OT: Pitt acquires August Wilson archive

[CrazyPaco]

This is a major acquisition, and Pitt likely beat out Yale, UT's Ransom Center, and NY's Schomburg Center to bring the collection home:

Stories:

Request Rejected

www.pittwire.pitt.edu

The University of Pittsburgh acquires August Wilson trove

NEW YORK (AP) — The University of Pittsburgh has acquired the archive of the late playwright and Pittsburgh native son August Wilson, a trove that contains recordings, letters, artwork, poetry, unpublished work and notebooks.

apnews.com

Playwright August Wilson’s archive headed home to Pittsburgh

The archives of the acclaimed American playwright August Wilson, which his widow, Constanza Romero, describes as a “treasure trove of material,” are headed to the University of Pittsbur…

www.chicagotribune.com

August Wilson’s literary archive is coming home

The University of Pittsburgh has acquired the literary archive of August Wilson, a masterful storyteller and Pittsburgh native who illuminated the Black...

www.post-gazette.com

Pitt Library System acquires August Wilson archive

An adage taken from the title of a Thomas Wolfe novel states, “You can’t go home again.” However, August Wilson is doing just that. Or at least his archive is. The University of Pittsburgh Library System (ULS) has acquired the August Wilson archive with the help of Wilson’s widow, Constanza

triblive.com

Archive site:

Request Rejected

www.augustwilson.library.pitt.edu

 

[TempleBAPittMPA]

That's huge.

 

[jivecat]

Think we can resell it for an on campus stadium?

 

[pittchagg]

Between this and Pitt acquiring the George Romero archives last year, it’s definitely two pretty significant acquisitions by the library system in a short period. This release specifically highlights the library’s newly-renovated special collections section - I wouldn’t be surprised if Pitt continues to be competitive in acquiring other collections like this.

 

[PittAU]

Good job.

 

[King Of All Message Boards]

Think we can resell it for an on campus stadium?

Maybe. But make sure they get the land via eminent domain first.

 

[IRoar4Pitt]

What a wonderful move, does Pitt now have control of the August Wilson Museum downtown?

 

[Panther_in_Kentucky]

This is SO Irrelevant to me. In all seriousness, so what?

 

[pbrad]

I guess this is good news. Do recruits know who August Wilson was?

 

[CrazyPaco]

What a wonderful move, does Pitt now have control of the August Wilson Museum downtown?

No, I'm sure they'll be collaborating with it quite a bit, including lending materials to display, going forward.

 

[pitt-girl]

No, I'm sure they'll be collaborating with it quite a bit, including lending materials to display, going forward.

Paco - I know nothing about acquiring archives. Is this a cash transaction or just donated? And why are some schools like UT much more successful in obtaining them?

Given the historical nature, do regular people actually get to interact with all the material or is it just displayed?

 

[IRoar4Pitt]

The Hill District’s August Wilson who never graduated from High School, but was so well read that the Carnegie Library granted him a rare high school degree went on to be one of America‘s greatest playwright winning Tony and Pulitzers for his Century Cycle of plays mostly taking place in Pittsburgh. I use to sneak away and and go to George Aiken’s on the Hill for chicken and ran into him a few times “Tam“ an all, you knew immediately you were with someone uniquely talented. This will further Hillman as one of the great Libraries in America and will make PITT a lot of money. Be Proud!

 

[King Of All Message Boards]

This is a football board so in that context it means nothing. But other topics do get discussed here. I’m not big into the arts myself. But things like this are good for the University at large. And particularly nice since he’s about as local as one could be.

 

[TheFormula]

This is SO Irrelevant to me. In all seriousness, so what?

And mourning the loss of Sean Connery in another thread is relevant to you. Different strokes I guess

 

[TempleBAPittMPA]

This is SO Irrelevant to me. In all seriousness, so what?

Locker Room regular?

 

[CrazyPaco]

Between this and Pitt acquiring the George Romero archives last year, it’s definitely two pretty significant acquisitions by the library system in a short period. This release specifically highlights the library’s newly-renovated special collections section - I wouldn’t be surprised if Pitt continues to be competitive in acquiring other collections like this.

Pitt is building some pretty good niche collections. Both of these were big acquisitions that keep locally-tied archives in their home region and are significant enough to serve as cornerstones of building go-to repositories for academic research in these areas.

For example, Daniel Kraus deposited his papers with Pitt specifically because of Pitt's acquisition of Romero. It builds on the foundation and lays the framework of Pitt becoming a center for horror studies.

People may not realize how big August Wilson has blown up in the last decade or so. Wilson is well on his way to being considered one of the greatest playwrightes in world history, and I think clearly the he is already consider preeminent black playwright in history. I believe time will only add to his stature. In my view, this is nearly like getting the archives of Arthur Miller or Tennessee Williams (both at UT); it is a major get and Pitt. This is one way academic reputations are built because people that want to study individuals or fields, will go to where the source material is.

 

[CrazyPaco]

Paco - I know nothing about acquiring archives. Is this a cash transaction or just donated? And why are some schools like UT much more successful in obtaining them?

Given the historical nature, do regular people actually get to interact with all the material or is it just displayed?

Some are donated, some are acquired. This one Pitt acquired for an undisclosed amount, and it had plenty of competition for it from major libraries. UT bought Arthur Miller's papers for $2.7 million in 2018. I doubt Pitt paid that much, but I'm also sure Wilson's widow was well compensated.

Pitt actually started publishing an August Wilson Journal last year: https://augustwilson.pitt.edu/ojs/augustwilson
and Pitt's Press is going to be publishing an academic book on his works soon. I'm sure that academic work, and already having Vernell Lillie's and Bob Johnson's papers, gave Pitt the inside track.

Shifting gears, Pitt's library has a really good, first class archives and preservation center. It is a great place to donate personal collections for preservation, study, and posterity. I don't know why more people don't consider it.

 

[pittchagg]

Pitt is building some pretty good niche collections. Both of these were big acquisitions that keep locally-tied archives in their home region and are significant enough to serve as cornerstones of building go-to repositories for academic research in these areas.

For example, Daniel Kraus deposited his papers with Pitt specifically because of Pitt's acquisition of Romero. It builds on the foundation and lays the framework of Pitt becoming a center for horror studies.

People may not realize how big August Wilson has blown up in the last decade or so. Wilson is well on his way to being considered one of the greatest playwrightes in world history, and I think clearly the he is already consider preeminent black playwright in history. I believe time will only add to his stature. In my view, this is nearly like getting the archives of Arthur Miller or Tennessee Williams (both at UT); it is a major get and Pitt. This is one way academic reputations are built because people that want to study individuals or fields, will go to where the source material is.

A few days late on this: it was a big miss for Pitt a decade or so ago when Derrick Bell - a Pitt law alumnus who went on to be perhaps the nation’s preeminent black legal scholar - decided to donate his papers to NYU, where he was a longtime professor. To Pitt’s enormous credit, they’ve put in the work to cultivate the relationships and library facilities necessary to acquire these types of once-in-a-lifetime collections.

 

[Pitt79]

I guess this is good news. Do recruits know who August Wilson was?

I don't know who August Wilson was. Can he coach football?

 

[Pitt79]

This is what you talk about when your football team sucks!

 

[Panther Holla]

Anybody check to see if ol' Augie diagrammed any football plays in the margins of his manuscripts?

 

[CrazyPaco]

A few days late on this: it was a big miss for Pitt a decade or so ago when Derrick Bell - a Pitt law alumnus who went on to be perhaps the nation’s preeminent black legal scholar - decided to donate his papers to NYU, where he was a longtime professor. To Pitt’s enormous credit, they’ve put in the work to cultivate the relationships and library facilities necessary to acquire these types of once-in-a-lifetime collections.

That's not unusual. Most academics would donate their papers to the place they were employed as faculty.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

when Derrick Bell - a Pitt law alumnus who went on to be perhaps the nation’s preeminent black legal scholar

And the inventor of "Operation Shutdown"!

 

[ERICCARTMAN]

I believe PITT also acquired Dick Thornburgh's papers relative to his career as governor, attorney general and U.S. ambassador to the UN. What is there, that for the most part,is not already public?

 

[pittchagg]

I believe PITT also acquired Dick Thornburgh's papers relative to his career as governor, attorney general and U.S. ambassador to the UN. What is there, that for the most part,is not already public?

This is true, though it was back in 1998. Having these types of archives are more relevant for academics than the general public. For example, I have a relative who has written a few books about Martin Luther King and Jackie Robinson, and during the writing process spent months at the MLK archives at Boston University. In your example, someone writing a book about Three Mile Island might find the Thornburgh archives at Pitt useful for his notes or journals. Things like that.

There are some more public-facing aspects: Pitt can put some of George Romero’s movie materials on public display, and there are some interesting items from Wilson’s collection that they can display, too. And there are some minor revenue avenues: Pitt is one of the few places to own a complete collection of Audubon’s original bird illustrations, and you can purchase full-size, professional-quality prints of those illustrations from Pitt’s library for a couple hundred bucks or so. But they mostly just increase the prestige for the school, especially when the archive acquired is for a person of national renown like Wilson, or is used to jump-start a larger project like Romero.