Restrictions to Access

Use of audio or visual materials in this collection may require production of listening or viewing copies.

Note that most radio programs are available online as broadcast at the Soundings Project website .

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Soundings Collection #5382, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alternate Form of Material

Note that most radio programs are available online as broadcast at the Soundings Project website .

Acquisitions Information

Gift of the National Humanities Center, February 2008 (Acc. 100880).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Humanities--Research.
• Humanities--Study and teaching.
• National Humanities Center (U.S.)
• Pond, Wayne Johnston.
• Radio programs.
• Soundings (Radio program)

Soundings was a half-hour, weekly radio program produced by the National Humanities Center from 1980 to 1996. The program aired on more than 200 commercial and public radio stations in the United States and on Voice of America. It was also distributed for non-broadcast use to various organizations affiliated with the National Endowment for the Humanities. Soundings host Wayne Pond was the Director of Public Programs at the National Humanities Center from 1979 to 1997. Soundings guests included Fellows and visitors at the National Humanities Center, primarily humanities scholars and authors. Each program consists of interviews and discussions of a wide range of humanities-related topics. Sample program titles include "America's Penal System," "Edmund Burke and Modern Conservatism," "Sports and Social Values," "The Light Side of the Dark Ages," "Teachers and Teaching," "Fiction in Modern India," "Feminism in America Today," "The Art of Documentary Photography," and "Rethinking American Literature".

Founded in 1978, the National Humanities Center is an independent institute for advanced study in the humanities. Approximately 40 fellows are admitted per year, representing a broad range of liberal arts scholars. The Center is located on the campus of the Triangle Universities Center for Advanced Studies in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

Note that most radio programs are available online as broadcast at the Soundings Project website .

The collection includes recordings of nearly all 862 Soundings programs in various formats, including LPs, CDs, audiocassettes, open reel tapes, DATs, and U-Matic tapes, with some overlap between formats. There is also non-program material, including demos, promos, special programs, music, edited and unedited interviews, and other items. Programs 41, 42, 43 and 44 are missing.