Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mid-Century Convocation on the Social Implications of Scientific Progress records

The collection is arranged into two series. Series I contains thirty-seven 7 1/2 ips 7-inch reel-to-reel audio tapes of the three general assemblies and six panel discussions held during the 1949 mid-century celebrations. The speakers at the assemblies were Julius A. Stratton, Sir Winston Churchill, and Harold E. Stassen. Panel members of "The Problem of World Production" were Vannevar Bush, Charles P. Kindleberger, W. Rupert Maclaurin, Frank W. Notestein, Fairfield Osborn, Robert P. Russell, and Sir Henry Tizard. Panel members of "Science, Materialism, and the Human Spirit" were Everett M. Baker, Julius S. Bixler, Percy W. Bridgman, Karl W. Deutsch, Jacques Maritain, and Walter T. Stace. Panel members of "Specialization in the 20th Century" were Sidney Hook, Frederic Lilge, Sir Richard Livingstone, Andrey A. Potter, Phillip J. Rubon, Thomas K. Sherwood, and Charles A. Thomas. Panel members of "The Problem of the Underdeveloped Area" were James M. Barker, Richard M. Bissell, Jr., William Malcolm, Sir Ramaswami Mudaliar, Norman J. Padelford, and Nelson A. Rockefeller. Panel members of "The Role of the Individual in a World of Institutions" were Douglass V. Brown, Erwin D. Canham, Carlos Contreras, Ralph E. Flanders, Clinton S. Golden, and Merle A. Tuve. Panel members of "The State, Industry and the University" were Laird Bell, Lee A. DuBridge, Bryn J. Hovde, Peter H. Odegard, John D. Russell, and Julius A. Stratton.

Also included are tapes of the inauguration of James R. Killian, April 2, 1949, and a microfilm copy of a scrapbook on the MIT Mid-Century Convocation with schedules of events and a map of the MIT campus; photographs; and newspaper clippings containing quotes, speech texts, and photographs.

Boxes 7 and 8 contain the texts of various convocation panel presentations, notes, the General Program bulletin, two issues of MIT Development Program News with articles covering the event, and correspondence. These materials were compiled by John E. Burchard for his book Mid-Century: The Social Implications of Scientific Progress (Cambridge, 1950). Also included in box 8 are four video recordings, one of which contains 1949 video footage of the convocation.

Series 2 includes the remaining three video recordings in box 8. The videos in Series 2 are retrospective and were created in 1999 as part of a collaborative exhibit celebrating the 50th anniversary of the convocation. The exhibit, titled “On the Edge of the Future: The Mid-Century Convocation at MIT,” was put together by the Institute Archives and Special Collections and the MIT Museum and featured historic photographs in addition to the video recordings. Two of the videos show an interview with Tom Toohey, who was president of the Class of 1949 and had the honor of sitting on stage during Winston Churchill’s address. The other video is a documentary-style piece featuring Tom Toohey’s recollections about Winston Churchill’s participation in the convocation, in addition to convocation footage.