molly McBride), 1 week in 2023, and 11 weeks in 2024. Curator Shannon O’Neill, Michael Koncewicz, and the Tamiment Library staff helped streamline the process.
We are excited to announce that on October 9, 2024, Cooper and Stallone completed the item-level cataloging of 73 cartons with 1,814 folders. Preliminary figures show nearly 30,000 items and more than 183,000 pages. This means that the equivalent of 366 reams of paper were counted and catalogued.
Lauren Cooper, Shannon O’Neill, Molly McBride, and Cole Stallone during the first trip in 2022.
Future work includes creating a public version of an online listing so researchers can better plan their visits to the archives and focus on areas most central to their interests, as well as publish pieces that bring to light the heart and soul of Zinn’s collection. Cooper, who curated the Radicalizing the Archives seminar, is writing about her insights from the collection.
A Milestone for the Howard Zinn Archives
More than ten years ago, Howard Zinn’s children donated Zinn’s personal papers to NYU’s Tamiment Library. Included in the donation were Zinn’s personal correspondence, school and military records, FBI files, datebooks, biographical articles, interviews, student papers, and news clippings. A daylong symposium was held at New York University in 2014 to celebrate the donation and discuss Zinn’s roles as a historian, activist, and educator.
The generous donation made Zinn’s papers available to the public. However, other than 12 boxes of audiovisual materials, most of the materials remained unindexed for many years — leaving it difficult to know what was included and time consuming for researchers.
Lauren Cooper, the HowardZinn.org Digital Curator for Teaching for Change, proposed a multi-year plan to create item-level cataloging (or an inventory) of the 73 cartons of documents and clippings. Her goal was to broaden general understanding of the collection and increase access and use. The Howard Zinn Revocable Trust concurred and supported the endeavor.
With staff support from independent scholar Cole Stallone and access provided by the Tamiment Library, the momentous undertaking began in the summer of 2022. Each year, Cooper and Stallone returned for a total of 14 weeks: 2 weeks in 2022 (with assistant Molly McBride), 1 week in 2023, and 11 weeks in 2024. Curator Shannon O’Neill, Michael Koncewicz, and the Tamiment Library staff helped streamline the process.
We are excited to announce that on October 9, 2024, Cooper and Stallone completed the item-level cataloging of 73 cartons with 1,814 folders. Preliminary figures show nearly 30,000 items and more than 183,000 pages. This means that the equivalent of 366 reams of paper were counted and catalogued.
To see some of the contents, check out:
Future work includes creating a public version of an online listing so researchers can better plan their visits to the archives and focus on areas most central to their interests, as well as publish pieces that bring to light the heart and soul of Zinn’s collection. Cooper, who curated the Radicalizing the Archives seminar, is writing about her insights from the collection.
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Posted: December 8, 2024