The papers of Dr. Selden D. Bacon, director of the Center of Alcohol Studies from 1950 through 1975, were generously donated to the CAS Library by his son, Selden Bacon, Jr. (“Sam”). Sam will soon be retiring from his position as Dean of Academics at Blair Academy in Blairstown, NJ, and upon cleaning out his office, had found a few boxes of his father’s documents. Fortunately, he chose to call the library and ask if we were interested in them, and we were happy to oblige by taking a day trip and picking them up. When asked for comment about the papers, Bacon said, “They are going to the right place.”
Our librarians and graduate assistants are already hard at work processing this significant collection, and we are excited to explore this vital archive for the history of the Center and of twentieth-century alcohol studies as a whole, amassed by one of the key players. Selden Bacon provided the Center of Alcohol Studies and the Journal (then published as the Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol) with a vital sociological perspective, and oversaw the Center’s move to Rutgers in the early 1960s.
We are extraordinarily grateful to Sam Bacon and the Bacon family for this invaluable donation.
–Originally published in the October 2015 issue of the CAS Information Services Newsletter