Tamiment Library at New York University, one of the world’s leading centers for scholarly research on Labor and the Left, today announced that it will acquire and house the comprehensive editorial archives of The Nation, the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States and a standard bearer for the intellectual left.
Tamiment Library at New York University, one of the world’s leading centers for scholarly research on Labor and the Left, today announced that it will acquire and house the comprehensive editorial archives of The Nation, the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States and a standard bearer for the intellectual left.
Though the magazine’s earliest historic editorial papers and letters were distributed to various libraries by previous editors, The Nation has maintained a comprehensive archive dating from 1978 till the present, under the editorship of Victor Navasky and the magazine’s current editor, Katerina vanden Heuvel. These archives, which also include various papers dating back to the 1950s, will arrive at NYU in the fall.
“As the epicenter of scholarly materials relating to American progressive politics, Tamiment Library was a wonderfully clear choice for housing The Nation’s archives,” said vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of the magazine, which is currently hosting a year-long series of events celebrating its 150th anniversary. “As we look back on 150 years, we have a renewed appreciation for not only our history, but for the careful, historically responsible stewardship of the documents that illustrate our past. At Tamiment, a unique and internationally-known center of research, we know our materials are in very good hands, and that they are in the best possible position to inform the next generation of thinkers, writers, and activists.”
“Since the Civil War, The Nation has been a barometer of radical and liberal thinking,” said historian Timothy Naftali, director of the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives. “We are very fortunate to have been chosen as the home for the magazine's modern records. This acquisition not only broadens and deepens our collection, it ensures that researchers to Tamiment will have a ringside seat to observe and explore the debates that shape progressive ideas now and in the future. To read The Nation is to see the evolution of the American Left."
In celebration of the acquisition, the NYU Tamiment Library will host a panel discussion, "Shaping The Nation: A Conversation with Katrina vanden Heuvel and Victor Navasky," moderated by Naftali. The event also will mark the opening of the Victor Navasky Collection at Tamiment, which includes personal papers, journalism and other materials related to the life and work of Navasky independent of his work at the magazine. The panel discussion will take place Thursday, July 23, 6:30- 8pm in Greenberg Lounge, Vanderbilt Hall, located at 40 Washington Square South, NYC. Please contact cttamiment.wagner@library.nyu.edu for additional information.
About Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University:
The Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University form a unique, internationally-known center for scholarly research on Labor and the Left. Tamiment has one of the finest research collections in the country documenting the history of radical politics: socialism, communism, anarchism, utopian experiments, the cultural left, the New Left, and the struggle for civil rights and civil liberties. It is the repository for the Archives of Irish America, the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives, the Estela Bravo Archive, and a growing LGBT and Asian American labor collections.
The NYU Division of Libraries holds over 4 million volumes and comprises five libraries in Manhattan and one each in Brooklyn, Abu Dhabi and Shanghai,. Its flagship, the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library on Washington Square, receives 2.6 million visits annually. Around the world the Libraries offers access to more than 1.2 million electronic journals, books, and databases. For more information about the NYU Libraries, please visit http://library.nyu.edu