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Peter Wotton Papers, 1933-1998

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Peter Wotton
Title
Peter Wotton Papers
Dates
1933-1998 (inclusive)
Quantity
2.0 cubic feet, (5 document boxes, 33 audio cassette tapes)
Collection Number
M-003
Summary
Peter Wotton broadcast "Elderberry Wine" commentaries, focusing on issues of interest to older people, on KLCC radio in Eugene, Oregon, 1982-1996. The collection includes "Elderberry Wine" scripts, audio recordings, and newspaper columns; correspondence, speeches, sermons, poems, short stories, scrapbooks, and photographs.
Repository
Lane Community College Archives
4000 East 30th Avenue
Eugene, OR
97405
Telephone: 5414635466
archives@lanecc.edu
Access Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

Languages
English
Sponsor
Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Biographical Note

Peter Wotton was born in Pasadena, California, in 1920. He attended Princeton University from 1938-1942, graduating with a degree in English literature. During World War II he served in the U.S. Armed Forces in the Pacific and in Europe from 1942-1946.

For the next 17 years, he worked in marketing, advertising, and public relations for a number of firms in New York and Connecticut. In 1963 he switched careers to public health administration. He received a Masters Degree in public health from Yale University in 1967. He worked as an administrator and planner in hospitals working in health education, psychiatric administration, and counseling in Connecticut until 1979 when he moved to Eugene, Oregon. In Oregon, he continued his work as an administrator in community health and senior services and as an in-home care provider.

Peter was active in the community as a member of the Unitarian Church and the Eugene Peace Choir. He served on a number of advisory committees and boards dealing with human rights, public health, senior citizens, the rights of aging, disabled services, and grief counseling. Peter was also a journalist, and from 1982 until his death in 1996, he broadcast a weekly commentary on KLCC radio in Eugene which he called “Elderberry Wine.” His commentaries focused on issues of interest to older people and the processes of living and growing older. In addition to the weekly radio broadcasts, Peter covered similar topics in the “Elderberry Wine” columns he wrote for local newspapers.

Peter married five times and was survived by his wife Carol Browne Wotton, son George, sister Mariah Marvin, and several step-daughters and step-sons. He had a heart attack in 1977 and was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1980. He died on November 3, 1996.

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Content Description

The core of the Peter Wotton Papers is the scripts and audio recordings of "Elderberry Wine," a weekly commentary on KLCC-FM, the public radio station on the campus of Lane Community College. There are over 700 commentaries, which date from June 1982 until November 1996. The commentaries focused on issues of interest to older people, local events and services, local and national politics, and Wotton's reflections on the processes of living and growing older.

The collection also contains personal records such as speeches, scrapbooks, newspaper columns, and other records relating to his death.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Permission to rebroadcast or publish the commentaries must be obtained from KLCC-FM radio which holds the copyright to the commentaries.

Preferred Citation

For the collection: Peter Wotton Papers, 1933-1998 (M-003), Lane Community College Archives, Eugene, Oregon

For "Elderberry Wine" radio commentaries: Elderberry Wine Commentary ###, Peter Wotton Papers, 1933-1998 (M-003), Lane Community College Archvies, Eugene, Oregon

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

The collection is divided into three series.

Series A. Elderberry Wine Commentaries, Scripts, 1982-1998

Series B. Elderberry Wine Commentaries, Recordings, 1982-1996

Series C. Subject Files and Recordings, 1933-1996

Acquisition Information

The collection was donated to the Archives by Carol Browne Wotton in several donations in 1999, 2001, and 2006.

Processing Note

The collection was processed by Elizabeth Uhlig in 1999 and 2001. All material in the several donations were merged into one colleciton.

Related Materials

Recordings of fourteen "Elderberry Wine" commentaries are on the Lane Community College Archives website. To listen to these recordings online, visit: Elderberry Wine: Selected Radio Commentaries by Peter Wotton at the Lane Community College Archives.

Contact the Lane Archives for a complete list of commentary titles as well as poems and short stories written by Peter Wotton.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Community colleges--Oregon
  • Elderberry Wine - radio commentaries
  • Old age
  • Old age assistance
  • Older people
  • Older volunteers
  • Universities and colleges--Oregon

Personal Names

  • Wotton, Peter

Corporate Names

  • KLCC-FM
  • Lane Community College (Eugene, Or.)

Finding aid prepared by Elizabeth Uhlig in 1999 and 2001.
2006

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

About Creative Commons Licenses in Archives West

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