N EWSLETTER OF THE FRIENDS OF THE BANCROFT LIBRARY BANCROFTIANA N UMBER 118 • UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY • SPRING 2001 With the Free Speech Movement Collections, You are There he Free Speech Movement at the and a speech by President Clark Kerr, documents with searchable digital Berkeley Campus of the University where Mario Savio demanded the right materials. Those examining the archive ofT California announced the date of its to speak but was refused, leading 10,000 on the Internet view samples of actual creation in a pamphlet titled Here We students to march in protest. photographs, videos, documents, and a Stand: On January 4, 1965, the Free Speech time line of events. The project is to be “On October 3, 1964, the Free Movement held its first legal rally on the presented to the public at a Bancroft Speech Movement was founded. Since steps on Sproul Hall accompanied by exhibit opening and symposium on that day we have worked unceasingly Joan Baez ballads. April 13-14, 2001. for free speech by attempting to create a These history-making events and The Collections feature the Univer- public dialogue on the issues; by many others are recorded in photo- sity Archives’ Free Speech Movement protesting regulations we think uncon- graphs, books, flyers, speeches, and other Records, with files focused on student stitutional, inadequate, and unfair; and documents housed in The Bancroft movements primarily in California. finally by reluctantly violating certain of Library. Bancroft launched the Free However, the selection of original the regulations. Tomorrow the question Speech Movement Collections in the material stretches from the 1960s Civil of free speech will be considered by the summer of 1999. In the spring of 2001 Rights protests to the early 1970s when final authority, the Board of Regents.” we now celebrate its completion. A the Vietnam War ended and utilizes a Later events included the famous Greek pioneer project for Bancroft, the concept number of Bancroft collections includ- Theatre meeting on December 7, 1964, combines original images and text ing the Social Protest Collection, the Continued on page 3 Photograph by Ron by Enfield Photograph Berkeley students and supporters march under Sather Gate, Fall 1964. N EWSLETTER OF THE FRIENDS OF THE BANCROFT LIBRARY From the Director The Bancroft–Wells Fargo Audiotape Project the Friends. We soon realized that we We very much wanted to have the needed technical expertise in order to tapes in the hands of the public before prepare a work plan and a budget for such Christmas. That gave us just over three a presentation. months to tape the lectures, design the Here serendipity stepped in, since Kate packaging materials and accompanying Gaitley, daughter of Council member brochure, and produce and mail 7000 sets fter a Bancroft presentation in the fall Charles Stephenson and the Media of tapes. This proved to be a tall order. of 1999 by Tony Bliss, Curator of Director for the San Francisco Opera, was That we were able to fill it is a tribute first RareA Books and Literary Manuscripts, and willing to sign on for the project. Kate and to Jim Holliday, Jim Rawls, and Bob Hirst, Bob Hirst, General Editor of the Mark Dick put together a detailed marketing for being willing to prepare lectures on Twain Project, at the Belvedere-Tiburon and work plan, which the Council such short notice, and to Kate Gaitley as Library, Friends Council member Allan approved last May. The next step required project manager. We began to mail the Littman wondered why we hadn’t re- the search for a corporate sponsor. tapes out just before Thanksgiving to all corded Tony’s and Bob’s remarks. Serendipity took another hand. One of members of the Friends, of course, but also Allan, an advisory partner with the San our new Council members is Bob to all public libraries and high schools in Francisco law firm of Pillsbury, Madison Chlebowski, Executive Vice President of California, and to public officials from & Sutro, is nothing if not persuasive. At the Wells Fargo Bank, who offered to find Governor Davis on down to county his urging the Council of the Friends out if the Wells Fargo Foundation would supervisors. We also plan to make them established an ad hoc committee to entertain a proposal. Foundation represen- available to public radio and television explore the possibility of producing tatives soon invited us to a meeting. On a stations as premiums for their membership audiotapes based on Bancroft events. The Friday afternoon last July, Allan, Dick, drives. Those that remain will be released group identified a number of questions: Kate, and I met with Bob and Tim for commercial distribution. Was the audio quality of live presentations Hanlon, President of the Wells Fargo Just after Thanksgiving, Wells Fargo sufficient? If we produced a set of tapes, Foundation, and made our pitch. After it hosted formal presentations in San how and to whom would we distribute was over, Allan rather diffidently asked Francisco and Los Angeles. We were them? How much would it cost to mass- Tim and Bob when we might expect to pleased to have in attendance Executive produce tapes? What would they be hear from the Foundation. Tim and Bob Vice Chancellor and Provost Paul Gray, about? Most importantly, what purposes looked at each other, and Tim said, “Do our distinguished speakers, and representa- would the tapes serve? How would this fit you want to tell them or shall I?” Where- tives from Wells Fargo. in with Bancroft’s primary mission as a upon Bob proceeded to tell us that the Wells Fargo and Bancroft hope that scholarly research library? Foundation would be very pleased to this is just the beginning of a long partner- It soon became apparent that we support the project. We left walking on ship between two of the oldest institutions needed outside help; and we were fortu- air. in California. Wells Fargo was established nate to find it in the person of Dick We discussed various possibilities for in 1852, while Bancroft dates back to Carter (Cal ’69), an advertising and the subjects of this first set of tapes. We 1860. Bancroft and Wells Fargo also hope marketing specialist who volunteered to fixed on the Spanish Missions, the Gold that these tapes will bring to a larger help the committee to analyze its objec- Rush, and Mark Twain in the West. audience the lessons of California’s history, tives and to prepare a marketing plan. We Everyone who has heard Jim Holliday both the romance and the reality. decided that the goal of the project was speak knows that he was the logical By the way, if you’d like another copy not to produce income for Bancroft choice to talk about the Gold Rush; Bob of the tapes, please send a check for directly but rather to raise awareness, Hirst, General Editor of the Mark $20 (Friends, $10) to Audiotapes, among the general public, of Bancroft and Twain Project, was equally obvious. For The Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley, CA its unique resources, particularly the the third subject, the Spanish Missions, 94720-6000. unparalleled depth and breadth of Jim recommended Berkeley Ph.D. Bancroft’s collections on California and James Rawls, co-author of one of the the American West. This would help us to most widely-used textbooks on Califor- Charles B. Faulhaber increase membership in and support from nia history. The James D. Hart Director The Bancroft Library P AGE 2 / SPRING 2001 N EWSLETTER OF THE FRIENDS OF THE BANCROFT LIBRARY FREE SPEECH MOVEMENT from page 1 A Wrong Turn Led to a Half-Century of Service Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute Vivian C. Fisher at The Bancroft Library Collections, and the Malcolm Burnstein Papers. As one looks through the material, it becomes clear that certain May 2000 marked my fiftieth anniver- bindings and the spine title of Bancroft’s elements of these different protests are sary with The Bancroft Library. I joined Works. That did not sound very French related. the staff just weeks shy of receiving my to me. As I started my homework, two A number of photographers contrib- bachelor’s degree in 1950. I was hired for a people whom I took to be librarians, uted their work on the Free Speech temporary student job, checking in began to measure the floor space of the Movement to the project including Ron microfilm copies of documents from room, calling out numbers to each other. Enfield, Steven Marcus, and Ronald Spanish and Mexican archives. I was After this had gone on for perhaps five Hecker. A selection of Helen Nestor fortunate that the director, Dr. George P. minutes, I gathered up my books and FSM photographs is available through Hammond, was able to scrape together left. It was only later that I realized I had the courtesy of the Oakland Museum. enough money to pay my salary of ninety- found my way to Bancroft’s old reading A major component of the Free eight cents an hour while I completed my room and that the people were planning Speech Movement Collections includes training as a teacher of high school Spanish space for the new one. new oral histories. Lisa Rubens of the and English. Working in Bancroft was so With the completion of the Moffitt Regional Oral History Office (ROHO) pleasant and the prospect of teaching was Undergraduate Library, space was freed has created many hours of interviews for me at the time so unpleasant that I in the Annex, and in 1973 a major with participants and observers of the applied for the first career position for remodeling project resulted in more Free Speech Movement.