Tufts University Television (TUTV) Records

Collection

Call Number: UA076

Ask a Question

Scope and Contents

This collection contains video tapes in various formats for the Tufts University Television station, as well as web crawls of its web presence. The majority of the materials are VHS tapes, though there are a variety of other formats present including Umatic, 3/4 inch, and beta SP. Although TUTV was founded in 1977, this collection contains materials predating its founding that were transferred as part of their records.

Dates

1967 -- 2020

Creator

Tufts University Television

Language of Materials

English

Access

This collection is open for research. This collection may require review before it is available for use. Please contact DCA for further details.

Conditions Governing Use

Some material in this collection may be protected by copyright and other rights. Please see “Reproductions and Use” on the Digital Collections and Archives website for more information about reproductions and permission to publish. Copyright to all materials created by Tufts University employees in the course of their work is held by the Trustees of Tufts University.

Arrangement

This collection is organized into two series: Web crawls and Unprocessed accessions.

Extent

22.8 Linear Feet (19 boxes)

2 Web sites

Additional Description

Biographical / Historical

Alumnus Andy Liebman founded TUTV in 1977 when, in exchange for taping child development classes and tennis lessons, he received permission to use Tufts’ equipment to film TUTV programs. The early years of TUTV consisted of only 10 members. Since its founding, TUTV has grown exponentially in terms of its membership base, resources, scope of activities, and audience.

From 1977 to 1997, TUTV existed primarily as a video club. It had no system for disseminating its programming on a large scale. Instead, TUTV employed a hand-delivery system in which TUTV shuttled copies of its programs back and forth between TUTV’s production offices and the Mayer Campus Center. These copies were only available for viewing on VCR in Hotung Cafe or on the televisions in the Mayer Campus Center. As early as the 1980s a cable channel was discussed, but it did not become reality until the mid-1990s when Tufts University’s Assistant Director of Telecommunications Marj Minnigh contracted with Campuslink to provide voice, video, and data services to the Tufts residential system, including a closed-circuit cable channel that could be used by Tufts to deliver audiovisual content to their community. Wiring was completed in 1995 and by 1997, TUTV had received nearly $40,000 of funding with $30,000 from the Spaulding Porter Innovative Undergraduate Education Fund and $7,600 from Time Warner Cable. TUTV also received $20,000 from the Office of the Provost. These funds gave TUTV the ability to purchase eight new super VHS cameras and extensive editing equipment. With an updated studio and a cable system, TUTV aired on channel 43 in 1997.

When channel 43 came on-line in 1997, the Tufts administration authorized the Experimental College to oversee its use, with TUTV representatives managing the content creation process. TUTV continued broadcasting on channel 43 and on their website until launching their own channel on YouTube in 2012.

Custodial History

Box 2 was sent back to TUTV to look into format migration prior to 2015. It has not been returned.

One box of VHS tapes (Box 19) was removed from the Audio Lab materials series in the Historical Materials collection (UA136.004) and added to this collection by Archives and Research Assistant Tim Walsh in November 2014. It was originally part of accession 2009.024.