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Michael Zuckerman Papers
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Held at: University of Pennsylvania: University Archives and Records Center [Contact Us]3401 Market Street, Suite 210, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Pennsylvania: University Archives and Records Center. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
Michael Zuckerman was born in Philadelphia in 1939. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with an A.B. in 1961 and obtained his Ph.D. in the History of American Civilization from Harvard University in 1967. He started teaching history at Penn in 1965 and was promoted to Assistant Professor in 1967, Associate Professor in 1970, and Professor in 1984. His research interests have focused on American social history and colonial American history. His major publications include Peaceable Kingdoms: New England Towns in the Eighteenth Century (1970), Friends and Neighbors: Group Life in America's First Plural Society (1982), Almost Chosen People: Oblique Biographies in the American Grain (1993), and Beyond the Century of the Child: Cultural History and Developmental Psychology (2003). In addition, he has published more than one hundred articles and dozens of book reviews.
Zuckerman has won numerous awards and honors including a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship for 1961-2, a Woodrow Wilson dissertation fellowship for 1964-5, a Social Science Research Council fellowship for 1968, a Senior Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities for 1972-3, an American Council of Learned Societies, a Fulbright, and a Guggenheim fellowship for 1977-8 (all declined), a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship for 1978-9, a Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study fellowship for 1997-8, and a Bellagio Fellowship for 1998. He also received Penn's Lindback Award for teaching. In the spring of 1984, he assumed the directorship of a major history research project for a comprehensive study of "The Transformation of Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley, 1750 - 1850." The project was supported by enormous grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities from 1983 to 1990 and engaged a large group of researchers from both this country and overseas.
The collection documents the career and achievement of Michael Zuckerman as a history professor and researcher.
The collection is divided in two sections: the first section, 15 cubic feet in volume, was processed in 1998; the second section, 22 c.f., was processed in 2009.
The first section has been organized into the following series: Correspondence and administrative files, 1961-1995; Manuscripts, papers and notes, [1957]-1985; Teaching files, 1965-1995; Other professional papers, 1960-1994; and Van Pelt College House Faculty Master file, 1989-1992.
The Correspondence and administrative files include correspondence during his years at Harvard University, records of the Phil-A-KID project (a Hands-on History Workshop for elementary and middle-school-age children), and files recording his activities as member of Penn's University Development Commission and as member of the Council of University Scholars.
The Manuscripts, papers, and notes series consists of manuscripts of two of Zuckerman's projects - After the Revolution: The Smithsonian History of Everyday Life in the Eighteenth Century and Peaceable Kingdoms: New England Towns in the Eighteenth Century - as well as papers written and notes taken while a student.
The Teaching files make up the biggest series of the section. It is divided into these sub-groups: student papers for courses Zuckerman has taught at Penn ranging from History 100 freshman seminars to graduate classes, Senior Honors Theses completed under his guidance, dissertation projects he has advised, and book projects of former students.
The series of Other professional papers includes his editorship of the collection Friends and Neighbors from 1981 to 1982, participation in the National Faculty-Smithsonian Program in Material Culture from 1993 to 1994, reviews of books, articles and grant applications, and directorship of the major NEH project "Transformation of Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley, 1750-1850."
The Van Pelt College House Faculty Master file records his incumbency of that position from 1989 to 1992. This file, though small, records his cordial relationship with the students as well as his innovative ways in handling this job.
The second section consists of four major groupings as follows:
1. Teaching files, 1976-2007. This series includes Course teaching (with related correspondence), Student papers (with voluminous instructor's comments), Senior Honors theses, Doctoral student file, and History course readings assigned for various courses.
2. Manuscripts and publications, 1970-2007. This series includes Manuscripts and notes of papers for publication or presentation, which constitute by far the largest group in the section; Book reviews; and specific publication projects which includes five books authored or contributed to, namely, Almost Chosen People, Beyond the Century of the Child: Cultural History and Developmental Psychology, Encyclopedia of Community, Encyclopedia of the New American Nation, and Pennsylvania: a History of the Commonwealth. In addition, there is the correspondence of his consultancies on two video series for children - the Colonial Life for Children series by the Library Video Company, and Great Americans for Children by Schlessinger Media.
3. Other professional activities, 1969-2007. A major group in this series is the material on attendance at various formal conferences sponsored by national or international academic/professional institutions, which in most cases, includes comments contributed as panel member on specific sessions. Another major group is the file of Talks and lectures on various less formal occasions. Other professional activities represented in this series are Preceptorial, a file of talks or contributions on certain specific occasions; a project partially sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities entitled "Transformation of Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley, 1750-1850"; correspondence; Referral/recommendation letters requested; a General file of various subjects; and Clippings of miscellaneous interests.
4. Files of administrative and social activities, 1989-2007, which includes Student advising, Graduate applications, University Scholar Program, and the superintendence of the Van Pelt College House as Faculty Master from 1989 to 1992.
The collection is divided into two sections. Each section has generally been arranged alphabetically by subject.
Gift to the University Archives in 1995, 2001 and 2008.
Organization
Subject
Place
- United States -- History -- Study and teaching -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
- United States -- History -- Study and teaching -- 1783-1865
- United States -- History -- Research -- 1783-1865
- United States -- History -- Research -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
Occupation
- Publisher
- University of Pennsylvania: University Archives and Records Center
- Finding Aid Author
- Kaiyi Chen, revised by Mark F. Lloyd
- Finding Aid Date
- 1998, revised 2009
- Access Restrictions
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Access to collections is granted in accordance with the Protocols for the University Archives and Records Centers. Portions of this collection may be closed.