Collection is open to the public. Collection must be used in Special Collections and University Archives Reading Room. Collection or parts of collection may be stored offsite. Please contact Special Collections and University Archives in advance of your visit to allow for transportation time.
Charles T. Duncan worked as a newspaper reporter in Minnesota before taking his first job as a journalism instructor at the University of Nevada in 1940. In 1949, he joined the faculty of the School of Journalism at the University of Oregon. He replaced Gordon A. Sabine as Dean of the School of Journalism in 1956, and served as Dean for seven years. Under his leadership as Dean, the undergraduate program was overhauled, the graduate program was strenthened, and a greater emphasis was placed on communications theory and research.
From 1965 to 1971, Duncan served as the University of Oregon Dean of Faculty, before retiring from the university in 1979. After retiring, he continued to serve the university in a variety of roles, and contributed columns to the Register-Guard.
Outside the university sphere, Duncan served as president of the Association for Education in Journalism (1961). He also was the author or editor of three books: An Overland Journey; Bob Frazier of Oregon; and An Orange for Christmas, a compilation of his Register-Guard columns.
Charles Duncan died in 1997.
[Sources: http://nwscholasticpress.org/2012/10/30/charles-t-duncan-taught-future-journalists-to-be-tough-fair/; http://journalism.uoregon.edu/sojc-history/]
The Charles T. Duncan papers are comprised of the materials Charles T. Duncan collected or created as an Oregon delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968.
The correspondence in the collection is comprised of letters written to Duncan in support of one of two of the Democratic presidential candidates, Hubert H. Humphrey or Eugene McCarthy.
Publications in the collection focus primarily on Eugene McCarthy as a candidate, and the war in Vietnam. Included is a small work authored by McCarthy entitled, First Things First: New Priorities for America, in which he discusses race and riots, the Vietnam War, and the "direction of the nation."
The single Subject File in the collection contains convention-related materials, such as Duncan's Certificate of Election as an Oregon delegate, information about hotel rooms and convention events and, perhaps most significantly, his Democratic Convention Score Card sheets.
The Newsclippings in the collection are primarily concerned with the viability of McCarthy's bid for the nomination, and his standing in the polls. The Ephemera and Artifacts in the collection are comprised of convention and candidate buttons, daily convention passes, Duncan's delegate badges, and maps and information about the Chicago area.