February 2020 Archives

February 17, 2020

Join us for an evening of film and conversation with filmmaker and musician Willie Ruff '53 B.M., '54 M.M.A. Ruff’s short films Tony Williams in Africa (1973) and The Soul of St. Simons Island, Georgia (1981/2015) will precede the preservation premiere of The Beginnings of Bebop (1981), a documentary that takes us on a guided tour of significant locations in the history of bebop music. Led by legendary trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, Ruff and his musical partner Dwike Mitchell visit Minton's Playhouse, Carnegie Hall, the former site of the Savoy Ballroom, and even Miles Davis's home for an impromptu stop. 16mm prints and digital file from the Yale Film Archive.

Visit the event page.

Time/Date:
7 p.m. Wednesday, March 4

Location:
Whitney Humanities Center Auditorium
53 Wall Street
New Haven, CT

What is Treasures from the Yale Film Archive?
Treasures from the Yale Film Archive is an ongoing series of classic and contemporary films curated by the Yale Film Study Center and screened at the Whitney Humanities Center.

Post on February 17, 2020 - 4:23pm |

February 14, 2020

Join us for a free screening of Jacqueline Olive's Always in Season, a new documentary that examines the lingering impact of lynching and the link between this historic form of racial terrorism and the racial violence that exists today. The film explores how descendants of the victims and the perpetrators of lynching are working together to heal a violent history, while reminding us that lynching is not entirely confined to the past. Presented locally by CPTV, the Yale Film Study Center, and the Yale African American Affinity Group.

DATE/TIME:
7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 20

LOCATION:
Linsly-Chittenden Hall, Room 102
63 High Street

BEFORE THE FILM:
You are encouraged to attend the panel conversation "The Legacy of Lynching: Artistic Confrontations of Racial Terror" at 5 p.m. in the Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel Street, presented in conjunction with their exhibition Reckoning with "The Incident": John Wilson's Studies for a Lynching Mural.

What is Indie Lens Pop-Up?
Featuring upcoming documentaries from the Peabody Award-winning PBS series Independent LensIndie Lens Pop-Up brings people together for film screenings and community-driven conversations. Indie Lens Pop-Up is presented in Connecticut by the Yale Film Study Center, CPTV, and PBS's Independent Lens.

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

Post on February 14, 2020 - 10:16am |

February 11, 2020

Discover Yale Library poster with photo of Gilmore music Library

The Irving S. Gilmore Music Library will extend its opening hours to match the longer hours already in effect at Sterling Memorial Library. Beginning Monday, March 2, students will be able to work in the space until midnight—three hours later than before—on Sunday through Thursday during the semester. The change is part of a larger effort to simplify library hours in response to feedback from students.

The service desk inside the music library will maintain its existing evening and weekend hours, closing at 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Patrons needing in-person assistance outside of these service hours should go to the main services desk in Sterling’s Nave. 

Home to one of the largest music collections in the United States, Gilmore Library is enclosed within Sterling Library in a soaring space created in 1998 from what was originally an internal courtyard. 

Keeping the music library open later is part of a larger effort to simplify library hours. Effective March 2, Sterling Library and Bass Library will change their posted closing times to the nearest hour, rather than 15 minutes before the hour. For example, Bass will now close at 2 a.m. and Sterling at midnight Monday through Thursday. The Poorvu Center will also adopt the on-the-hour closing times, continuing to follow the Sterling Library schedule. In the same spirit, the Manuscripts and Archives department in Sterling Library will close at 5 p.m. on weekdays. The department will open at 9 a.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, and at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday.

See all library hours here.

Post on February 9, 2020 - 5:10pm |

Kingman Brewster, Jr., President of Yale University, circa 1960s-1970s

The Kingman Brewster Personal Papers (Finding aid) are now open to research. Brewster (1919-1988) was a noted American educator, who became especially well-known when he served as president of Yale University from 1964 to 1977.

Brewster was born in Longmeadow, Massachusetts on June 17, 1919, the son of Kingman Brewster Sr. and Florence Foster. His parents divorced in 1923 and he and his sister settled with their mother in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His mother married Edward Ballantine, a Harvard University music professor. Brewster attended the Belmont Hill School, where he participated in debate and drama. Before entering Yale University as an undergraduate student, Brewster traveled to Europe with his family. He attended Yale College from 1937 to 1941, where he was chairman of the Yale Daily News and was involved in the America First campaign, protesting America’s involvement in World War II.

Beginning of Brewster's Yale College class oration, 1941.

Beginning of Brewster’s Yale College class oration, 1941.

After the attacks on Pearl Harbor, Brewster enlisted. He served as a Naval aviator and flew anti-submarine patrols in South America for three years.

Page 1 of a letter from Kingman Brewster to Mary Louise Phillips Brewster, written from Paris and regarding his social engagements during a break from his military service.

Page 1 of a letter from Kingman Brewster to Mary Louise Phillips Brewster, written from Paris and regarding his social engagements during a break from his military service.

Page 2 of a letter from Kingman Brewster to Mary Louise Phillips Brewster, written from Paris and regarding his social engagements during a break from his military service.

Page 2 of a letter from Kingman Brewster to Mary Louise Phillips Brewster, written from Paris and regarding his social engagements during a break from his military service.

Page 3 of a letter from Kingman Brewster to Mary Louise Phillips Brewster, written from Paris and regarding his social engagements during a break from his military service.

Page 3 of a letter from Kingman Brewster to Mary Louise Phillips Brewster, written from Paris and regarding his social engagements during a break from his military service.

After the war ended, he attended Harvard Law School, where he served on the Harvard Law Review. He graduated magna cum laude in 1948. Following graduation, he went to Paris and served as assistant general counsel to Milton Katz, the United States Special Representative in Europe for the Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA). The ECA was responsible for administering the Marshall Plan, and his work with Katz in Paris marked the start of a long-term professional relationship and personal friendship. Thereafter he accepted a position in the economics department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1950, Brewster was appointed assistant professor at Harvard Law School. He was promoted to full professor in 1953. While at Harvard, he became a noted expert on antitrust matters and international commerce and relations. His well-received publications included Antitrust and American Business Abroad, published in 1958, and The Law of International Transactions and Relations: Cases and Materials, co-authored with Milton Katz and published in 1960.

Letter from Brewster to his colleagues regarding a survey of the "behavioural sciences" at Harvard University.

Letter from Brewster to his colleagues regarding a survey of the “behavioural sciences” at Harvard University.

In 1960, Brewster returned to Yale University as provost under Yale president, A. Whitney Griswold, who had taught at Yale when Brewster was a student and was a friend of Brewster’s parents.

Page 1 of a letter from Brewster to A. Whitney Griswold regarding Griswold's thoughts on the liberal arts.

Page 1 of a letter from Brewster to A. Whitney Griswold regarding Griswold’s thoughts on the liberal arts.

Page 2 of a letter from Brewster to A. Whitney Griswold regarding Griswold's thoughts on the liberal arts.

Page 2 of a letter from Brewster to A. Whitney Griswold regarding Griswold’s thoughts on the liberal arts.

After Griswold died from cancer in 1963, Brewster became acting Yale University president and was named president in October. He was inaugurated in April 1964.

Brewster led the university through significant and controversial changes to the faculty, student body, and curricula. For a summary of the work of his presidential administration and the records that document it, see the Kingman Brewster, Jr., president of Yale University, records.

In May 1977, Brewster left Yale to become Ambassador to the Court of St. James’s in the United Kingdom.


Swearing in of Kingman Brewster, Jr. as Ambassador to the Court Of St. James’s in May 1977. Brewster was sworn in by Cyrus Vance, and the recording includes comments by Vance, Brewster, and Hanna Holborn Gray

He served as ambassador until 1981 and was well-liked by the British with whom he regularly interacted. He travelled throughout the country to meet people and noted that his job was to try “to advise my Government on British attitudes and concerns in the fullest way possible.”

Page 1 of a BBC Radio 4 Today interview with Brewster regarding the release of United States diplomats and citizens from the United States Embassy in Tehran, Iran.

Page 1 of a BBC Radio 4 Today interview with Brewster regarding the release of United States diplomats and citizens from the United States Embassy in Tehran, Iran, January 21, 1981.

Page 2 of a BBC Radio 4 Today interview with Brewster regarding the release of United States diplomats and citizens from the United States Embassy in Tehran, Iran.

Page 2 of a BBC Radio 4 Today interview with Brewster regarding the release of United States diplomats and citizens from the United States Embassy in Tehran, Iran, January 21, 1981.

Page 3 of a BBC Radio 4 Today interview with Brewster regarding the release of United States diplomats and citizens from the United States Embassy in Tehran, Iran, January 21, 1981.

Page 3 of a BBC Radio 4 Today interview with Brewster regarding the release of United States diplomats and citizens from the United States Embassy in Tehran, Iran, January 21, 1981.

BBC Platform One interview with Kingman Brewster, Jr., recorded in January 1981, shortly before final confirmation of the release of the American hostages from the United States Embassy in Tehran, Iran

After the ambassadorship ended in 1981, Brewster returned to New Haven, and worked for the New York-based law firm of Winthrop, Stimson, Putnam, and Roberts. He also served as chairman of the English-Speaking Union of the United States, a group that sponsors cultural and educational opportunities for students and educators. He was active in other organizations, serving in positions with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Reuters, Common Cause, and the American Council of Learned Societies. In 1984, he returned to London as resident partner for his law firm.

In 1985, he was elected Master of University College at Oxford, an unusual position for an American to hold.

Page 1 of Brewster's June 26, 1985 letter to Barry Bingham regarding his Oxford master position.

Page 1 of a letter from Brewster to Barry Bingham, June 26, 1985, regarding Brewster’s Oxford master position.

Page 2 of a letter from Brewster to Barry Bingham, June 26, 1985, regarding Brewster's Oxford master position.

Page 2 of a letter from Brewster to Barry Bingham, June 26, 1985, regarding Brewster’s Oxford master position.

Page 3 of a letter from Brewster to Barry Bingham, June 26, 1985, regarding Brewster's Oxford master position.

Page 3 of a letter from Brewster to Barry Bingham, June 26, 1985, regarding Brewster’s Oxford master position.

He died at the age of 69 on November 8, 1988.

The Kingman Brewster Personal Papers include informative (but limited) material from 1940 to 1950, but primarily document the personal and professional life of Brewster as a Harvard faculty member (1950-1960) and Ambassador to Great Britain (1977-1981). The most substantive material in the collection is that created by Brewster himself. Letters, unpublished writings, speeches, and interviews, provide extensive documentation of his interests and expertise, including in the areas of the role of government; maintaining a viable center in the political opinion spectrum; American anti-trust laws; American companies doing business abroad; the role of a liberal arts higher education; Anglo-American relations; and the United States in world affairs. The documentation on Brewster as ambassador reflects the public side of his work, rather than behind-the-scenes policy making. The materials displayed herein provide examples of the substantive documentation in the collection.

The work undertaken to arrange and describe the Kingman Brewster personal papers was supported by Henry Chauncey, 1957 B.A., and funded by many generous individuals, including a lead gift from William Lilley, 1965 Ph.D.

Post on February 7, 2020 - 11:27am |

February 7, 2020

whiteboard surface covered with handwritten book titles

A display at one entrance to Bass Library and a whiteboard covered with scribbled titles at the other are bookending the latest iteration of the library’s Reading Resilience program, presenting recommended reading from students and other members of the Yale community.

In 2015, during a wave of student activism aimed at making Yale more inclusive, the library partnered with student groups to find new ways of highlighting the voices of commonly underrepresented peoples in library collections. Students were invited to recommend books and other creative works “by and about people of color” – and the Reading Resilience project was born.

Since then, the library has continued to solicit suggestions from the Yale community and periodically has mounted displays of recommended books. Each book is accompanied by a card with a short synopsis or a quotation from the student who originally recommended it.

This year’s display, located just inside the entrance from Thain Café, has been so popular that staff have had to refill the shelves with additional titles and copies to replace those that have been checked out. 

At the opposite end of Bass, near the tunnel entrance, a whiteboard gives library patrons the option to suggest additional titles. This year, the board has been quickly covered with a rainbow of scribbled titles, and some patrons have been spotted snapping pictures for future reference.

“People are very thoughtful in their interactions with the whiteboard,”  said Emily Horning, the library’s director of undergraduate research, education and outreach. “I especially like the comments people are leaving on others’ contributions: Amazing book’ or I second that!’ Sometimes they just underline another person’s suggestion for emphasis, or draw a heart.”

The Reading Resilience book display will run through March 20. Members of the Yale community may also view the list and make recommendations online throughout the year.

Story and photos by Tricia Carey

Post on February 7, 2020 - 12:49pm |