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Judith Bregman Collection, 1966-1993

Call Number

RG.013

Dates

1966-1993, inclusive
; 1966-1970, bulk

Creator

Extent

4.5 Cubic Feet collection contains 35 16mm films.

Language of Materials

Materials entirely in English.

Abstract

Judith Bregman was a professor of Physics at Polytechnic Institute of New York from 1957 until her death in 1978. During her time at Poly, she developed an interest in the preparation of instructional films, and is perhaps most well-known for her film 'Symmetry', which was created in 1966 in cooperation with Alan Holden, Richard Davisson, and Philip Stapp. This collection is comprised of 16 mm films Bregman helped to create and mass-produced educational films she used for classroom instruction. Some personal information about Bregman and her work is also included in the collection.

Biographical / Historical

Judith Bregman was a professor of Physics at Polytechnic Institute of New York from 1957 until her death in 1978. A graduate of Bryn Mawr and Cornell University, Bregman specialized in the areas of physical chemistry, x-ray crystallography, electron diffraction, and light scattering. During her time at Poly, she developed an interest in the preparation of instructional films, and is perhaps most well-known for her film 'Symmetry', which was created in 1966 in cooperation with Alan Holden, Richard Davisson, and Philip Stapp. The film received much attention, and was even shown at the Museum of Modern Art. She also participated in the making of other films, such as 'Aspects of Symmetry'. She died of cancer on October 2, 1978 at the age of 57.

Source: The above information is from Bregman's obituary in Physics Today, which can be found at Phillips, M. (1978). Judith Bregman. Physics Today. 31(12), 71. doi: 10.1063/1.2994888

Arrangement

Series I - Series VII contain the personal papers of Judith Bregman, arranged by subject. Some of the correspondence, film distribution, and Bregman Film Account documents were maintained by physics professor Hellmut Juretschke after Bregman's death in 1978.

Series VIII contains 35 16mm films, arranged in their original order, as determined by Bregman, with miscellaneous audio/visual materials at the end.

Series IX contains 5 shipping containers in which some of the film reels were originally stored.

Scope and Contents

This collection consists largely of the 16mm films which comprised Bregman's personal "film library" in the Physics Department at NYU-Poly. Included are 35 films of varying length and content; the some in color and some with audio. A number of the films, the ones to be found in Subseries A, were created by or for Polytechnic with the help of Bregman herself; the most notable of these is Symmetry. The remainder are films used by Bregman for class instruction and cover topics such as crystallography, quantum mechanics, and light scattering.

The collection also contains five film reel shipping containers in which the films were originally stored. The films are also accompanied by correspondence, grant proposals and contracts, reviews and articles of the films, film stills from Symmetry, documents from the Bergman Film Library account, and biographical materials about Bregman.

Conditions Governing Access

Open for research without restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

Permission to publish materials must be obtained from:

Poly Archives & Special Collections Bern Dibner Library of Science and Technology 5 MetroTech Center Brooklyn, NY 11201

Phone: (718) 260-3943 Fax: (718) 260-3756 E-mail: archives@library.poly.edu

Preferred Citation

Identification of item, date; Judith Bregman Collection; RG 013; box number; folder number or item identifier; Poly Archives at Bern Dibner Library of Science and Technology, New York University.

Location of Materials

Box 1: Shelf 41/2F Box 2: Shelf 41/2F Box 3: Shelf 41/3F Box 4: Shelf 41/3F Bern Dibner Library of Science and Technology 5 MetroTech Center Brooklyn, New York, 11201 (646) 997-3943 polyarchives@nyu.edu

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The film reels and containers were transferred to Bern Dibner Library of Technology & Science from the Physics Department in 1995 and stored in a glass and metal cabinet in the archives. Preliminary lists and finding aids were found in the cabinet when assessed in 2013.

Collection processed by

Sophia Dahab and Lindsay Anderberg

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-09-07 12:06:52 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: English (eng)

Revisions to this Guide

November 2021: Finding aid revised and edited by Zoe Blecher-Cohen, Mandy Abokhair, and Aileen Thong in 2021 to update the institutional change from NYU-Poly to NYU and for compliance with DACS Required Elements for Archival Description.

Repository

Poly Archives at the Bern Dibner Library of Science and Technology, NYU Libraries
Poly Archives at Bern Dibner Library of Science and Technology
Bern Dibner Library of Science and Technology
5 MetroTech Center
Brooklyn, NY 11201