About the Ted Koppel Collection at Syracuse University Libraries
Donated by broadcast journalist and Syracuse alumnus Ted Koppel ’60 in 2012, the primarily videotape-based collection contains over 7,000 items covering the latter half of the 20th century, including a complete run of the nightly news program Nightline from 1980 to 2005, during Koppel’s tenure as anchor. The collection (located at https://koppel.syr.edu/) also contains final broadcasts of other news programs and documentaries produced and anchored by Ted Koppel, as well as hundreds of hours of accumulated source video that was utilized in the making of aired programs including unedited original footage of complete interviews, field footage of important places and developing events, clip reels of relevant news footage and historical footage, documentaries and original performance material.
The collection is a robust resource for students, faculty and researchers with an interest in broadcast journalism, media studies, international relations, political science, cultural studies and history. The primary historical documentation of events in Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, China and elsewhere found within the collection would be of particular interest to Cold War scholars and students of modern history. From Koppel’s reporting on the Iran hostage crisis in 1980 to his first American interview of Vladimir Putin in March 2000, the content of the collection and Koppel’s journalistic approach intersects with various course subjects within the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and the College of Arts and Sciences. “Such a rich representation of subject matter, place and perspective resonates with course syllabi across campus, allowing for critical and creative engagement with our living history. Within this collection, students could encounter the documentation and circulation of news media from the final aired product, back to the conceptualization of a story, and every turn, development, idea or question left to the cutting room floor. Looking at the capturing of history in this way is illustrative of how information is constructed, responded to and how it becomes part of our social fabric,” says SCRC’s Instruction and Education Librarian, Jana Rosinski.
For more information about the Ted Koppel Collection or to arrange a research or class visit, please contact the Special Collections Research Center at scrc@syr.edu.