Karl R. Wallace Papers, 1898-1976
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Special Collections and University Archives, W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts Amherst
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Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Version 2002
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Karl R. Wallace Papers
Creation of Karl R. Wallace Papers
Time of Creation of Karl R. Wallace Papers
Wallace, Karl R.
Biographical History for: Karl R. Wallace Papers
Biographical Note Professional Activities:Speech Association of America. President, 1954; Executive Council, 1945-1960; Chairman, Committee on Nature of Field of Speech, 1963; Member, Wingspread Conference, Jan.25-27, 1970; Chairman, Finance Board; Member, Administrative Committee; Editor, Quarterly Journal of Speech, 1945-1947. Member, Eastern Speech Association, Southern Speech Association, central States Speech Association, Western Speech Association, Massachusetts Speech Association, New England Speech Association. American Association of University Professors. President, Illinois Chapter, 1957-1958. National Council of Teachers of English. College Conference on Composition; NCTE-SAA Committee on Rhetoric and the Teaching Thereof, 1964-1968. The Renaissance Society of America. Philosophy and Rhetoric, Editorial Board, 1968-1973. Author of:Francis Bacon on Communication and Rhetoric, 1943. Studies in Speech and Drama in Honor of Alexander M. Drummond, Eds. D.C. Bryant, B.W. Hewitt, K.R. Wallace, and H.A. Wichelns., 1944. Fundamentals of Public Speaking, with D.C.Bryant, 1947, 1953, 1960, 1969, 1974. Oral Communication, with D.C. Bryant, 1948, 1954, 1962. Background Studies in the History of Speech Education in America, Editor-in-Chief, 1954. Francis Bacon on the Nature of Man: The Faculties of Man's Soul, 1967. An Historical Anthology of Select British Speeches, Eds. D.C. Bryant, C.C. Arnold, F.W. Haberman, R. Murphy, K.R. Wallace, 1967. Understanding Discourse: The Speech Act and Rhetorical Action, 1970. Lectures Concerning Oratory by John Lawson, Ed. with E. Neal Claussen, 1972. For further bibliographic information on these books and for a list of the many articles by Wallace see the Biography folder in Box 1.
Biographical Note 1905Born November 10, Hubbardsville, New York. Parents Lew and Rena (Dart) W.1923Graduated Westfield, Pennsylvania, High School.1927B.A. Cornell University in English and Public Speaking.1927-1930Instructor, Assistant Professor of Speech, Iowa State College.1929Married Dorothy M. Pierce, August 27.1931M.A. Cornell University in Rhetoric, Drama.1931-1933Assistant and Instructor in Public Speaking, Cornell University.1933Ph.D. Cornell University in Rhetoric and Public Address, Drama and English History.1933-1936Assistant Professor of Speech, Iowa State College.1933, 1934 (summers)Assistant Professor of English, University of Missouri.1936-1937Assistant Professor of English in Charge of Speech, Washington University, St. Louis.1937-1947Associate Professor, Professor of Speech; Chairman, School of Speech, 1937-44; Chairman, School of Speech and Drama, 1944-47, University of Virginia.1947-1968Professor of Speech; Head, Department of Speech and Theater, University of Illinois.1954President, Speech Association of America.1954 (summer)Professor of Speech, University of Michigan.1956-1972Advisory editor in Speech, Dodd, Mead and Company.1968-1973Professor of Speech, University of Massachusetts Amherst.1973Died October 1973, Amherst, Massachusetts.
Acquired from Dorothy Wallace in 1974 and Jane Blankenship from 1974 to 1982.
Scope and Contents of the Collection Papers consist of the accumulated research notes and materials made and used by Wallace in his career as a teacher and author; drafts, reprints, and proofs of Wallace speeches, papers, articles, and books, both published and unpublished, often with accompanying correspondence, research notes, and/or contracts; lecture notes and classroom materials dating from his years as a student through those as a teacher; drafts and reprints of papers and articles by students and colleagues; correspondence; the reports, memoranda, correspondence, resolutions, agenda, notes on meetings, minutes, committee recommendations, position papers, newsletters, audit reports, budget recommendations, membership lists, itineraries, and programs documenting his leadership and active participation in professional organizations, conferences, and university committees. Wallace's chief academic interests were in Francis Bacon, especially as a theorist, but also as a practitioner; and in classical rhetorical theory, particularly Greek. His professional impact was a product of his commitment to both pedagogy and the development of the lot of the teacher of rhetoric. This came at a time when the field was undergoing great change. In addition he contributed substantially to the refinement of contemporary rhetorical theory. Wallace's students were exposed to a teacher with "...emphasis on the primacy of substance and ideas; ... concern for the ethical grounding of discourse; ... vision of rhetorical man as the whole 'person." (See "Karl R. Wallace: The Giver of Good Reasons", by Jane Blankenship in the Biography folder filed at the front of Box 1.) After the papers were received by the Library from Wallace's widow, Dorothy Wallace, they were arranged into series much as they now stand by Wallace's former student, Jane Blankenship, Professor of Communication Studies, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. In addition, Professor Blankenship gave to the collection tapes of lectures Wallace gave shortly before his death; of a panel discussion he participated in; and of a meeting of the Rhetorical Society at which his Understanding Discourse was discussed. When the materials are identified as a time period, the general arrangement is chronological, with folders in subseries regarding individuals or topics being arranged alphabetically. For the most part, subject headings on folders are those designated by Wallace himself. In Series 3, Speeches and Writings, the speeches are arranged alphabetically by title or by topic if no title had been assigned when the papers were received; the manuscript and typed papers by Wallace are also arranged alphabetically by title, but the reprints of his articles are arranged chronologically. The materials by others are arranged alphabetically by author. Within individual folders in the collection the order of materials is: Correspondence; typed and handwritten research notes and lecture notes; classroom notes; typed and carbon copies of papers by Wallace, then others; proofs; mimeographed or duplicated material; photocopied material; clippings. Many of the reprints of articles by colleagues are autographed with personal messages to Wallace. About one foot of Wallace's papers (1940-1968) is in the University of Illinois Archives (Urbana). Included are correspondence, lectures, publications and reports relating to the American Association of University Professors, the Speech Association of America, aspects of administration and the centennial observance at the University of Illinois, professional ethics, public address, rhetorical theory, and speech education. In addition, a group of papers relating to the Speech and Drama Department at Cornell University (1964-1967) and some of Wallace's student notes taken on the classes of Lane Cooper and other eminent faculty members are in the Cornell University Archives. A group of dissertations in speech directed by Professor Wallace at this and other universities was given to the University of Massachusetts Library in 1974 by Mrs. Wallace. The dissertations are cataloged in the general Library collection. A folder of biographical information is filed as the first folder in Box 1. A dissertation on Wallace by James E. Yarbrough of Louisiana State University, The Rhetorical Theory of Karl Wallace, appeared in 1978. See first folder in Box 1 for an abstract. See also the National Debate Tournament collection (MS 17) for Wallace-related material.
The collection is open for research.
Related Material See also the National Debate Tournament collection (MS 17) for Wallace-related material.
Processed by Linda Seidman, January 1983.
Rhetoric.
lcsh
lcnaf
University of Massachusetts Amherst. Department of English.
University of Massachusetts Amherst--Faculty.
series
Series 1. History of Rhetorical Theory
Series 1, History of Rhetorical Theory, consists of subject files which reflect the scholarly foundation of Wallace's approach to speech and communication, as well as his painstaking research and his abiding interest in Francis Bacon. The kinds of materials included are study and research notes; drafts of papers and articles by Wallace, his students, and colleagues; charts; correspondence; notes for speeches and lectures given by Wallace; mimeographed classroom materials; reprints, clippings, and photocopied articles; bibliographies; thesis abstracts; publisher's forms; printer's proofs, newsletters; and proceedings. The notes for a new annotated edition of Aristotle's Rhetoric, which Wallace was making at the time of his death, can be found in folders 11 and 12. Only Book II and Book III were in the materials received by the Archives. The materials on Francis Bacon (folders 60-81) reflect some of Wallace's most significant work. Included are research notes; papers by Wallace and his students; notes for talks and lectures on Bacon given by Wallace; drafts and reprints of Wallace articles; extracts of Bacon's speeches, often annotated by Wallace; photocopies of letters and documentary information regarding the Bacon Travelling Library; correspondence and publisher's forms regarding Francis Bacon on the Nature of Man; a compilation of materials (folder 79) which went into the making of the monograph Francis Bacon and Method: Theory and Practice (see also folders 63-66). Folder 128 includes a letter to Wallace from Chaim Perelman, July 6, 1973.
Series 2. Notes of British and American Oratory
Creation of Series 2. Notes of British and American Oratory
Time of Creation of Series 2. Notes of British and American Oratory
The kinds of materials in these folders include typed and handwritten research notes, copies of speeches, drafts of papers by Wallace and others, correspondence, clippings, reprints, mimeographed and photocopied material, pamphlets, and newsletters. There is, in addition, some background material on English history and on British and American oratory and public address. This includes notes made by Wallace as both student and scholar, drafts of papers and articles, lecture notes, mimeo-graphed and printed materials. The correspondence leading to the publication of An Historical Anthology of Select British Speeches, edited by Arnold, Bryant, Haberman, Murphy, and Wallace (New York, Ronald Press, 1967) is also included. These materials are filed in folders 1-9 (British) and 35-38 (American). The unique material on Booker T. Washington in folders 69-83 was gathered and prepared by Wallace for a chapter in History and Criticism of American Public Address, edited by W. N. Brigance (New York, McGraw-Hill, 1943) 1:407-433. Included are notes on interviews with people who had seen and heard Washington speak, among whom was George Washington Carver; letters in response to questionnaires from people who had attended Washington's speeches (one is from W.E.B. Du Bois, January 21, 1938; other correspondents include James Weldon Johnson, Robert Russa Moton, and Monroe N. Work); typed and handwritten research notes, many of which are copied from articles in contemporary newspapers regarding Washington's speeches; Wallace's analyses of Washington's speeches, audiences, topics, and methods; many extracts of the speeches; papers by Wallace on Washington; and a carbon copy of the chapter for the Brigance volume. A list of the correspondents and the people interviewed is filed in folder 69. In the subseries American Oratory, folder 65 contains another draft of the Brigance chapter and a typed copy of a speech by Washington as reported in the Philadelphia Record, May 4, 1901. In Series 3, folder 1, there is a speech by Wallace about his study of Washington. The folder for Dwight D. Eisenhower includes, in addition to copies of some speeches, six photographs of Eisenhower.
Series 3. Speeches and Writings
Creation of Series 3. Speeches and Writings
Time of Creation of Series 3. Speeches and Writings
Series 3, Speeches and Writings, comprises the subseries: Speeches; Published and Unpublished Writings; and Printed Materials. The types of materials included are typed and handwritten drafts of speeches, articles, papers, and book reviews by Wallace; transcripts of taped lectures by Wallace; manuscripts of published and proposed books by Wallace, with accompanying correspondence, research notes, and/or contracts; correspondence about and reviews of Wallace books; reprints of Wallace articles; reprints, clippings, and photocopies of articles by others; and papers by colleagues and students. Among the topics of the speeches are Francis Bacon; Booker T. Washington; education and speech; debate; Elizabethan rhetoric; the Speech Association of America; commencement addresses; and Wallace's retirement from the University of Illinois in 1968. Drafts of articles, papers, and speeches by Wallace can be found in other series as well. The development of the Louisiana State University Lectures of 1967 into the published volume Understanding Discourse, LSU Press, 1970, can be traced in folders 22-24. Three tapes of lectures given by Wallace on the History of Speech Education are included. Another tape includes that portion of the program called "The Theory of Speech Acts and Rhetorical Action" sponsored by the Rhetorical Society in which Wallace's Understanding Discourse is mentioned. Also, another tape of Wallace's speeches: Side 1, "A Modern View of Delivery" presented at Rhode Island College, and Side 2, "The Act of Speech" is filed here.
Series 4. General Education and the Relation of Rhetoric to Other Studies
Creation of Series 4. General Education and the Relation of Rhetoric to Other Studies
Time of Creation of Series 4. General Education and the Relation of Rhetoric to Other Studies
Series 4, General Education and the Relation of Rhetoric to Other Studies, contains material indicative of Wallace's great interest in teaching itself and in the teaching of rhetoric as part of the Western humanist tradition. The subseries General Education reflects his participation on the General Education Committee and its Subcommittee in the Humanities at the University of Illinois between 1955 and 1958 when the committee's thrust was to address teacher training. The kinds of materials included are reports, memoranda and correspondence, resolutions, agenda, typed and handwritten notes on both research and meetings, drafts of papers, photocopied and mimeographed material. The subseries The Relation of Rhetoric to Other Studies is arranged alphabetically by academic subject. The folders contain research notes, memoranda and letters, reprints, clippings, mimeographed and photocopied articles, and a printer's proof (not Wallace's).
Series 5. Communication Pedagogy
Series, 5, Communication Pedagogy, contains material acquired by Wallace during his student and teaching years pertaining to or for use in the teaching of speech. The types of materials included are: correspondence; typed and handwritten research notes made by Wallace as both student and scholar; drafts of papers and speeches by Wallace; papers by colleagues and students; classroom materials; committee reports and minutes; reprints and pamphlets; clippings; photocopied materials; an itinerary, a membership list, a photograph, a newsletter, and programs. Of particular note in this series are the correspondence and clippings generated by the controversy over the decision by the Committee on Intercollegiate Debate and Discussion of the Speech Association of America, while Wallace was its President, to have as the national Debate Proposition for 1954-1955: "Resolved: that the United States should extend diplomatic recognition to the Communist government of China." Some universities chose not to participate, and the United States service academies at West Point and Annapolis were forbidden to participate by Pentagon officials. Public debate followed in editorials, on the floor of Congress, on Edward R. Murrow's See it Now television program, and in statements to the press on the questions of free speech, the nature of a democracy, McCarthyism, and the nature of the university. See folders 49-52.
Series 6. Professional Organizations
Creation of Series 6. Professional Organizations
Time of Creation of Series 6. Professional Organizations
Series 6, Professional Organizations, includes material received or generated during Wallace's membership in the Massachusetts Speech Association, the National Council of Teachers of English, the Speech Association of America (Speech Communication Association as of July 1, 1970), and the New England Speech Association. He held offices or committee memberships in several of these organizations, including the presidency of the Speech Association of America in 1954. The materials consist of correspondence, memoranda, minutes, reports, committee recommendations, papers, handwritten notes on meetings, expense reports, clippings, reprints, drafts of a position paper, newsletters, miscellaneous mimeographed and photocopied materials, lecture notes, audit reports, and budget recommendations. The bulk of the material in this series consists of the correspondence, meeting records, and drafts of a position paper produced by the NCTE-SAA Committee on Rhetoric and the Teaching Thereof from March 23, 1965 to January 15, 1968. Another brief set of correspondence (folder 12) concerns the debate within the Speech Communication Association about whether to change the name of The Quarterly Journal of Speech to Communication Quarterly. See also Series 5, folders 49-52, for material on the Committee on Intercollegiate Debate and Discussion of the Speech Association of America. A tape of Wallace's participation on an Eastern Communication Association panel entitled "Young Turks Revisited" is included here.
Series 7. Miscellaneous
Creation of Series 7. Miscellaneous
Time of Creation of Series 7. Miscellaneous
Series 7, Miscellaneous Materials, includes correspondence generated while Wallace acted as an advisory editor in speech for Dodd, Mead and Company, publishers, 1969-1972; letters received by Wallace upon his retirement from the University of Illinois in 1968; photocopied material and miscellaneous research notes including one box of note cards which constitutes an evolving dictionary of rhetoric; and four miscellaneous items.