Charles W. Vaughn held at least three positions at NET: Program Associate for Science and Executive Producer of Science Programs prior to 1963 and Director of Development from 1963-1965. Since his background was solely in radio and television, he made a concerted effort to acquaint himself with education and science in general by attending science education programs in schools, attending conferences of science teacher societies, and by reading widely to stay abreast of new developments in science.

As program associate, Vaughn gradually became solely responsible for reading program proposals from other production companies and screening films set to N.E.T. for possible purchase and syndication. For example, Vaughn's office handled correspondence pertaining to proper distribution of science films from Bloomington, Indiana and proper processing of films at Ann Arbor. Vaughn, himself, wrote the proposal for a series,The Environmental Revolution. He became responsible for script content in another series, Population, for which he made a two-month, worldwide research trip. Shortly after this trip, Vaughn was promoted to Executive Producer, apparently a newly devised post. Shortly thereafter, with the reorganization funded by a Ford grant, Vaughn was made Director of Development for NET.

Most of Vaughn's work in Science Programming dealt with programs produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which were directed toward an adult audience. Strangely enough, there is almost no information on the two programs for which Vaughn served as a writer (creator) that were mentioned, Population and Environmental Revolution. For information on those two, see the production files for each of them that follow Vaughn's files in this sub-series.

With the exception of the general correspondence file for August-December 1962, such files as we have of Vaughn's (which are mighty few) appear to be complete. Upon taking the post of Program Associate for Science Programming, Vaughn kept some of the background files formerly under the supervision of E. G. Cohen, Program Associate in 1961, which contain transcripts of speeches and general policy statements regarding the desired goals of NET Science Programming. The files cover the period 1961-1964 and are arranged in the following general sequence: General Correspondence Background Materials for his post, Vaughn's Research Correspondence and materials from government and private organizations, and Materials relating to specific series either proposed or finished.

These files for The Environmental Revolution consist of research materials, proposals, and outlines.

No actual production files are included, which is not surprising, since the series was produced outside of NET, by U.S.P. Productions. NET, however, hired two researchers, Ellen Levine and Robert Burnap, to do the necessary research for the series. Some of Burnap's personal files are included here. He was head of the Delaware Wildlife Federation and an officer of several other New England conservation groups. His files from the Delaware Wildlife Federation include files of the Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference, the World Wildlife Fund, and others. These were kept together as one unit under the name of the Federation within the research files. Primarily, they document the functions and activities of the federation, but they also contain documentation on Burnap's activity therein.

The proposal drafts for the series contain notes by Ellen Levine. The three copies of the transcript of an environmental conference held in July 1963 and attended for NET by Charles Vaughn, are annotated. Each represents a different stage of revision for publication.

Comprising six hour-long programs (Europe-“The European Experience”; Japan-“Born in Japan”; USA-“Time for Decision”; Brazil-“The Gathering Millions”; India-“Writings on the Sand”; and human reproduction-“A Gift of Choice”), the population series was to be produced by United States Productions, an independent film company under contract with NET. USP and NET worked closely with the Population Council on the demographic content of the series and the Population Council assumed content responsibility for the series. When the project was well under way, Al Butterfield, the U. S. Productions Executive Producer, died of a brain tumor. Later, NET was not satisfied with the quality of the rough footage and assumed direct production control of the series through Charles Vaughn, NET's Executive Producer of the series (as a counterpart to Butterfield) from its inception.

Staff: USP

• Francis C. Thayer, President
• Alfred Butterfield, Chairman (died of a malignant brain tumor during the course of producing the series.)
• Tom Hollyman, Executive Producer-Population series
• Susan Allen, Ass't to Executive Producer
• Editor: Bengt Sommerschied
• Director, Europe- John Ingram
• Director, Japan- John Ingram additional footage shot by David Hardy
• Director, USA - Jonathan Donald
• Director, India- (Pre-Monsoon) Joseph Brun (Post-Monsoon) David Hardy
• Director, Brazil- Jonathan Donald
• Writers: (Population) John (Jack) Blay and David Burke
• Associate Producer, Population and Human Repro: Clem Stigdon
• Writer and Director, Human Repro: Richard Lukin

• Executive Producer: Charles Vaughn
• Producer, Human Repro: Arthur Lodge

Population has the most complete sample of document types used in producing a television series of any in the collection. From planning to on-the-air production, the files cover the period 1962-1965. They are arranged with general information on the series followed by individual programs as follows: General; The European Experience; Born in Japan; Time for Decision; Writings on the Sand; The Gathering Millions; and A Gift of Choice. The materials pertaining to each program are arranged as nearly as possible by production order and chronologically within the folders.