92NY Launches The Humanities Audio Collection Featuring Over 400 Archival Recordings

With public funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, The 92nd Street Y, New York has launched the 92NY Humanities Audio Collection, over 400 archival audio recordings of a wide range of programs dating back to 1950. The recordings are now available to the public on 92NY's website.

The Collection features lectures, conversations, debates and panel discussions across the fields of language arts, fine arts, performing arts, cinema, philosophy, history, and Jewish studies, as well as jurisprudence, anthropology, sociology, psychology, media studies, gender studies, and cultural studies. Over time, the Collection will feature many additional recordings; the NEH  grant made possible the digitization and preservation of over 800 in total. 

The archival recordings provide a truly distinguished record of public discourse on the questions and issues that helped define the second half of the twentieth century and first decade of the twenty-first century in America, and feature some of the period's most influential figures, including: Gore Vidal, William F. Buckley, Jessye Norman, Frank Gehry, Gloria Steinem, Anthony Lewis, Maya Lin, Alex Katz, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Jeff Koons, Pauline Kael, Edward O. Wilson, Marian Wright Edelman, Neil Simon, William Wegman, Paul Taylor, Frank Stella, Helen Frankenthaler, Stanley Crouch, Eugene Borowitz, Camille Paglia and Vincent Canby, among many others.

Topics include: The Nature of Human Consciousness; Film Criticism; Individual Liberty and Civil Order; Transcending the War Between the Sexes, Israel and the Middle East; Young People: How To Understand and Relate to Them; Origins and Character of Yiddish, The Justification of Values; Sex, Art and American Culture; The Story Behind “America The Beautiful"; The Human Mind and History; Shape of the City; The Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt; and The Origin and Development of Religion, among many others.

The value of the Collection is further enhanced by its capture of speakers' spontaneous remarks afforded by informal commentary, personal reminiscences, and interaction with audience members. The question-and-answer sessions that follow nearly every event featured in this collection, in which speakers directly engage with audience members and respond to comments and questions, help bring the concerns and issues of the periods into focus, and the spontaneity afforded by these interactions offers rare glimpses into some of the greatest minds of the twentieth century. The collection also highlights 92NY's role in convening these events and its duty to preserve these historic moments as it looks to the future.

Central to 92NY's Humanities Audio Collection are recordings from one of America's longest-running public lecture series – 92NY's Lectures series, established in 1930, and now known as 92NY Talks. For decades, it has been a major platform in 92NY's efforts to stimulate social awareness, create a civic forum for the open consideration of issues both timely and timeless, and provide a platform for major intellectuals and artists in all genres to discuss their work.

“Throughout its 150-year history, 92NY has been a home for the intellectually curious, providing a platform for many of the great artists, scholars and thought leaders of the past century-and-a-half,” says 92NY CEO Seth Pinsky. “Thanks to this generous funding from the NEH, we can now share our latest archival treasure trove with the public for the first time – and there's no shortage of topics to explore. We hope that the Collection will be an invaluable contribution to humanities research and scholarship, foster public appreciation and create greater understanding of the humanities. We look forward to sharing many more recordings in the future.”

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this article or in the Collection do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

About The 92nd Street Y, New York: 

The 92nd Street Y, New York (92NY) is a world-class center for the arts and innovation, a convener of ideas, and an incubator for creativity. Now celebrating its 150th  anniversary, 92NY offers extensive classes, courses and events online including live concerts, talks and master classes; fitness classes for all ages; 250+ art classes, and parenting workshops for new moms and dads. The 92nd Street Y, New York is transforming the way people share ideas and translate them into action all over the world. All of 92NY's programming is built on a foundation of Jewish values, including the capacity of civil dialogue to change minds; the potential of education and the arts to change lives; and a commitment to welcoming and serving people of all ages, races, religions, and ethnicities. For more information, visit  www.92NY.org.