Judith Bregman Collection, 1966-1993
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Creator
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Language of Materials
Abstract
Judith Bregman was a professor of Physics at Polytechnic Institute of New York from 1957 until her death in 1978. During her time at Poly, she developed an interest in the preparation of instructional films, and is perhaps most well-known for her film 'Symmetry', which was created in 1966 in cooperation with Alan Holden, Richard Davisson, and Philip Stapp. This collection is comprised of 16 mm films Bregman helped to create and mass-produced educational films she used for classroom instruction. Some personal information about Bregman and her work is also included in the collection.
Biographical / Historical
Judith Bregman was a professor of Physics at Polytechnic Institute of New York from 1957 until her death in 1978. A graduate of Bryn Mawr and Cornell University, Bregman specialized in the areas of physical chemistry, x-ray crystallography, electron diffraction, and light scattering. During her time at Poly, she developed an interest in the preparation of instructional films, and is perhaps most well-known for her film 'Symmetry', which was created in 1966 in cooperation with Alan Holden, Richard Davisson, and Philip Stapp. The film received much attention, and was even shown at the Museum of Modern Art. She also participated in the making of other films, such as 'Aspects of Symmetry'. She died of cancer on October 2, 1978 at the age of 57.
Source: The above information is from Bregman's obituary in Physics Today, which can be found at Phillips, M. (1978). Judith Bregman. Physics Today. 31(12), 71. doi: 10.1063/1.2994888
Arrangement
Series I - Series VII contain the personal papers of Judith Bregman, arranged by subject. Some of the correspondence, film distribution, and Bregman Film Account documents were maintained by physics professor Hellmut Juretschke after Bregman's death in 1978.
Series VIII contains 35 16mm films, arranged in their original order, as determined by Bregman, with miscellaneous audio/visual materials at the end.
Series IX contains 5 shipping containers in which some of the film reels were originally stored.
Scope and Contents
This collection consists largely of the 16mm films which comprised Bregman's personal "film library" in the Physics Department at NYU-Poly. Included are 35 films of varying length and content; the some in color and some with audio. A number of the films, the ones to be found in Subseries A, were created by or for Polytechnic with the help of Bregman herself; the most notable of these is Symmetry. The remainder are films used by Bregman for class instruction and cover topics such as crystallography, quantum mechanics, and light scattering.
The collection also contains five film reel shipping containers in which the films were originally stored. The films are also accompanied by correspondence, grant proposals and contracts, reviews and articles of the films, film stills from Symmetry, documents from the Bergman Film Library account, and biographical materials about Bregman.
Subjects
Conditions Governing Access
Open for research without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Permission to publish materials must be obtained from:
Poly Archives & Special Collections Bern Dibner Library of Science and Technology 5 MetroTech Center Brooklyn, NY 11201
Phone: (718) 260-3943 Fax: (718) 260-3756 E-mail: archives@library.poly.edu
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; Judith Bregman Collection; RG 013; box number; folder number or item identifier; Poly Archives at Bern Dibner Library of Science and Technology, New York University.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The film reels and containers were transferred to Bern Dibner Library of Technology & Science from the Physics Department in 1995 and stored in a glass and metal cabinet in the archives. Preliminary lists and finding aids were found in the cabinet when assessed in 2013.
