To learn more about this collection please see the finding aid link found above, and/or visit the College and Lutheran Church Archives to use these primary sources.
Nobel Conference. Nobel Conference Collection, 1965-Ongoing. GACA Collection 92. 10 Records Center Cartons, 3 ½ Hollinger boxes, 5 flat boxes, 1 cassette box, 4 video boxes, and digital media.
ABSTRACT:
The Nobel Conference collection contains many different types of materials dealing with both the planning for the conferences and the conferences themselves. These items include planning materials, like curriculum vitae and papers from conference speakers, mock-ups for the print shop, and correspondence. There are publicity items consisting of press releases, mailers, flyers, posters and programs. The collection holds transcripts and published books of the conferences. It also contains different types of media consisting of reel-to-reels, audio cassettes, digital audio tapes, Beta tapes, VHS tapes, CDs, DVDs, and digital video.
Inside most programs for the Nobel Conference, a history of the conference can be found. It explains the beginnings of the conference and how it came to be held at Gustavus. A history from one such program follows.
“The first ongoing educational conference in the United States to have the official authorization of the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden, the Nobel Conference at Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, Minnesota, links a general audience with the world’s foremost scholars and researchers in conversations centered on contemporary issues related to the natural and social sciences.
Gustavus Adolphus College was founded by Swedish immigrants in 1862. Throughout its history, it has continued to honor its Swedish heritage and its commitment to excellence in education. As the College prepared to build a new science hall in the early 1960s, College officials asked the Nobel Foundation for permission to name the building the Alfred Nobel Hall of Science as a memorial to the great Swedish inventor and philanthropist. Permission was granted, and the facility’s dedication ceremony in 1963 included officials from the Nobel Foundation as well as 26 Nobel laureates.
Following the 1963 Nobel Prize ceremonies in Stockholm, College representatives met with Nobel Foundation officials, asking them to endorse an annual science conference at the College and to allow use of the Nobel name to establish credibility and high standards. At the urging of several prominent Nobel laureates, the foundation granted the request, and the first conference was held at the College in January 1965.
For four decades, world-class research scientists and scholars have come together to discuss leading topics in science with audiences of thousands.”
*Taken from collection.
This collection is divided yearly by conferences and arranged chronologically. Each is further broken down into five categories: planning materials, publicity, transcript, published book, and media.
Planning materials contains anything dealing with the planning and execution of a Nobel Conference; this can include curriculum vitae and papers from conference speakers, mock-ups for the print shop, correspondence, and much more.
Publicity includes conference press releases, programs, mailers, flyers, and posters.
Transcript holds the typed transcript for a conference. These were most often printed in the first years of the conference, but were replaced with the published book; some years do contain both though.
Published book is for a published bound copy of a conference transcript. This can also include correspondence and other materials relating to the publishing of the book. The books were only published up to 1990.
Media is made up of Audio Cassettes, Digital Audio Tapes (DAT), Betamax tapes, VHS tapes, CDs, and DVDs from the conferences.
