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Papers of A. Craig Baird Access and Restrictions: This collection is open for research. Digital Surrogates: Except where indicated, this document describes but does not reproduce the actual text, images and objects which make up this collection. Materials are available only in the Special Collections Department. Copyright: Please read The University of Iowa Libraries' statement on Property Rights, Copyright Law, and Permissions to Use Unpublished Materials. Use of Collections: The University of Iowa Libraries supports access to the materials, published and unpublished, in its collections. Nonetheless, access to some items may be restricted by their fragile condition or by contractual agreement with donors, and it may not be possible at all times to provide appropriate machinery for reading, viewing or accessing non-paper-based materials. Please read our Use of Manuscripts Statement. Acquisition and Processing Information: The A. Craig Baird Papers were re-processed in 2003 by Ashley DeGross and David McCartney. Guide posted to the Internet 2003; updated January 2008. Photographs: None |
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Scope and Contents
The A. Craig Baird Papers are arranged in five series: Articles and Speeches, Correspondence, Speech Association of America (SAA), Subject files, and Books. The Articles and Speeches series is arranged alphabetically by title and documents many of Mr. Baird’s public appearances. The Correspondence series (1927-1972) is arranged chronologically. The Speech Association of America series (1931-1956; bulk 1937-1956) is arranged alphabetically with a correspondence sub-series. Subject files are arranged alphabetically, with several sub-series arranged chronologically. The Books series lists titles.
Biographical Note
A. (Albert) Craig Baird was a recognized authority on speech and debate who taught in American colleges and universities continually for 60 years, including 45 at the University of Iowa. He was awarded the University’s highest honor, its Distinguished Service Award, in 1974. The University also established the A. Craig Baird Distinguished Professorship in Communications Studies in his honor.
Mr. Baird was born in Vevay, Indiana, on October 20, 1883, and graduated from high school there. After working for a year, he enrolled at Wabash College, supporting himself and becoming a member of that institution’s first intercollegiate debate team and of Phi Beta Kappa. After graduation in 1907, he studied at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago and later Union Theological Seminary in New York from which he received a divinity degree magna cum laude in 1910. He also received a master’s degree in English and rhetoric from Columbia University in 1912.
His teaching career began at Ohio Wesleyan and continued at Dartmouth before he went to Bates College in 1913. In 1923 he married Marion Peirce and they had one daughter. In 1925 the family moved to Iowa City, where Mr. Baird became Associate Professor of Speech (later Professor) at Iowa and headed the program in Rhetoric and Public Address. He also directed the inter-collegiate debate and discussion program, and from 1925 to 1948 was director of the Iowa High School Forensic League. During much of that time he was in charge of weekly discussion programs over University radio station WSUI. In 1952 and 1953 he served on the development committee of the Fund for Adult Education of the Ford Foundation.
Despite his official retirement in 1952, Professor Baird continued to teach full-time each fall at Iowa and full-time each spring at some other university until 1969. He also taught each summer for almost the same length of time. He wrote or edited over 30 books, some of which went through many editions, and was also the author of numerous articles. In addition to his own scholarly work, he directed more than 100 master’s theses and about 50 doctoral dissertations.
A. Craig Baird died in Iowa City on March 18, 1979, at age 95..
Related Materials
Edward C. Mabie Papers (RG 99.0188)
Iowa High School Forensic League Bulletin and the Oratorical Association records, both in the Records of the Dept. of Communication Studies and Theatre Arts (RG 06.38)
Baird, A. Craig. "Oral History Interview." University of Iowa Oral History Project, 18. 29 pp. 1976.
----. Representative American Speeches. New York, NY: H.W. Wilson Co., 1938- .
Cheshier, David, ed. On the Side of Truth: A Century of Intercollegiate Debate, Remembrances of A. Craig Baird. Iowa City: University of Iowa, A. Craig Baird Debate Forum, 1993. 181 pp., facsims., illus. Includes writings by LeRoy Cowperthwaite, Orville Hitchcock, and Helen E. Lavender.
Hitchcock, Orville A. "Albert Craig Baird." In American Public Address; Studies in Honor of Albert Craig Baird, edited by Loren Reid, pp. xi-xix. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1961.
Mitchell, Anne G. "A. Craig Baird, Editor and Teacher." Speech Teacher 18 (January 1969): 1-8, notes.
Mitchell, Anne Goyne. "The Rhetorical Theory of A. Craig Baird as Expressed in Representative American Speeches: 1937-1959." Ph.D. dissertation, Louisiana State University, 1968. 168 pp. Speech Monographs 36 (August 1969): 246. Dissertation Abstracts 29: 1613-A.
Peterson, Owen. "A. Craig Baird (1883-1979)." Southern Speech Communication Journal 47 (winter 1982): 130-134, notes.
Box Contents List
Box 1
Series I: Articles and speeches
American Foreign Policy: An Interpretation
Analysis and Evidence in Communication
At a speech dinner, Michigan State College
Broadcasting Problems
Chauncey Goodrich: As a Philosophical Critic of Speakers. Central States Convention…
Chauncey Goodrich: As a Philosophical Critic of Speakers. Southern Illinois University…
The College Debater and the Red China Issue
The College Debater: 1954-1955
The College Debater: 1955
The Critic as Philosopher
Debate and Discussion in Post War Service to Democracy
Debate and Discussion in Post War Service to Democracy - Gavel…
Debate and Discussion in Post War Service to Democracy - The Debaters Magazine
The Debate Director as Educator
The Debater: His Political and Moral Responsibilities
The Debater: His Secret Weapons
Debating and General Education
Dedication of the Lincoln Depository…
Dedication of the University Library
Discussion and Debate as School and College Activities - University of Iowa
Discussion and Debate as School and College Activities - Wisconsin
Discussion and Debate in the Space Age
Discussion and Social Action
Discussion and the “New” Logic
Discussion in Wartime
The Educational Philosophy of the Teacher of Speech
General Education and the Course in Argumentation - Gavel…
General Education and the Course in Argumentation - S.A.A. convention
General Education and the Course in Argumentation - University of Washington…
Goals of the Liberal Arts College
Higher Education in a Mass Society
In Defense of Good Talk
Logos, Ethos and Communicative Behavior
Methodology in the Criticism of Public Address
Lester Thonssen Methodology in the Criticism of Public Address
The Minister as Public Speaker
The Nature of Rhetorical Criticism
The Original Oration
The Original Oration: Secondary School Oration as a Speech Activity
The Place of Speech in Education in the Humanities
Box 2
Problems in Public Speaking
Political Obligations of the Scholar
Political Speaking in 1952: A Symposium
Political Speaking Today and Yesterday
Relationships of Rhetoric
Reorganization of the Speech Program
The Responsibilities of Free Communication
Responsibilities of Free Communication: The Quality of our Political Discourse
Rhetoric and Literature
Rhetoric and Logical Communication
Rhetoric: Its Boundaries and Applications
Rhetoric and Politics
Rhetorical Criticism
The Role of Discussion and Debate in College Education
The Scholar and the “Alienated Generation” Phi Beta Kappa…Southern Illinois University
The Scholar and the “Alienated Generation” Vital Speeches
The Scholar and the “Big Change”
The Scholar in the Space Age
Some Problems of Speech Responsibilities
Specialized Speech Training vs. Broad Background
Speech and the Age of Mass Communication State of Washington Speech Association…
Speech and the Age of Mass Communication University of Washington
Speech and the Democratic Process…
Speaking in a World of Words
Speech and Mass Civilization
Speech and the “New” Philosophies
Speech Models and Liberal Education
The Speech Teacher and the “Big Change”. Phi Beta Kappa…
The Speech Teacher and the “Big Change”. University of Missouri.
Symposium for Peace: “Let’s Discuss It”
The Speech Critic: An Approach to His Philosophy
Speeches and Ghost Writing
Trends and Areas of Investigation in British Public Areas
What is Right and Wrong with American Preaching at Mid Century?
What Makes a Good Teacher of Speech?
What Should be the Characteristics of a Successful School or College Debater in 1941-42
Box 3
1927-1929
1930-1931
1932 and undated [1931 or 1932]
Bates College, 1932-1935
1933 and undated [1933]
1934
1935 and undated [1935]
Box 4
1936 and undated [1936]
January-May, 1937
June-December, 1937 and undated [1937]
January-March, 1938
August-December, 1938 and undated [1937 or 1938, and 1938]
Box 5
January-April, 1939
May-August, 1939
September-December, 1939 and undated [1939 and 193[?]
January-April, 1940
May-August, 1940
September-December, 1940 and Undated [1940]
Box 6
January-April, 1941
May-September, 1941
October-December, 1941 and undated [1939-41, and 1941]
January-April, 1942
October-December, 1942 and undated [1942]
Box 7
1943
January-August, 1944
September-December, 1944
January-June, 1945
July-December, 1945
Box 8
January-March, 1946
April-June, 1946
July-August, 1946
September-December, 1946 and undated [1946]
January-March, 1947
April-June, 1947
July-December, 1947 and undated [1946 or 1947]
Box 9
January-June, 1948
July-December, 1948 and undated [1948]
January-April, 1949
May-December, 1949 and undated [1948-49, 1949 and 194[?]
January-July, 1950
Box 10
August-December, 1950 and undated [1950]
January-March, 1951
April-May, 1951
June-August, 1951
September-December, 1951 and undated [1951]
January-March, 1952
Box 11
April-May, 1952
June-August, 1952
September-December, 1952 and undated [1952]
1953-1954 and undated [1953 and 1954]
January-July, 1955
Box 12
August-December, 1955 and undated [1954 and 1955]
1963
1966 and undated [1966]
January-June, 1967
July-December, 1967 and undated [1967]
1968 and undated [1968]
1969 and undated [1969]
1972
Box 13
Series III: Speech Association of America (SAA)
College Debate Question, 1946
Committee on Case Studies in American Public Address, 1948-1952
Committee on Contemporary Public Address, 1942, 1946-1956
Committee on Discussion, 1947-1950
Committee on Finance, 1946-1948
Committee on the History of Speech Education, 1948-1949
Committee on Nominations, 1949-1951
Committee on Research in History and Rhetorical Criticisms, 1935, 1946-1947
Box 14
Committee on the History of American Public Address, 1945-1951
Committee on the Role of Speech in Liberal Education, 1951-1952
Committees and Reports, 1940-1955
Conference, 1944
Conference, 1949-Report of Representative American Speakers
Constitution (NATS),1944-1945
Conventions, 1946-1948
Correspondence (NATS), 1937-1939
---- 1940
---- 1941
---- 1942-1944
---- 1945
Box 15
Correspondence, 1946-1947
---- 1948-1949
---- 1950-1951
---- 1952-1956
Debate Program, 1950 Convention
International Debate, 1931, 1937 and 1946
International Debate, 1947-1948
Box 16
Series IV: Subject files
Alexander Hamilton Bicentennial Commission, American Students Constitutional Convention, 1957
American Forensic Association-Correspondence, 1948-1956
Annual Conference of Teachers of Speech, October 1930
Curriculum
Debater’s Magazine-Correspondence, 1946-1951
Debate-Correspondence, 1930-1931
Delta Sigma Rho-Correspondence, 1927-1948
---- Correspondence, 1950-1956
---- The Gavel (March, 1944 and May, 1950)
Box 17
Delta Sigma Rho - Initiation Ceremonies
---- Local Constitution, News and Members’ Activities
---- National History and Constitution
---- National Student Congresses, 1938-1951 (incomplete)
Discussion: Principles and Types-Correspondence, 1943-1944
Forensic Budgets-Iowa and other Universities
Inter-Collegiate Debate, 1927-1938
International Debate-Correspondence, 1947-1952
International Debates at Iowa, 1924-1950
Iowa Speech Association-Correspondence, 1927
McGraw Hill Communication Series-correspondence, 1954-1956
McGraw Hill Communication Series-Film outlines and shooting scripts, 1955-56
Box 18
McGraw Hill Publications-Correspondence, 1944-1953
---- 1954-1956
National Society for the Study of Communication-correspondence, 1950-1951
Office of War Information-correspondence, 1942-1943
Oxford-Iowa Debate, November 7, 1947
Ph.D. Dissertation Deposits-correspondence, 1950
Programs
Quarterly Journal of Speech-Correspondence, 1927-1930
---- 1949-1951
---- January-July, 1952
---- August-November, 1952
Representative American Speeches, 1950-51, 1951-52, 1952-53, and 1953-54-correspondence
Box 19
Speech Criticism-Correspondence, 1945-1949
---- Notes and flyer
Student Publications, Inc., 1941-1948
Studies in Honor of A. Craig Baird-Planning, 1948
U.S. Office of Education-Civilian Information and Training Service, 1942-1943
---- Civilian Information and Training Service-Faculty Speakers Bureau, 1942-1944
University of California-Iowa Debate, January 13, 1927
University of Iowa-College of Liberal Arts-Correspondence, 1946-1950
University of Iowa-Library-Correspondence, 1949-1952
University of Iowa-Library Committee-Correspondence, 1948-1952 and undated
University of Iowa-Speech Department-Correspondence, 1926-1944
---- 1945-1949
Box 20
University of Iowa-Speech Department-Correspondence, 1950-1956
University of Mississippi-Correspondence, 1954-1955
Veterans Service Office, 1946-1951
The Wabash
War Correspondence-1942-1943 and undated (1943)
---- 1944 and undated (1943 or 1944)
---- 1945-1946
Box 21
References and Problems - The Teaching of Creative Speaking (including discussion)
References and Problems - The Teaching of Public Speaking and Discussion
Speech Criticism