Joan Dye Gussow Collection

Joan Dye Gussow joined the Teachers College faculty in 1970, as an instructor in the program in nutrition. She served as the chair of the Nutrition Education department from 1975 to 1985. In 1988 she was named, by the trustees, as the first Mary Swartz Rose Professor of Nutrition and Education. Mary Swartz Rose was a professor of nutrition and education who joined the Teachers College faculty in 1909, and thus became the first woman to have a “professional appointment in nutrition” within the United States (Faculty File). Rose taught at Teachers College until 1941, during this time she wrote multiple books, developed a training program for nutrition and dietetics, and equipped “the first laboratory to be devoted solely to the training of students in nutrition (faculty file). Between joining the faculty and becoming the Mary Swartz Rose Professor of Education and Nutrition, Gussow earned both her M.E.d in Community Nutrition Education and Ed.D. in nutrition education in 1974 and 1975 respectively (faculty file). Gottesman library is fortunate to be home to many of Gussow’s work and papers from her time at Teachers College. The Special and Digital Collections house Gussow’s 1975 dissertation, “ ‘What do they want me to say I eat?’: Apparent researcher attitude as a factor in reported dietary intake,” Gussow’s 21 page faculty file in the Faculty Files subcollection of the Teachers College Administration Collection, and the Joan Dye Gussow Collection, a subcollection of the Teachers College Faculty and Emeriti Collection.

Containing two and a half linear feet of material the Joan Dye Gussow Collection is a record of Professor Joan Dye Gussow’s decades of incredible work at Teachers College, and the greater field of nutrition. The hundreds of folders comprising this collection contain speeches, correspondences, class materials and syllabi, newspaper clippings, and much more. This past summer I began a preservation project of this collection. This work included moving materials out of their decades old boxes and folders, into new ones, and inventorying the collection’s contents at the folder level as I went. Working through the boxes of writings, articles, and letters I followed Gussow’s prolific career in education and nutrition. I became familiar, and felt somewhat intimately acquainted with, Gussow's work and ethics as a nutritionist, educator, and conservationist.

Professor Gussow was concerned with the sustainability of our food chains, especially concerning women and their relationships to food (Faculty Files). Gussow wrote and spoke extensively, a fact made clear by the 13 years of speeches and talks comprising Box 3 of the Joan Gussow Collection. Making up about a fifth of this collection is Gussows speeches, spanning 1972 to 1985 (Finding Aid). A prolific speaker, Gussow received, and accepted, consistent invitations to participate in conferences, panels, and to headline various events. Though only 20 items, the Digital Joan Gussow Collection is expansive, most documents containing multiple speeches and dozens of pages. For example, “Compiled Speeches, Notes and Related Correspondences on Nutrition Education (1978 - 1985)” contains 323 digitized pages of material.

[Page one of “Compiled Speeches, Notes and Related Correspondences on Nutrition Education (1978 - 1985)”]

Arranged chronologically, Professor Gussow’s speeches engage with nutrition from an array of angles. Box three begins with speeches from the 1970s, including speeches such as “Nutritions Education as an Intervention in Malnutrition.” In January of 1978 Gussow presented a similar speech, “The Educational Effects of Nutrition (and the Nutritional Effects of Education)” as an Address to the Governor's Conference on Education in Hawaii (RG 28, Box 3, Folder 8). Clocking in at 31 pages, Gussow’s copy of her address is annotated throughout. These annotations, presumably made by Gussow, add texture and depth to this speech. They offer us more ways to imagine what the experience of this speech, delivered by Gussow, might have been like. Gussow’s annotations and alterations allow for closer re-experiencing of this event. “The Educational Effects of Nutrition (and the Nutritional Effects of Education)” contains a number of underlined, inserted, crossed out, and scribbled over words and phrases, as well as marginalia. In a talk titled, “Do we Know Enough To Eat” presented in May 1979 at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the date appears in pencil; it is written, by hand, above the crossed out type-written date of Tuesday, Jan. 31, 1978, when Gussow delivered an earlier version of the talk (RG 28, Box 3, Folder 9). Albert Einstein College of Medicine appears printed upon a stapled-on piece of paper, partially obscuring the already damaged name of the State Nutrition Council Meeting, where this talk was first previously given. As the address continues a second piece of paper is stapled over the final quarter of the page, this visible editing, alongside continued annotation, continues for the rest of this speech.

The collaged-quality of “Do we Know Enough To Eat” is not a unique finding among Professor Gussow’s speeches. Many of Gussow’s speeches are altered in some way, whether annotations, cut and pasted sections, marginalia, or some combination of the three; it is in fact the rare occurrence to find a speech without any alteration. These collaged and commented upon speeches offer unique insights and allowed me to revere these documents as one of a kind collaborative materials.

Additionally, the striking visual effect of Gussow’s physical alteration and reconstruction of her speeches drew me in. Thinking of Professor Gussow’s speeches alongside the palimpsest, a writing which is done over removed previous writing(s), I wanted to go deeper into the collection, to see what traces of previous writings I could find peeking through. These interactions with Gussow’s personal copies of her speeches granted me ample opportunity for connection with, excitement around, and understanding of the material. Examination of Professor Gussow’s speeches encouraged my engagement with the seams of her work. Through this engagement I gained a multi-faceted understanding of her strategic processes of creation and presentation.

While a portion of Gottesman Libraries holdings by, or concerning, Professor Gussow can be accessed online and through the main library, much of the collection can only be accessed in person via Special Collections reading room visits. If you are interested in accessing The Joan Dye Gussow Collection, Professor Gussow’s Faculty File, or “ ‘What do they want me to say I eat?’ :apparent researcher attitude as a factor in reported dietary intake,” please submit an application for a reading room appointment. You can explore a breakdown of the contents of The Joan Dye Gussow Collection via a digitally accessible finding aid.