A brief history of the IPS collection and its internal recordkeeping practices will help
researchers locate useful material and understand gaps in the documentation, which are
numerous. The first IPS records, almost 170 cartons, were received by the Archives of the
Wisconsin Historical Society in 1993; over the next six years, small additions totaling an
additional 20 cubic feet were accessioned. The Archives also accessioned personal papers
from Arthur Ocean Waskow (Mss 5) and Robb Burlage (Mss 359), two individuals associated with
IPS, that were separately catalogued. In 2005, Saul Landau donated a personal collection of
his documentary films to the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research housed in the
Historical Society building that was separately catalogued under his own name, although many
of Landau's paper files were part of the previously-received IPS records. The Landau
donation included fifteen videotapes of IPS-sponsored discussion panels dating from 1981 to
2005 and one film about the Letelier-Moffitt assassination. They have been transferred to
the IPS collection. Since 1999 no further IPS records have been received in the Archives.
Except for the videotapes donated by Saul Landau, the chronological coverage of the IPS
collection ends during the 1990s, with only isolated items dating after 1993.
Following the overall arrangement used in the IPS office, the collection is arranged into
five series, ADMINISTRATIVE FILES, FELLOWS' FILES, REFERENCE FILES, VISUAL MATERIALS and
AUDIO RECORDINGS. Documentation of the organization and early history of the institute is
limited; see the Arthur Ocean Waskow papers for more information on the early history.
During its early years IPS was administered by the senior fellows with the assistance of
administrative assistants. In 1978 Robert Borosage was hired as the first executive director
and an increasingly professional administrative staff developed. Some of these office
records are present as part of the ADMINISTRATIVE FILES series. Unlike the files of the
fellows, these records represent functional activities of multiple staff members: primarily
education, development and fundraising, and publications. The Administrative Files are
arranged alphabetically by office name or function, the chief exception being the Board of
Trustees and internal committee records and the central file of Raskin and Barnet's early
outgoing correspondence. Also included is an artificially-created subject file for the
material received without identifying provenance.
Researchers should particularly note that the Administrative Files initially included no
centralized files about the meetings of the IPS Board of Trustees or its interntive Files
initially included no centralized files about the meetings of the IPS Board of Trustees or
its internal administrative committees. (It is possible that the official board records are
still in the IPS office in Washington, but they were not received in Wisconsin.) Instead,
board minutes, agenda, and background material were scattered in the papers of individual
fellows. Since the board records are fundamental for examining IPS policy and
decision-making, the documentation about board meetings was removed from the fellows' files
and consolidated in the administrative series.
The consolidated files are still incomplete; some meetings are represented only by brief
minutes, while others contain substantial quantities of material used to inform
decision-making such as financial reports and program proposals. There are no board files
after 1993, and files are limited before that year. Minutes and records of the institute's
chief administrative committees were consolidated into the administrative files in a similar
manner.
Part of the administrative records are publications and other materials originally housed
in the IPS Library. This section consists of reference copies of publications by fellows (of
both IPS and TNI) and many publications of the institute itself. Books from the IPS Library
were transferred to the Historical Society Library, but titles outside the Society's scope
(primarily international subjects) have been retained in the Archives collection. In
general, the IPS library contains articles and other brief publications. Also, in the
Archives small quantities of loose papers pertaining to fellows otherwise represented in the
collection were added to the Library files. This material varies and may include
biographical information, internal IPS correspondence and memoranda, and project proposals.
The Library also maintained a collection of tape recordings of IPS seminars and other public
events.
The documented IPS departments are the Development Office, the Ph.D. Program, the
Publications Office, and the Washington School. The Development Office files represent the
work of Larry Bostian and Lorraine C. Kennedy, who successively headed IPS fundraising
efforts during the latter half of the 1980s. Although only a few years are covered, the
files document the increasingly professional marketing strategy adopted by the institute,
the 25th anniversary fundraising appeal, and the financial planning for specific projects.
Also present is information on individual donors and prospective donors, sometimes including
the amounts contributed.
The Ph.D. program, which IPS operated in conjunction with Union Graduate School, is
represented by files on individual students and by general administrative materials. The
Ph.D. program was supervised first by Len Rodberg and later by Philip Brenner, and their
files contain correspondence, applications, statements of research interests, and some
writings, but no dissertations. No grades are included so these files can be considered open
for research. A detailed examination of the Ph.D. program and the role of students at IPS
carried out in 1968 is the highlight of the small quantity of general administrative
material.
The Publications Office records document only minimal editorial work. Rather, they are the
promotional files of Miriam Smartout and others. In addition to alphabetically-arranged
author correspondence, the files include book reviews.
The Washington School records consist primarily of low-level administrative papers
concerned with arrangements for classes. Typical contents include course descriptions,
catalogs, evaluations, and class lists, and only occasional syllabi or materials used for
teaching.
Also part of the ADMINISTRATIVE FILES series is a group of alphabetically-arranged Subject
Files for which there was no identifying provenance. Prominent contents are financial
records of various types, clippings about the Letelier-Moffitt case, course materials for
congressional seminars during the 1960s, and files on the Transnational Institute (TNI).
Most of the information on the controversial reorganization of the Institute that took place
in the mid-1970s can also be found here. The TNI records are filed here because they are not
the true records of that organization, whose offices are in Amsterdam, in the collection.
Instead, they are unofficial documents extracted from the files of individual fellows in the
Washington office much like the previously-described IPS board records. The resulting
material includes incomplete runs of minutes, reports, and agenda materials for Planning
Board and the TNI fellows meetings, memoranda, progress reports, program statements, and
general grant applications. (The TNI website indicates that part of the TNI archives, dating
from 1973 to 1991, are housed at the International Institute of Social History in
Amsterdam.)
The alphabetically-arranged FELLOWS' FILES, which is the largest series, primarily
documents senior fellows Richard Barnet, Saul Landau, Isabel Letelier, and Marcus Raskin and
executive directors Robert Borosage and Diana DeVegh. Of these, Barnet and Raskin are most
extensive. Smaller, incomplete files document Robb Burlage, John Cavanagh, Barbara
Ehrenreich, Chester Hartman, Paul Jacobs, Milton Kotler, Michael Moffitt, Sasha Natapoff,
Orlando Letelier, Gareth Porter, Julia Sweig, Barbara Wein, and Roger Wilkins. These people
held a variety of titles at IPS ranging from Orlando Letelier, who headed the Transnational
Institute, to Julia Sweig, a project fellow who staffed the Cuban prisoners study project.
John Cavanagh later became director of the institute, but his files represent only his
earlier project work. The FELLOWS' FILES are arranged alphabetically, regardless of the
title of the individual. The work of many IPS fellows, interns, and students is
undocumented.
The IPS fellows generally maintained their own files, and to the extent possible this
scheme has been preserved in the Archives. Given its early free-wheeling nature, it is not
surprising that IPS placed little importance on consistent and well organized filing. As a
result, record-keeping practices of the individual fellows varied. Some, with help from the
administrative assistants, maintained relatively good files; others filed their papers
haphazardly, often without labels or labeled in a manner that had only short term meaning.
Tina Smith, who was the administrative fellow during the early period, did establish a joint
file for the senior fellow's outgoing correspondence, but this system soon ended. Another
product of the institute's decentralized filing system was that the collection, as received
in the Archives, contained redundant material. When possible, this has been eliminated.
Additionally, some material received with the fellow's files exhibited no connection to
institute programs. This material was separated to the alphabetically-arranged REFERENCE
FILES.
The content of each fellow's files varied and it is not possible to describe the details in
this narrative. In general, the files of the senior fellows and the executive directors
document the full range of institute activities, although in varying degrees of
completeness. Their special projects, such as Marcus Raskin's extensive files on the
reconstruction of knowledge, are typical examples. The senior fellows' correspondence
includes some of the leading liberal intellectuals and activists of the period including
Equal Ahmad, Gar Alperovitz, Michael Klare, George McGovern, Michael Manley, Seymour Melman,
Hans Morgenthau, David Riesman, Samuel Rubin, James P. Warburg, Paul Warnke, Peter Weiss,
and William Appleman Williams. Files of the junior fellows tend to document only their
individual specializations: typical examples are Chester Hartman's work on housing, Milton
Kotler's files on neighborhoods, Michael Moffitt's research and writings on the
International Monetary Fund, and Gareth Porter's work on the Japan-Korean conference of
1977.
Richard Barnet's papers consist of general correspondence, speeches and writings, and
subject files. Barnet's papers provide good coverage of his career as a writer and speaker
on public policy issues, but little coverage of his involvement in the internal
administration of IPS. Barnet's subject files touch on a variety of IPS responsibilities,
with the Real Security Education Project being the most extensively documented. There is
also information about his libel suit against author Brian Crozier. Involvement outside IPS
is represented by files on the Council on Economic Priorities, the Committee for National
Security, and World Peacemakers, all organizations for which Barnet served as a board
member.
Robert Borosage's files consist of files pertaining to his leadership of the National
Center for Defense Studies (NCSS) as well as his later IPS files. The IPS files are further
divided into general correspondence and subject files. Well documented by minutes,
correspondence, and legal records is information about the Campaign to Stop Government
Spying project, for which NCSS was one of the sponsoring organizations; several FOIA suits
in which NCSS represented the plaintiffs; and an investigation of the Law Enforcement
Administration that NCSS supported. A suit involving IPS begun while Borosage was with NCSS
is filed with the IPS records.
Borosage's IPS files include chronologically-arranged correspondence covering the period
from 1977 to 1988, and subject files reflecting increased centralization of the
administration at IPS rather than the details of specific projects. Some projects are
represented by numerous draft proposals and reports. Some of the well documented projects
include the Government Accountability Project, International Economic Order, the Real
Security Education Program, and several projects concerning nuclear weapons and nuclear
power. Some of this section such as the files on the purchase and management of the IPS
properties, the extensively-documented FBI suit, and the litigation concerned with the
unionizing of IPS staff, and the gathering of information about the ongoing attacks from the
right-wing may reflect the fact that Borosage was also an attorney. Files on Countdown 87,
the Exploratory Project on the Conditions of Peace (ExPro), and the Changing Course project
of the Policy Alternatives for the Caribbean and Central America (PACCA) reflect his
representation of IPS to those organizations.
The files of Diana DeVegh, who became director in 1988, are less extensive than those of
Robert Borosage because of her shorter tenure. They reflect her overall responsibility for
fundraising and planning not only through correspondence, memoranda, and policy papers, but
also through handwritten notes about meetings. Particularly significant is the information
on oversight of the Transnational Institute, the restructuring of IPS into working groups,
and the investigation of Cuban prisons.
Papers pertaining to Fellow Saul Landau were received with and filed as part of the IPS
Records. Later, Landau donated his films to the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater
Research, and this material has been separately catalogued under his name. Only a small
quantity of paper documents Landau's film career, principally project proposals, draft
scripts, and occasional tape transcriptions for a few produced films such as Target Nicaragua. Landau's files include general correspondence,
primarily for the years 1977-1981, draft writings and research materials concerning the
Letelier-Moffitt assassination, and general subject files. Internal evidence suggests that
the material from Landau's investigation was part of a much larger classified reference file
not received by the Archives. Landau's writings, like his film work, frequently concern
Chile, Cuba, Nicaragua, and other Latin American countries. Also here are draft chapters for
Changing Course, a report of PACCA (Policy Alternatives for
the Caribbean and Central America). Landau was involved in the compilation and editing of
Changing Course, but does not appear to have been the
author.
Paul Jacobs' papers are only a small portion of the papers that once existed, probably
because he was only associated with IPS during the last years of his life. Included are
scripts and draft fragments for a 1970 film on the Atomic Energy Commission and a proposal,
draft scripts, developmental materials for a series to be entitled “To Serve the Devil.”
There are also extensive writings, both in published and manuscript form.
Isabel Letelier joined the IPS staff after the assassination of her husband, and she played
a key role in establishing the Third World human rights and international feminist programs
at IPS. The Third World Women's Project, which is extensively documented, was one of her
initiatives. Records of two organizations in which she played a leadership role, the Chile
Committee on Human Rights and the Working Group for Democracy in Chile, are also extensive.
Only a small quantity of material documents her husband Orlando Letelier's association with
the Transnational Institute.
The papers of Marcus Raskin are the largest of the fellow files in the collection. They
consist of correspondence, speeches and writings, and extensive subject files. The latter
include records about Raskin's massive reconstructive knowledge project, his federal budget
study, and the U.S.-USSR exchanges, and his involvement with the New Democratic Coalition
and Antioch College.
The VISUAL MATERIALS include prints, slides, negatives, videotapes, and a film. The
Photographs, slides, and negatives include portraits of individual fellows, institute
buildings, conferences, and staff meetings. Many color images document the U.S.-USSR
Exchange in Moscow. The videotapes primarily date from the 1990s to 2005, and consist of
panel discussions and presentations. One film is a conversation between Jacobo Timmerman and
I.F. Stone at the 1981 Letelier-Moffitt Award ceremony.
The AUDIO RECORDINGS, 1965-1994, include seminars, meetings, conferences and speeches on
topics associated with the work of IPS. Topics include Civil Rights, the Vietnam War and the
Cold War, disarmament, and women's rights. There is significant material about Chile,
Pinochet, and the assassination of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Karpen Moffitt in 1976. The
collection also includes interviews with Rita Mae Brown, E.L. Doctorow, Jonathan Kozol and
Marcus Raskin. The recordings have been arranged chronologically with undated recordings at
the end. The undated recordings are then arranged into three groups: alphabetically by first
word, with those recordings without titles or other information on the tape are at the end;
Spanish language and South/Central America materials arranged alphabetically; and
interviews, arranged alphabetically by surname.
