NYPL Blogs: Posts by Jennifer Ulrich

Transmissions from the Timothy Leary Papers: Season’s Greetings from William S. Burroughs

Jennifer Ulrich, Specialist, Manuscripts and Archives Division — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 06:28:57 -0500

Timothy Leary first made acquaintance with William S. Burroughs in Tangier, Morocco in the summer of 1961.[1] During this heady time, Leary was reaching out to beat poets and artists for participation in his early drug experiments at Harvard University, and Burroughs made an obvious comrade. Despite Burrough's disappointment with Leary's scientific method, their friendship managed to survive through the years. They occasionally reunited and maintained a life-long correspondence.

One of their sporadic visits involved the River City Reunion held on September 7-13, 1987 in Lawrence, Kansas (Burroughs's last city of residence). Leary participated in this event with featured artists, musicians and poets Robert Frank, Robert Creeley, Ed Dorn, Allen Ginsberg, Michael McClure, Marianne Faithfull, Jim Carroll, and Diana Diprima.

These holiday postcards from Burroughs to Leary offer a window into the relationship between the two counterculture icons. As seen in the bottom card, they were in contact til the last months of Leary's life (d. May 31, 1996). William S. Burroughs died a year later on August 2, 1997.

[1]Greenfield, Robert. Timothy Leary: A Biography. Orlando, Fla: Harcourt, 2007.

Transmissions from the Timothy Leary Papers: MPLP, the New Standard?

Jennifer Ulrich, Specialist, Manuscripts and Archives Division — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 07:43:36 -0500

During the past several years, the archives profession has been rocked by a paper by Mark A. Greene and Dennis Meissner titled "More Product, Less Process: Revamping Traditional Archival Processing."[1] Through examining surveys of archival processing practices, Greene and Meissner proposed that switching the emphasis from physical arrangement and preservation practices to intellectual arrangement and description would expedite the processing of most collections. The upshot of their findings was a plea to end backlogs for unprocessed collections. This method (now simply referred to as "MPLP") was immediately embraced by institutions saddled with large backlogs requiring decades, if not centuries to eliminate.

Before MPLP, a typical method for addressing under-processed collections would entail the creation of a lone, collection-level catalog record, possibly accessible through Worldcat. It's a sad attempt in providing access, but can be a lifeline to researchers, alerting them if a potential gold mine exists in the repository world.

Another pre-MPLP strategy would have been to process a collection to the extent possible in order to provide access, then "re-process" at a later time to refine access points and address additional preservation needs. Once available for research, demand might call for re-processing widely used parts of a collection: a sort of supply-and-demand method of processing. Some may find that type of method undemocratic, if you will, ignoring the under-represented, yet equally important areas of research. I will leave that for another post, another time.

Considering the recommendation presented by Greene and Meissner, any collection can be processed in any given amount of time. A processing plan establishing priorities and a timeline is crucial. While my project is not part of a backlog, I have a limited amount of time to process a rather large collection. Given this opportunity, I need to make difficult decisions regarding the priority for standard archival tasks. Removing letters from envelopes? Unfolding documents? Removing rusty paperclips? Ordering the contents within folders? These are the tasks that will need to fall by the wayside.

I have to admit, old habits die hard. I find myself removing a paperclip here and photocopying a newspaper clipping there. I open a folder with oversized material and ponder whether to take the time to separate, unfold and label the item. I hang my head when admitting my compulsion to sort letters in chronological order. I must carry on in the hopes I will have time to return to these tasks.

Here are the stats for the Timothy Leary papers project:

Size: 411 linear feet
1 full-time employee @ 18 months
4+ interns @ 120 hours each

I am far past the halfway point in this project. Panic has not yet set in, but I do lay awake some nights going over what I should have done, or need to do — thankfully I forget the half of it by morning. What is probably best for the project is a happy medium between MPLP and traditional archival processing.

Timothy Leary made a considerable effort organizing his records and enlisted the help of others to help with the arrangement. After his death on May 31, 1996, Leary's remains where shot into space, but his estate still needed a final resting place for his records, even as the organization of his papers continued post-mortem. The problem of the many hands involved with the physical organization of the collection created more inconsistency and inaccuracy. My challenge is to consider the value of his and his colleagues' organization while applying a logical order using standard description to aid researchers in finding what they are seeking.One strategy that takes MPLP into consideration is to target parts of the collection with anticipated high research value and spend more time in the physical arrangement of this material. For example, I will identify loose writings that relate to the development of particular software so the researcher doesn't have to wade through boxes and boxes of dot-matrix print-outs to locate all of the Mind Mirror documentation. Yet, I can't tear apart each page of those accordion printouts… sorry, no time. Or another example may be noting important correspondents within the general correspondence files to alert researchers of dates to consult for letters, from say, Tom Robbins or William Burroughs. But do I have time to comprehensively claim every folder that contains such correspondents? No.

Then again, physical arrangement may be as necessary as intellectual arrangement. For example, "important" items throughout the collection were previously pulled to create auction lots that would appeal to potential bidders. These boxes, labeled "gems," served their purpose, but do not need to be maintained. The collection is not described at the item-level, so these materials need to be re-filed with their appropriate records. I could take a strict MPLP approach and simply leave the "gems" alone, but I would be doing a disservice to researchers, staff and anyone else who needs to consult the finding aid. I want to avoid the "re-processing" option. If I take extra time and effort arranging and describing the material now, the reward will be a stable structure that will stand the test of time. In this case, is MPLP a house built of straw or bricks?

Once the collection is open, researchers will still need to dig. Digging will require time, but this is well-rewarded. The "More Product, Less Process" catch-phrase strikes me as the complete opposite of the oft-quoted approach to art creation: it's the process, not the end product is the purpose.[2] In this vein, I will let others enjoy the "process" and truly own their own research work to create their own works of art, be it scholarly papers, documentary films, or personal projects. If they can find what they're looking for within a reasonable amount of time, my work will be done.

[1] "More Product, Less Process: Revamping Traditional Archival Processing"
Mark A. Greene and Dennis Meissner
The American Archivist, Vol. 68, No. 2 (Fall - Winter, 2005), pp. 208-263
Published by: Society of American Archivists
Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40294290

[2] "Process Art." Wikipedia. 10 Dec. 2012 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Process_art.

Transmissions from the Timothy Leary Papers: Ron Paul for President

Jennifer Ulrich, Specialist, Manuscripts and Archives Division — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 11:51:38 -0400

With the current United States presidential election approaching, I thought it appropriate to share a couple items from the Timothy Leary papers relating to Ron Paul.

US Congressman Ron Paul lost his bid for President in 1988 under the Libertarian Party ticket. He has since sought election unsuccessfully under the Republican ticket in both 2008 and the current 2012 election.

This floppy disk and sleeve doubled as an invitation to a Ron Paul fundraiser hosted by Timothy Leary.

A second disk, which may have been distributed to those attending the fundraiser, is signed by Leary with the following message:

Thank you for joining me today in support of Ron Paul and the Libertarian Party. As we enter these closing years of the Roaring Twentieth Century, we're going to see personal computers enhance our lives in ways we can scarcely imagine. Fellow Cyberpunk Chuck Hammill has helped me assemble a collection of bits and bytes you may enjoy.

"If you're wise ... digitize!"

Tim Leary

In agreement with Leary's interests at the time, the disk contains software credited by the Libertech Project for those who "like the idea of techno-thwarting government abuse." and was "distributed free to Libertarians, Objectivists, Discordians, Cyberpunks, Survivalists, Soldiers of Fortune, Hackers, Entropists, Deltaphiles and similar types…"

The disk contains DOS programs generating fractal graphics and a copy of the paper, "From Crossbows to Cryptography: Thwarting the State via Technology" by Chuck Hammill, given at the Future of Freedom Conference in November 1987.

I do not claim to represent Timothy Leary's political beliefs, but I do know that he identified as a libertarian during his life. His writings reference his libertarian views, as mentioned previously by NYPL Intern, Rebecca Weintraub. Ron Paul's support to end the "War on Drugs" also made them logical allies. I suspect their influence as public figures will be further researched in this arena.

During his 1988 "Ron Paul Revolution" campaign, Paul was also aligned with the likes of Governor Jesse Ventura, Governor Gary Johnson, Barry Goldwater, Ralph Nadar and Cynthia McKinney. Ultimately, former Vice President George H W Bush with Senator Dan Quayle were elected president and vice-president in 1988, defeating Democratic candidate Governor Michael Dukakis and running mate Senator Lloyd Bentsen.

Transmissions from The Timothy Leary Papers: The "Archival Catastrophe" of 1975

Jennifer Ulrich, Specialist, Manuscripts and Archives Division — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 08:04:48 -0400

Interview featuring Michael Horowitz.

I touched on the saga of Timothy Leary’s legal problems in my last blog post involving his escape from prison for a drug conviction and his attempt at seeking asylum in Switzerland for the persecution of his writings and ideas. His papers take center stage in this drama: shuttled to secret locations, used for his legal defense, confiscated by the federal authorities, and threats of incrimination, leading to an “archival catastrophe” as described by Leary’s former archivist, Michael Horowitz.

Timothy Leary was first imprisoned in 1970 at which time he gave Michael Horowitz and Robert Barker, founders of the Fitz Hugh Ludlow Memorial Library, custodial care of his papers. Named after the author of The Hasheesh Eater (1857), the Library was established as a resource for psychedelic drug literature. In 1975, Horowitz was subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury investigating Leary’s escape. His involvement provides a fascinating example of the importance of archives and the responsibility of archivists to provide neutral access to said materials.

Fortunately, I had the opportunity to ask Michael Horowitz about these events.

In your statement, you mentioned that you first met Rosemary Leary while Timothy Leary was in prison. Being a book collector specializing in psychedelic drug literature, you offered or were asked to safeguard his “archives” at this time. Did you provide any access to his materials, or were you only storing them?

My partner and I were very secretive about the archives from the time Dr. Leary escaped from prison and became the object of an international manhunt, and moved them from place to place as a precaution, even though government agents showed no interest in them until 1975. However we ourselves used the materials in two ways: by providing documentation to his attorneys filing appeals before his escape in September 1970, and when he was recaptured in January 1973, and secondly to edit manuscripts for publication to raise money for Timothy and Rosemary Leary who had no means of income while living in exile.

We got a section of his prison journal published, the book Jail Notes, and an article on "Hedonic Psychology." We also worked on the manuscript of which the FBI was most interested: Confessions of a Hope Fiend, Leary's account of his prison escape.

How did you become involved in offering grand jury testimony on August 14, 1975?

Being forced to “offer testimony” is a more accurate way of putting it. So little did I want to appear that I spent months avoiding the subpoena.

Tim Leary at 54 was facing many years if not the rest of his life in prison. To give an idea of how seriously the government viewed his case, his bail was set at $5 million, the highest bail ever levied against an American citizen. This was for the crime of escaping from a 10-year prison sentence for possession of a miniscule amount of marijuana. In the summer of 1975 the statute of limitations was running out on his September 1970 escape and the FBI was pressuring him in some unpleasant and even life-threatening ways for his testimony. He believed he had nothing to give them that they didn't already have; that his silence for more than five years had given those involved ample opportunity to prepare their alibis or disappear. He also knew that his testimony alone could not convict anyone.

Thus Leary initiated a cat-and-mouse game with the Feds in hopes of gaining his freedom by appearing to cooperate with their agenda to indict certain persons who aided in his prison escape. Since the testimony of a prisoner is not enough by itself to have credibility, he provided the authorities with the names of two people to question. One was his wife, Rosemary, who had fled the country with him and from whom he had subsequently separated, and the other was me, his archivist. Rosemary was far underground, inaccessible; and I was not knowingly involved in his escape, so he figured I would not be helpful to them. Basically, he was giving them the names of people who would not be findable or useful in backing up his claims. The third thing he offered them was his archives — the big prize, as far as his captors were concerned.

Believing their own hype, the federal authorities labeled Dr. Leary "godfather" of the "LSD mafia" (specifically, the Brotherhood of Eternal Love) and presumed his archives contained evidence to put away the manufacturers and distributors of LSD and other mind-expanding drugs, as well as records pertaining to his prison escape. It was a myth that he was making and distributing LSD, nor would one expect to find details of the prison escape plan in his personal archives — or anywhere else. He was a scientist studying the mind and human consciousness, and a philosopher and advocate of the benefits of psychedelic drugs — that was his role, especially over the years 1960-1975.

For the most part it was a propaganda coup for the FBI. They put out a press release bragging about their seizure of the archives. I countered that with my own press release that no one had anything to fear from any materials in the archives, which was primarily scientific research, correspondence, and memorabilia from his childhood onward. Not surpisingly, their press release, focusing on Leary having turned government informant, saturated the mainstream media as well as the underground press, and caused shock waves throughout the counterculture, while my contrary response was largely ignored.

I used the phrase "archival catastrophe" in my press release and at a press conference I called to indicate that (1) Leary was pressured and threatened to ask me to turn over his archives (2) the archives were swiped from their true archivist by agents in disguise (3) federal authorities lied publicly about the contents of the archives in order to discredit Leary with the counterculture, which they succeeded in doing and (4) the archives — one of the essential repositories of the history of psychedelic research in the 1960s and the resulting social and political fallout — would disappear into the bowels of the government, never to see the light of day.

I was subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury convening in San Francisco to investigate his escape. I decided to hold a press conference to denounce their tactics and garner support. I had a brilliant attorney, Steven Heiser, and used my friendship with Allen Ginsberg to get the American chapter of the International P.E.N. Club to support me. President and poet Muriel Rukeyser spoke for me at my press conference, as did San Francisco literary icon Lawrence Ferlinghetti and the futurist author Robert Anton Wilson. Allen Ginsberg and Ken Kesey sent statements of support. I reaffirmed my statement that an "archival catastrophe" had taken place. My stance drew media attention in the Bay Area, and did not sit well with the federal prosecutor; it probably made him come after me a little harder.

At the last minute — a few days before my appearance — I composed and printed up a fact sheet, announcing the formation of ARCANA (Archival Reality Committee Advocating the Neutrality of Archivists). I was to be the only member of this virtual organization I had founded.

I did my best to stonewall their fishing expedition in the grand jury room. It got pretty tense and I knew I faced contempt charges and jail if I wasn't perceived to cooperate. There were twenty-three questions posed to me by the U.S. prosecutor: I answered the seven that were harmless, and for the others I refused to answer on the grounds that my status as an archivist made me immune to questioning, for the same reason that the lawyer, spouse, and priest, pastor or rabbi is exempt from testifying against a defendant.

This was a conclusion I came to and that I thoroughly believed — and believe to this day. Archivists are the preservers of history and play a neutral role. The prosecutor had no idea how to answer that; I was vilified for not cooperating, but then dismissed from the grand jury without being found in contempt. Afterwards my lawyer told me that I had established a legal "precedent" with my grounds for not testifying: other archivists, should they be called to testify under similar circumstances, could use this in their defense.

The statute of limitations on his prison escape passed without the federal grand jury indicting anyone in connection with the escape. Leary was himself freed about a year later, and his archives returned to him shortly afterwards. Thus my “archival” defense ultimately averted an archival catastrophe in the making.

No archivist to my knowledge has used the ARCANA precedent set that day, but it's still in the records if anyone needs to. And best of all, the Leary Archives are today safely housed in the New York Public Library.

As his former archivist, what materials or aspect of his collection did you find most fascinating or important?

I was always most interested in the Harvard period, 1960-1963. The very first archival paper I examined was a carbon copy of Laura Huxley’s 8-page letter to a small number of friends about the death of her husband Aldous, in which he asked for LSD on his deathbed, which she gave him and read to him from the Leary-Alpert-Metzner manuscript of their version of the Tibetan Book of the Dead (published the following year as The Psychedelic Experience). I was moved beyond words by her account (not published until 1968).

I believe in the epochal importance of psychedelic plants and drugs: their value in many areas of life — and death. The research Timothy spearheaded at Harvard was breathtaking in its range. He applied the scientific rigor he learned as a clinical psychologist in the preceding decade. I think that work will stand as his greatest achievement, although Timothy certainly didn’t rest on those laurels.

Transmissions from The Timothy Leary Papers: Declaration of Independence for Dr. Timothy Leary

Jennifer Ulrich, Specialist, Manuscripts and Archives Division — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 07:38:50 -0400

The topic of drug criminalization cannot be avoided when discussing the Leary Papers; specifically, the laws governing marijuana. Although Leary is most closely associated with LSD-25 and other psychotropic drugs from his work at Harvard, the International Federation of Internal Freedom, Castalia Foundation and the League for Spiritual Discovery, the drugs centered in his research were not criminalized until after his first drug-related arrest.

The root of Leary's legal troubles stemmed from his arrest in 1965 while crossing the Mexican border with marijuana in Laredo, Texas. At this time, the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 was on the books, penalizing the transfer and dealing of marijuana and hemp.

Leary's conviction was overturned by the US Supreme Court in 1969 when the Act was ruled unconstitutional. The court found that the Marijuana Tax Act violated the 5th amendment against self-incrimination, in Leary vs. the United States. Congress responded by passing the Controlled Substances Act in 1970, creating the currently enforced five classifications of substances based on their potential for abuse. Marijuana, fell under schedule I, along with LSD (aka acid), psilocybin (mushrooms), mescaline (peyote) and heroin.

Leary was arrested a second time in 1968 for marijuana possession after having his car searched in Laguna Beach, California. He began his sentence in 1970 at a low-security prison in San Luis Obispo. He escaped in September with the help of his wife, Rosemary (née Woodruff). This is when his life takes on even more dramatic turns. Reportedly, the Brotherhood of Eternal Love and the radical group the Weather Underground helped smuggle the Learys to Algeria, where they stayed with Eldridge Cleaver and others associated with the Black Panther Party.

Appeal for Swiss Asylum

By 1971, Leary and Rosemary left Algeria and eventually arrived in Switzerland, at which point the document, Declaration of Independence For Dr. Timothy Leary July 4, 1971: Model Statement in Defense of the Philosophers Personal Freedom was delivered to Swiss authorities on Bastille Day, July 14. Written by Allen Ginsberg and signed by other notable members of the San Francisco Bay Area Prose Poets' Phalanx, the statement outlined his legal problems and petitioned the Swiss government to grant him permanent exile on the following basis:

...That although this original conviction of Dr. Leary was overthrown by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Federal police bureaucracy in America indicated its continued hostility to his 'publicized activities' (namely, essays and speeches on drug usage theory) by trying him again for the same minor event, and by such abuse of language succeeded in having Dr. Leary sentenced to a 10-year jail term...

Whatever one's opinions, or natural or national preferences amongst intoxicants, Letters, religions, and political or ecological theory, the Bay Area Prose Poets' Phalanx hereby affirms that Dr. Leary must certainly have the right to publish his own theories... The case of Dr. Leary is outright a case of persecution of ideas and texts—the persecution of his philosophy. Though arrested for grass, he was sentenced for Philosophy. Jailed for grass, he was long prisoned for Opinion. Denied bail for grass possession, he was detained behind barbed wire for Ideological Heresy.

On July 8th, a letter was sent to PEN Club President Thomas Fleming, Committee on Censorship and Prisons and the PEN Club Executive Board with the attached declaration requesting the adoption and submission of the statement to the International PEN Club before a final decision from the Swiss authorities was reached. The literary and human rights organization, International PEN, was founded in 1921 during the First World War, with branches throughout the world including the PEN American Center. Thomas Fleming showed his support, along with Arthur Miller, International Vice President, and David Dempsey, Chairman, Writers in Prison Committee, in a cable sent July 15th, from New York to the Swiss Ministry of Justice, Zurich.

An "Asylum of Leary Committee" was headed in Switzerland with branches in the States, England and Germany. The efforts of these committees inspired individuals to write letters of support to the Swiss government. The Swiss authorities did eventually imprison Timothy Leary. He was held at the Prison du Bois-Mermet in Lausanne and held briefly in solitary confinement. He was released August 1st., Swiss National Day. [1]

Timothy Leary continued to receive support from friends and the public for his perceived legal persecution. In 1973, Leary was apprehended in Afghanistan with his partner, Joanna Harcourt-Smith, and deported back to the United States where he served three more years in prison.

[1] Greenfield, Robert. Timothy Leary: A Biography. Orlando: Harcourt, Inc, 2006. 426-7.

Transmissions from The Timothy Leary Papers: Evolution of the "Psychedelic" Show

Jennifer Ulrich, Specialist, Manuscripts and Archives Division — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 06:19:13 -0400

When you think of the word, "psychedelic," what first comes to mind? Depending on your age and experience, you might think of the term coined by psychiatrist Humphry Osmond to describe "mind-manifesting" reactions from a class of psychotropic drugs. You might also think of the term to describe the graphic design and art created out of the post-drug 1960s and early 1970s. One might associate it with visuals aimed to alter perception, such as kaleidoscopes, lava lamps, neon colors, strobes, and possibly a Pink Floyd laser light show.

Timothy Leary was a key figure in the development of psychedelic performances and his papers contain material documenting this interesting time in history.

Psychedelic Sessions

In my last post regarding the Castalia Foundation, I described Gurdjieff-influenced attempts to help "awaken consciousness" without the aid of drugs. Leary and Ralph Metzner went on to take these exercises on tour as the "Psychedelic Sessions." Described in their 1965-1966 program, they reiterate their purpose and previous study of psychedelics for "designing language systems for receiving and communicating non-symbolic levels of energy and techniques for programming psychedelic sessions... experimentation with these sacred biochemicals has been restricted by federal law to mental hospitals. The Castalia group has adapted to this government repression (not unfamiliar in the history of visionary research) by working out non drug methods of producing the 'going-out-of-your-mind' phenomenon."

Three types of methods are outlined for altering consciousness:

1. Eastern Psychedelic Methods, including meditation and yoga

2. Western Psychedelic methods, including gestalt therapy and Gurdjieff techniques

3. Psychedelic Art Techniques, including multi-media combinations of light, sound, tapes, films, and stroboscope.

Psychedelic Explorations

The last method reflects the Castalia Foundation's collaboration with artists, such as the multi-media art collective, USCO (The Company of US) to reproduce the LSD experience. "Psychedelic Explorations," was performed in New York City at the New Theatre, 154 E. 54th Street in 19 July 1965 and featured artists Jackie Cassen, Don Snyder and Richard Aldcroft. These multi-media artists complimented the Foundation's approach to providing an "audio-olfactory-visual alteration of consciousness (AOVAC)." The advertisement to the right is another example of material found in the Timothy Leary papers documenting these LSD inspired presentations.

Gerd Stern

While filing a letter into the International Federation for Internal Freedom (predecessor to Castalia Foundation) correspondence files, I happened to come across a letter from Gerd Stern, multimedia artist and a founding member of USCO, requesting information regarding Leary's organization prior to their collaboration on Psychedelic Explorations. Stern, a poet living in Sausalito, California at this time, expresses his interest in the "bare physical energy represented by language--the word in the air..." and to organize, "a group to investigate this area."

Stern goes on to collaborate with the Castalia Foundation a couple years later. He describes the experience working with Leary in his oral history, conducted by and accessible from the Regional Oral History Office in the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Psychedelic Religious Ceremonies

By 1966, questions into the legal status of LSD and other mind-altering drugs threatened and influenced the work of the Castalia Foundation. In an attempt to secure legal rights for the use and distribution of psychotropic drugs, Leary established the League for Spiritual Discovery (LSD). This "church" would serve as the legitimate, religious use of drugs, modeled after historical peyote use by the Native American Church.

The League's performances were dubbed "ceremonies," borrowing from various religious traditions and directed by Leary, Jackie Cassen, Rudi Stern, and Ralph Metzner. The "Psychedelic Religious Celebrations" were performed in New York City at the Village Theater, 105 Second Avenue. Officially, the service included a sermon/lecture by Leary to guide participants through different levels of consciousness, with each voyage "a celebration of one of the great religious dramas of mankind: Catholic, Buddhist, Judaic, Hindu, Tao, et al."

The following flyers advertise additional L.S.D. Ceremonies. Contributors included long-term friend Allen Ginsberg, and Rosemary Woodruff. Timothy Leary and Rosemary Woodruff married 12 December 1967.

Transmissions from The Timothy Leary Papers: Hesse, Gurdjieff and Minor White

Jennifer Ulrich, Specialist, Manuscripts and Archives Division — Mon, 14 May 2012 06:24:16 -0400

Early into my project, I opened a box and found a folder that caught my eye. It was labeled “Minor White.” A famous American photographer (b. 1908, d. 1976), White is known for his work with Aperture Magazine, the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco and the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York. Most research libraries and museums with major American photography collections own his works, including the NYPL Division of Arts, Prints and Photographs.

How does this folder relate to Timothy Leary? It contained a summary for the Millbrook Workshop in Creative Photography offered 12-21 June 1964 held at the Millbrook School for Boys. One of the more interesting aspects of processing a collection is discovering the purpose and meaning behind the records.

Inside this file is a twenty page outline written by an unidentified attendee. Did Leary attend this workshop, or did his organization simply retain this handout in their files? The course description references "beer and socializing" with the Headmaster and coffee offered in the mornings, clearly targeting adults, not boarding school participants. Did Minor White come to Millbrook because he shared similar interests with Leary and his associates at the time?

The previous year, Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert were dismissed from Harvard University amid controversial publicity surrounding their psilocybin drug studies. Their methods were questioned as early as 1962, pushing them to take their studies off campus under the research organization, The International Foundation for Internal Freedom (IFIF).

In 1963, Peggy Hitchcock, a follower of Leary and Alpert, offered to host their research on her family estate in Millbrook, New York. The organization then changed names from the IFIF to the Castalia Foundation, taken from the society of scientific mystics in the novel The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse.[1] They lived communally at Millbrook, continuing to run LSD sessions and other non-drug workshops.

Leary and his associates were influenced by the teachings of Georges Ivanovitch Gurjieff, (b.1872? d.1949) a mystic from the Caucuses region who developed unorthodox teaching methods to “awaken” consciousness based on spiritual theories of self-awareness.[2] The Castalia Foundation adopted some of his methods for their non-drug workshops offered at Millbrook.

Like Gurdjieff, they were trying to awaken consciousness. Leary and members of the Castalia Foundation believed one could achieve this through mind-expanding drugs, but were also interested in exploring non-drug methods. This was done through exercises, such as those employed during their "Experiential Weekend" offered at Millbrook. These exercises would be punctuated with alternating moments of meditation in the dark and reading "messages" in the light. The purpose of these exercises in silence was to clear the mind from routine thoughts and open the mind.

Experiential Weekend: Message 1

Your weekend in Millbrook has been planned to provide a series of novel and consciousness-expanding experiences. The first step in the process of going beyond your routine and familiar patterns is a period of
ABSOLUTE SILENCE
Shortly after your arrival at Castalia you will be given further instructions...

Other Gurdjieffian programs are found in the Timothy Leary Papers, such as this script from a program schedule. Ralph [Metzner?] says, “One of the purposes of this weekend is to see clearly that we spend most of our time as robots…”

Detail from Castalia Foundation schedule:

Minor White was also a follower of Gurjieff’s methods. In the book, Mirrors, messages and manifestations, White is described to have gone through a few spiritual transformations: “In his youth, he was for a time a devout Catholic. He studied Zen Buddhism, devoted himself to I Ching, and in later life plunged into the teachings of Gurdjieff.”[3] It is likely that Castalia Foundation members took part in this course, held at The Millbrook School for Boys. Did the Castalia Foundation introduce White to Gurdjieff's teachings, or vice versa? Perhaps a deeper look into his and White’s correspondence will answer that question.

It would be quite interesting to read first-person accounts from those who participated in the photography workshop, or visited the Castalia Foundation in Millbrook.

[1] Greenfield, Robert. Timothy Leary: A Biography. Orlando: Harcourt, Inc, 2006. 208.

[2] "Georgei Ivanovitch Gurdjieff." Religious Leaders of America. Gale, 1999. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 4 May 2012. Document URL

[3] White, Minor. Mirrors, Messages, Manifestations: Photographs and Writings 1939-1968. New York, N.Y: Aperture, 1982. Preface.

Transmissions from The Timothy Leary Papers: The Self-Annotated Papers

Jennifer Ulrich, Specialist, Manuscripts and Archives Division — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 06:36:44 -0400

Annotations throw a wrench in dating materials, and Timothy Leary liked to annotate... everything. Aware of his demise after being diagnosed with cancer in 1995, he wrote notes and signed printed matter, clippings and correspondence from his personal files. Although he authored the autobiographies High Priest and Flashbacks, it will be his annotations that provide the more immediate, intimate “flashback.”

For example, Leary was suspended from the University of Alabama in 1942 (he was reinstated October 1944), prompting him to enroll in the short-lived Specialized Army Training Program offered at Ohio State University. He enlisted in the Army on 16 May 1942 at the University of Alabama and began active duty 4 January 1943. His enlisted records show that he held inactive service from 16 May 1942 to 3 January 1943, before receiving this train voucher from Fort Eustin, Virginia for travel to Washington DC:

Some of his annotations are dated contemporary with the documents, providing much insight.

Unfortunately, dates may not be evident for some notes. For example, this letter and check from the US Treasurer was kept in the following envelope:

It is not the original envelope for its contents, but can be dated at and after the death of his father on 23 December 1956 or his residence at 1230 Queens Road, Berkeley, California, whichever is later.

While I’m on the topic of dates, I came across his diplomas from the University of Alabama and Washington State University, where he received his BA and MS degrees, respectively.

Published and online sources quote him receiving the degrees one to two years earlier. This is an example of incorrect dates mistakenly published, whether from an editorial typo or other error, but the misinformation continues to be quoted. This is an opportunity to emphasize the importance of primary research.

Forensic Files--More Dates!

The archivist searches through recorded media, traditionally paper-based, for official and legitimate historical evidence. This is the essential definition of “archives,” records with evidential value. The Leary papers have many opportunities for fact-checking.

Like this:

This puts Leary in Acapulco, Mexico, receiving a phone call from Cuernavaca, Mexico on 3 Aug 1960, days before his first ingestion of the psychotropic fungi, psilocybin mushrooms. Yes, this is not a big revelation, but it’s good to see documentation for his life-changing trip.

Of course, much of his personal papers contain less official recordings. His manuscripts are written “off the record,” but will have important value in primary research. This type of evidence may not verify a date, but sheds light into his character and relationships.

Timothy Leary married his first wife, Marianne Busch, on 14 April 1945. Marianne would commit suicide ten years later on 22 October 1955, his 35th birthday. This note appears to be a checklist with the fifth item stating, "find out about depressive period."

A couple years after her death and a few years before he first consumed a psychedelic drug, he drafted this:

While much of his personal reminisces are drafts of his autobiographies and other writings, the purpose of this note is not yet clear, as it was loose among papers dating around the same year. It still provides insight into how he perceived himself and his interest in the study of human nature a few years before his introduction to psychedelics (coined by psychiatrist Humphry Osmond at a New York Academy of Sciences meeting in 1957, to describe “mind-manifesting” drugs).

Transmissions from The Timothy Leary Papers: Applying Archival Processing

Jennifer Ulrich, Specialist, Manuscripts and Archives Division — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 06:22:49 -0400

People ask me what my work entails as I process the Timothy Leary papers. As I pore through the boxes, I am faced with over 400 linear ft. of material created and collected by Leary which I must process to make available for research. I encounter various media, such as photographs, video tapes, computer disks, prints and posters. I encounter quite a bit of paper.

My responsibilities include determining the record keeping structure and making decisions regarding the intellectual and physical arrangement of the material, describing the material according to archival standards, and physically re-housing for access and long-term preservation.

When records or personal papers are acquired by repositories, such as the NYPL, the material is "processed," producing a "finding aid" to allow researchers to search, locate, and request material from the collection.

When archivists mention terms, such as: records, collections, cataloging, processing, description and arrangement, we are specific in the usage. It's our professional jargon. When asked what "processing" entails, I often explain it simply as the arrangement and description of non-published material. Published or bibliographic material is "cataloged," a distinction in the US, although other countries may use the term "cataloguing" for archives. Regardless, the work of arranging and describing by archival standards is the same.

Archivist's Jargon

For the archival curious, one can refer to glossaries published by the International Council on Archives Committee on Descriptive Standards (ISAD(G)) or the Society of American Archivists. Let me offer a more refined definition for archival arrangement from the ISAD(G):

The intellectual and physical processes and results of analyzing and organizing documents in accordance with archival principles.[1]

I still haven't explained what processing to archival standards or principals really means. It requires arrangement and description. Archival description is based on the principal of provenance or respect des fonds. The fonds is the group of records created or collected by a person (in Leary's case), not mixed with the records from another creator. The fonds is the broadest level of description. The description from this level follows to finer, more detailed levels within the hierarchy. The archivist describes the fonds or collection as a whole with increasing detail, in possible sub-fonds, and then series, sub-series, folder and item-level description. This structure holds value and differs from the simple item-level, bibliographic description formerly applied to manuscripts.[2]

Due to the complexity of some collections, time restraints, and research demand, description may not be carried out to these finer levels as a whole or may vary within a collection. This flexibility allows for the accessibility to records on a time-effective basis.

The Leary papers, like other personal papers, blends qualities both from traditional archives (institutional records) and manuscripts collections. It contains records created during his work as a student, enlisted man, clinical psychologist, professor, lecturer, author, and actor, among his many personas. His papers also consist of his writings: handwritten notes, journals, drafts, typescripts, annotated and not. His papers contain some collected material, publications, posters, recorded music and videos. The collection also holds collaborative work, such as writings and correspondence authored by his wives. There are his father's records retrieved and assembled by Leary's associates. There is his mother's correspondence, given to him after her death. Some material may have been retrieved by private collectors. His papers are an assemblage of material produced in the course of his work, received by others, and collected for his consideration.

Therein lies the challenge to honor the original order, while providing a logical system that promotes access to the materials.

The papers arrived at the NYPL after years of care and maintenance from Leary and his associates. His friends and colleagues also had a hand at organizing his papers and left some detailed inventories, aiding in the identification of his writings and other items. For this I'm eternally grateful. In fact, his former archivist and friend, Michael Horowitz, published the Annotated Bibliography of Timothy Leary, first published in 1988, providing an important resource for researching his papers and manuscripts.

This information aids in the arrangement and description of the collection, to honor the original order of the record keeping system and provenance. An example would be keeping enclosed photographs and clippings with letters and not separate them by format. The letter is kept with similar correspondence as a function of its use. This can be seen with email. Messages are kept in the email record keeping system in mailboxes: received, sent, drafts, and any other folders created by the user. Attachments are maintained. Most people do not alter this record keeping system. Unfortunately, with hard copy files, the system may be compromised by rearranging material, all too common with personal papers.

It is also common to find various levels of order and disorder within a collection.

If the provenance and original order is compromised or non-existent, series may be created based on criteria that will aid research, by format, chronology, or function. The work of intellectually arranging personal papers and archives is an art of applying these principles to create a type of hierarchical outline. This step may or may not be done simultaneously while physically rearranging the material. In case you are curious, this is the work I've been doing...

[1] International Council on Archives. "ISAD(G): General International Standard Archival Description." ICA, 2000. Web. 1 Mar. 2012. <http://www.icacds.org.uk/eng/ISAD(G).pdf>.

[2] Roe, Kathleen. Arranging and describing archives and manuscripts. Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2005. 34-35.

Transmissions from the Timothy Leary Papers: Welcome!

Jennifer Ulrich, Specialist, Manuscripts and Archives Division — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 11:19:25 -0400

Welcome to Transmissions... where I'll update the public on the processing of the Timothy Leary Papers, held by The New York Public Library.

I look forward to sharing the experience of arranging and describing the collection of Timothy Francis Leary, an American psychologist and Harvard professor who, through his studies regarding the use of psilocybin and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD-25), went on to become an advocate for mind-altering drugs, eastern philosophy, sexual liberation, cyberspace, and the cyberpunk genre. He was a prolific writer, lecturer, and counter-culture icon from the 1960s until his death in 1996.

One can imagine the wealth of resources this collection will provide to scholars and alternative culture enthusiasts. The collection includes letters, notes, clippings, posters, film, VHS and reel to reel tapes, phonograph records, books, greeting cards, screenplays, book drafts, drawings, and contracts — and the list goes on and on.

In my initial survey, I found a plethora of memorabilia. Yet, the scope and extent of the collection provides a picture, not only the iconic person of the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s counter-culture, but also Leary as a young man from Springfield, Massachusetts, the child of school teacher Abigail (née Ferris) and dentist Timothy F. Leary, Sr. There are records from his time enrolled at West Point and Army, the University of Alabama, Washington State, and University of California-Berkeley. The archive also portrays him as a father to Susan and Jack, husband to Marianne, and as a professional clinical psychologist.

This early part of his life is generally less well known, and I will highlight some of this material, along with his post-drug, more publicized career.

But First, Let Me Explain Transmissions...

"This signal is being transmitted from a cell in Folsom Prison, which is the Black Hole of American society."

...wrote Leary in the opening sentence of his 1973 publication Starseed: transmitted from Folsom Prison, while incarcerated after a high-profile prison escape in 1970.

Leary’s legal troubles began on December 26, 1965, when he was arrested for marijuana possession while crossing the border from Mexico into Laredo, Texas with Rosemary Woodruff and children Susan and Jack (from his first marriage to Marianne Busch). He was stopped and arrested again for marijuana possession in 1968 while driving in Laguna Beach, California. After losing his protracted legal battles, Leary was finally incarcerated in 1970 at California State Prison in San Luis Obispo. Denied parole, he escaped with the aid of then wife, Rosemary, and the radical leftist group Weathermen that same year. He fled in exile to Algeria, where he stayed with Eldridge Cleaver and the Black Panthers, then traveled to Switzerland, and eventually landed in Afghanistan, where he was apprehended and deported back to the US. The book Confessions of a Hope Fiend recounts his escape and exile period.

He was re-incarcerated at Folsom Prison, which returns us back to Transmissions...

The Black Hole

Leary’s attempts to evade prosecution had failed, leaving him to face a long prison sentence. In this context, he became interested in comet Kohoutek, which was predicted to to give a significant visual display yet given scarce media attention. He wrote:

“The entire universe is gently, rhythmically, joyously vibrating. Cosmic intercourse. This is a message of hope and interstellar love from the Black Hole. Irrepressible optimism. Yes, it is true that repressive pessimists now control planetary politics. This is a larval phase.”

Leary followed Starseed with another prison writing, Terra II: The Starseed Transmission, a “transmission” received by prison mate Lynn Wayne Benner and recorded by Leary, proposing space travel and colonization in human evolution.

There was much publicity surrounding his Starseed phenomenon. Joanna Harcourt-Smith, whom he met while in Switzerland, was behind his defense campaign and helped with the publication of his prison writings. She ran the Starseed operations on his behalf, publishing, arranging events and fundraisers, and disseminating information in support of his release through the Starseed Information Center.

The collection is rich with press releases and publicity materials from this time, such as the event “A Tribute to Dr. Timothy Leary,” which was held at Zellerbach Hall on the University of California-Berkeley campus and featured the British band Hawkwind, Leary’s documentary film, and guest speaker Joanna Leary (his common-law wife).

This is just one small sample from a short period of Leary’s life. I hope you will return for more.