From the Director: The Bancroft–Wells Fargo Audiotape Project
After a Bancroft presentation in the fall of 1999 by Tony Bliss, Curator of Rare Books and Literary Manuscripts, and Bob Hirst, General Editor of the Mark Twain Project, at the Belvedere-Tiburon Library, Friends Council member Allan Littman wondered why we hadn't recorded Tony's and Bob's remarks.
Allan, an advisory partner with the San Francisco law firm of Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro, is nothing if not persuasive. At his urging the Council of the Friends established an ad hoc committee to explore the possibility of producing audiotapes based on Bancroft events. The group identified a number of questions: Was the audio quality of live presentations sufficient? If we produced a set of tapes, how and to whom would we distribute them? How much would it cost to massproduce tapes? What would they be about? Most importantly, what purposes would the tapes serve? How would this fit in with Bancroft's primary mission as a scholarly research library?
It soon became apparent that we needed outside help; and we were fortunate to find it in the person of Dick Carter (Cal '69), an advertising and marketing specialist who volunteered to help the committee to analyze its objectives and to prepare a marketing plan. We decided that the goal of the project was not to produce income for Bancroft directly but rather to raise awareness, among the general public, of Bancroft and its unique resources, particularly the unparalleled depth and breadth of Bancroft's collections on California and the American West. This would help us to increase membership in and support from the Friends. We soon realized that we needed technical expertise in order to prepare a work plan and a budget for such a presentation.
Here serendipity stepped in, since Kate Gaitley, daughter of Council member Charles Stephenson and the Media Director for the San Francisco Opera, was willing to sign on for the project. Kate and Dick put together a detailed marketing and work plan, which the Council approved last May. The next step required the search for a corporate sponsor. Serendipity took another hand. One of our new Council members is Bob Chlebowski, Executive Vice President of the Wells Fargo Bank, who offered to find out if the Wells Fargo Foundation would entertain a proposal. Foundation representatives soon invited us to a meeting. On a Friday afternoon last July, Allan, Dick, Kate, and I met with Bob and Tim Hanlon, President of the Wells Fargo Foundation, and made our pitch. After it was over, Allan rather diffidently asked Tim and Bob when we might expect to hear from the Foundation. Tim and Bob looked at each other, and Tim said, "Do you want to tell them or shall I?" Whereupon Bob proceeded to tell us that the Foundation would be very pleased to support the project. We left walking on air.
We discussed various possibilities for the subjects of this first set of tapes. We fixed on the Spanish Missions, the Gold Rush, and Mark Twain in the West. Everyone who has heard Jim Holliday speak knows that he was the logical choice to talk about the Gold Rush; Bob Hirst, General Editor of the Mark Twain Project, was equally obvious. For the third subject, the Spanish Missions, Jim recommended Berkeley Ph.D. James Rawls, co-author of one of the most widely-used textbooks on California history.
We very much wanted to have the tapes in the hands of the public before Christmas. That gave us just over three months to tape the lectures, design the packaging materials and accompanying brochure, and produce and mail 7000 sets of tapes. This proved to be a tall order. That we were able to fill it is a tribute first to Jim Holliday, Jim Rawls, and Bob Hirst, for being willing to prepare lectures on such short notice, and to Kate Gaitley as project manager. We began to mail the tapes out just before Thanksgiving to all members of the Friends, of course, but also to all public libraries and high schools in California, and to public officials from Governor Davis on down to county supervisors. We also plan to make them available to public radio and television stations as premiums for their membership drives. Those that remain will be released for commercial distribution.
Just after Thanksgiving, Wells Fargo hosted formal presentations in San Francisco and Los Angeles. We were pleased to have in attendance Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Paul Gray, our distinguished speakers, and representatives from Wells Fargo.
Wells Fargo and Bancroft hope that this is just the beginning of a long partnership between two of the oldest institutions in California. Wells Fargo was established in 1852, while Bancroft dates back to 1860. Bancroft and Wells Fargo also hope that these tapes will bring to a larger audience the lessons of California's history, both the romance and the reality.
By the way, if you'd like another copy of the tapes, please send a check for $20 (Friends, $10) to Audiotapes, The Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley, CA 94720-6000.
Volume 118
Spring 2001
Table of Contents
With the Free Speech Movement Collections, You are There
From the Director: The Bancroft–Wells Fargo Audiotape Project
A Wrong Turn Led to a Half-Century of Service
Latin American Treasures on Display at the Bancroft
Collecting the California Feminist Press Materials
Bernard Rosenthal, the Antiquarian, Scholar, and Friend of The Bancroft Library
David Ross Brower, Leader of the Environmental Movement
Home at Last—Four Manuscript Chapters of Mark Twain's A Tramp Abroad Come to Bancroft
Willa Baum, ROHO Director, is Honored on Her Retirement
Wedding Bells and Fond Farewells
