Series I. General Project Documents, 1939-1972 (bulk 1948-1954)

The series includes seven types of documents related to the Elmira study: administrative documents, questionnaire drafts, survey documents, code books, analysis of the data collected in the surveys, book drafts, and reference documents. The administrative documents include memos, correspondence, and minutes concerning the planning of the 1948 election study, communication with other scholars to develop study details, progress reports, and letters to companies and research organizations to gather support. The series includes early drafts of each wave of the questionnaires, indicating their relationship to the study plan; survey documents, including maps of Elmira, record of interviews, and survey instructions for the field team; code books and related instructions for analyzing the outcome of the survey by using computers; the analysis of the data and survey outcomes, including memos and calculations; and drafts of each chapter of Voting, dust jackets, and the final version of the book. The series also includes the academic reference materials bearing on the Elmira study, including other scholars' analyses of the effects of mass media during presidential campaigns and the formation of public opinion in the late 1930s to early 1940s.

The series also includes a group of miscellaneous documents that are unrelated or indirectly related to the Elmira project. These documents include Bernard Berelson's diplomas and individual correspondence with the University of Chicago; radio studies in Italy, Greece, and Turkey; a health survey from Columbus, Ohio; and a student survey in 1965.