Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Oral Histories of Note

I've come across some interesting histories that have -- apparently -- been way understudied. The following interviews are of particular interest to me:

7. Title: Reminiscences of Moses Nelson Baker
RLIN number: NXCP86-A7
Document type: Oral history
Accessibility: Free Only
Repository: Columbia University. Oral History Research Office
Collection: McGraw-Hill Project
Description: Associate editor, ENGINEERING NEWS; editing MANUAL OF AMERICAN WATERWORKS; public vs. private water rights ownership, water and sewage purification plants; purchase of ENGINEERING NEWS by John A. Hill, editorial policies; George Frost; publication of MUNICIPAL YEARBOOK.
Extent: Transcript: 23 leaves/23

6. Title: Reminiscences of Carl Nagel
RLIN number: NXCP88-A86
Document type: Oral history
Accessibility: Free Only
Repository: Columbia University. Oral History Research Office
Collection: McGraw-Hill Project, Part II
Description: Professional books at McGraw-Hill; characteristics of book authors; competition for authors; keeping abreast of developments in engineering; criteria for book selection; experts in the technical field as book judges; keeping titles alive; publication of engineering reference works; revisions and book lists.
Extent: Transcript: 29 leaves/52

6. Title: Reminiscences of Wallace Francis Traendly
RLIN number: NXCP88-A129
Document type: Oral history
Accessibility: Free Only
Repository: Columbia University. Oral History Research Office
Collection: McGraw-Hill Project, Part IV
Description: Dodge division of McGraw-Hill Information Services; reorganization, expansion; acquisition of Photronics; Sweet's enterprises; advantages of new management organization of publications company; specialized industry magazines, trend toward centralization; revenue forecast.
Extent: Transcript: 36 leaves/88

6. Title: Reminiscences of Alton Walker Kitchens
RLIN number: NXCP89-A36
Document type: Oral history
Accessibility: Free Only
Repository: Columbia University. Oral History Research Office
Collection: McGraw-Hill Project, Part IV
Description: Background with Dodge Reports; acquisition by McGraw-Hill; Dodge expansion into western United States; services provided for evaluating markets and information dissemination; employment of computers; Photronics-SCAN operation and reorganization; adjustment of Sweet's interior design file; postal delivery problems; the energy crisis.
Extent: Transcript: 45 leaves/133

5. Title: Reminiscences of Bela Z. Reiter
RLIN number: NXCP87-A110
Document type: Oral history
Accessibility: Free Only
Repository: Columbia University. Oral History Research Office
Collection: McGraw-Hill Project, Part I
Description: Education and early experiences; illustrator for McGraw-Hill from 1913; technical innovations and experiments in illustration; head of McGraw-Hill illustration department, 1943; impressions of executives.
Extent: Transcript: 46 leaves/179

*. Title: Reminiscences of Helene Frye
RLIN number: NXCP89-A6
Document type: Oral history
Accessibility: Free Only
Repository: Columbia University. Oral History Research Office
Collection: McGraw-Hill Project, Part II
Description: Development of juvenile division of trade department, early 1940s; first list of seven books published 1944; effects of World War II on department ; children's tastes; getting good authors for children's books; the Miss Pickerel series; organization of the department; book illustration.
Extent: Transcript: 24 leaves/203

5. Title: Reminiscences of Fred Herbert Colvin
RLIN number: NXCP87-A35
Document type: Oral history
Accessibility: Free Only
Repository: Columbia University. Oral History Research Office
Collection: McGraw-Hill Project, Part I
Description: Family background: father worked for company which advertised in AMERICAN MACHINIST; John A. Hill as editor of LOCOMOTIVE ENGINEER; first editor of MACHINERY, 1894; recollections of John A. Hill; McGraw-Hill merger.
Extent: Transcript: 21 leaves

5. Title: Reminiscences of Harold Whittlesey McGraw, Jr.
RLIN number: NXCP88-A138
Document type: Oral history
Accessibility: Free Only
Repository: Columbia University. Oral History Research Office
Collection: McGraw-Hill Project, Part II
Description: Beginning at McGraw-Hill 1946; trade department Whittlesey House later continued as juvenile books; development of market for technical books; sales force and executives of Trade Department; publishing fiction, how to do it books; literature in the Trade Department, longevity of books; gauging sales of a book.

4. Title: Reminiscences of Paul Abbott
RLIN number: NXCP86-A
Document type: Oral history
Accessibility: Free Only
Repository: Columbia University. Oral History Research Office
Collection: McGraw-Hill Project, Part III
Description: F.W. Dodge Corporation history prior to merger with McGraw-Hill; merger negotiations; influence of merger on McGraw-Hill's philosophy; Dodge's growth potential within McGraw-Hill.
Extent: Transcript: 20 leaves

4. Title: Reminiscences of S. T. Henry and Willard T. Chevalier
RLIN number: NXCP88-A71
Document type: Oral history
Accessibility: Free Only
Repository: Columbia University. Oral History Research Office
Collection: McGraw-Hill Project, Part I
Description: McGraw-Hill from 1904: early association with James H. McGraw, Horace M. Swetland, and John A. Hill; McGraw's abilities as engineer and editor; McGraw and Hill firms in World War I, merger after Hill's death; innovations in civil engineering in early 20th century.

4. Title: Reminiscences of Hugh Joseph Kelly
RLIN number: NXCP89-A41
Document type: Oral history
Accessibility: Free Only
Repository: Columbia University. Oral History Research Office
Collection: McGraw-Hill Project, Part I
Description: Family background; editorship of Columbia University daily, THE SPECTATOR; Columbia University Press; McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1927, Martin Foss and Edward Caldwell; relationship between Book Company and parent company; sales and promotion; buying on approval; expansion of college traveling system; merger with Shaw Company, vocational and textbook publishing; publications dates and revisions; Whittlesey House; international business; Gregg merger; book printing, binding, storage and distribution; paper supply.

3. Title: Reminiscences of Edward E. Booher
RLIN number: NXCP86-A30
Document type: Oral history
Accessibility: Free Only
Repository: Columbia University. Oral History Research Office
Collection: McGraw-Hill Project, Part I
Description: School Department at McGraw-Hill, five-year program 1947, relationship with College Department, finances from 1930 to 1950, quality of personnel, acquisition of Harper's list, 1952, potential market; agricultural publishing; educational film, film-book series; experience as college traveler; Gregg merger: Gregg staff, sales volume, financial success 1949, type-writing publications, bookkeeping program, revision of business English, business mathematics, office management programs, Gregg magazines, stationery, schools; Gregg College in Chicago, Gregg Schools in England, Gregg hold on South American market; establishment of Technical and Business Education Dept., 1941; technical training manuals during World War II; engineering training in United States, 1931 to postwar period; correspondence courses, authors in technical education field.

3. Title: Reminiscences of Sidney Dale Kirkpatrick
RLIN number: NXCP89-A36
Document type: Oral history
Accessibility: Free Only
Repository: Columbia University. Oral History Research Office
Collection: McGraw-Hill Project, Part II
Description: Childhood and education in Illinois; Illinois State Water Survey; Assistant editor, CHEMICAL AND METALLURGICAL ENGINEERING, 1921; James D. Ross, Dr. Fritz Haber; World War II organizing technical industrial intelligence, Manhattan Project, witness to atomic explosions in Japan; development of CHEMICAL WEEK, Perry's HANDBOOK; recollections of James H. McGraw, Sr.

2. Title: Reminiscences of Mason Britton
RLIN number: NXCP86-A39
Document type: Oral history
Accessibility: Free Only
Repository: Columbia University. Oral History Research Office
Collection: McGraw-Hill Project, Part I
Description: Work with Atlantic Coastline Railroads; employment by AMERICAN MACHINIST, 1901; recollections of John A. Hill; honest circulation, changes in advertising, expansion and reorganization after purchase of POWER; Hill's publishing philosophy, competition with James H. McGraw, and merger; effects of World War I, the Depression and World War II on McGraw-Hill, consolidation of book companies; work for government during World War II; recollections of Arthur Baldwin.

2. Title: Reminiscences of George M. MacMurray
RLIN number: NXCP88-A135
Document type: Oral history
Accessibility: Free Only
Repository: Columbia University. Oral History Research Office
Collection: McGraw-Hill Project, Part I
Description: Recollections of very early days of McGraw Publishing Company when it was known as The Street Railway Publishing Company, work as an office boy; engineering courses at School of Science and Technology at Pratt Institute, business courses at New York University; general editorial issues; financial panic of 1907; ELECTRIC RAILWAY REVIEW'S journalistic achievements; purchase of SUCCESS magazine; growth of city bus systems and start of BUS TRANSPORTATION.

2. Title: Reminiscences of Robert Forrester Boger
RLIN number: NXCP87-A5
Document type: Oral history
Accessibility: Free Only
Repository: Columbia University. Oral History Research Office
Collection: McGraw-Hill Project, Part II
Description: McGraw-Hill and American business: changes from ownership management to professional management, the creation of a science of business management thorugh graduate business education, editorial responsibility, continuity; McGraw-Hill's three aviation magazines from 1945: creation of AVIATION WEEK and its editorial formula; editorial hierarchy and authority; definition of civil engineering; social consequences of building in New York City.

2. Title: Reminiscences of Hugh Joseph Kelly
RLIN number: NXCP89-A41
Document type: Oral history
Accessibility: Free Only
Repository: Columbia University. Oral History Research Office
Collection: McGraw-Hill Project, Part III
Description: Mergers with Dodge, Webster, and Breskin; printing advances; use of offset and computer; information explosion; sale of technical books abroad; company philosophy.

2. Title: Reminiscences of Donald Cushing McGraw
RLIN number: NXCP88-A138
Document type: Oral history
Accessibility: Free Only
Repository: Columbia University. Oral History Research Office
Collection: McGraw-Hill Project, Part III
Description: Merger with Dodge; key to success in managing McGraw-Hill; future direction of the company; perception of major accomplishments of past decade.

1. Title: Reminiscences of Frank Dickman
RLIN number: NXCP87-A91
Document type: Oral history
Accessibility: Free Only
Repository: Columbia University. Oral History Research Office
Collection: McGraw-Hill Project, Part I
Description: McGraw-Hill's subscription and collection department; the Book Company; general responsibilities; relationship between magazines and books; growth of the organization.

1. Title: Reminiscences of Edward J. Mehren
RLIN number: NXCP88-A104
Document type: Oral history
Accessibility: Free Only
Repository: Columbia University. Oral History Research Office
Collection: McGraw-Hill Project, Part I
Description: Education; work on staff of ENGINEERING RECORD; association with John M. Goodell; left McGraw-Hill 1911; return to McGraw-Hill 1912; impressions of Curtis Whittlesey, treasurer of McGraw-Hill; World War I; James H. McGraw: editorial principles, knowledge and abilities; merger of McGraw and Hill firms; Hill organization and its staff; McGraw-Hill technical publications.

1. Title: Reminiscences of Waldo G. Bowman
RLIN number: NXCP86-A42
Document type: Oral history
Accessibility: Free Only
Repository: Columbia University. Oral History Research Office
Collection: McGraw-Hill Project, Part II
Description: Engineering education, Harvard Business School; ENGINEERING NEWS-RECORD: characteristics of publication, staff changes, national correspondents; covering world construction news; readership problems of CONSTRUCTION METHODS; horizontal and vertical publications; ENGINEERING NEWS-RECORD's prestige among military engineers; war experiences on Remagen bridge; determining reasons for architectural failures; World War II experiences; competition in engineering magazine field.

1. Title: Reminiscences of Dexter Merriam Keezer
RLIN number: NXCP89-A42
Document type: Oral history
Accessibility: Free Only
Repository: Columbia University. Oral History Research Office
Collection: McGraw-Hill Project, Part II
Description: Description of Department of Economics at McGraw-Hill: its origin, function and relationship with balance of organization.

1. Title: Reminiscences of Wallace Francis Traendly
RLIN number: NXCP88-A9
Document type: Oral history
Accessibility: Free Only
Repository: Columbia University. Oral History Research Office
Collection: McGraw-Hill Project, Part III
Description: Assets gained from F.W. Dodge merger, 1961; characteristics of F.W. Dodge Company; future plans.

Other topics: Platt on oil? Publishing during the depression? Pitman shorthand?

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