Collection inventory

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David Owen Papers

An inventory of his papers at the Syracuse University Archives

Finding aid created by: Zachary Burnham
Date: 2014

Revision history:

Biography

David Owen was a professor of English at Syracuse University.

David Owen was born on August 30, 1911 in Chicago, Illinois. He attended Lawrence College and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1935; a year later he received a Master of Arts from Columbia University. From 1941 to 1943 Owen taught at Lawrence College, after which he served as a Lieutenant with the Navy until 1946. He then took a teaching position at the State University of Iowa as an assistant instructor, and in 1948 Syracuse University hired him as an assistant professor. While teaching at Syracuse Owen continued his education at the University of Iowa and obtained his Ph.D. in American Literature in 1950.

Owen was an accomplished professor who was admired by the student body. More adventurous students took his discussion-style classes despite his campus nickname, “C- Owen.” He is considered a pioneer for the teaching of African-American literature, and in his own course, “The Negro in American Literature,” looked at African Americans in history and as strong figures within literature. In addition, he developed a course focusing on aging as a literary theme. Owen made sure to keep the literature of his courses fresh every year. He would re-read the literature he assigned his students and not use his notes from previous classes. To keep the themes of his classes relevant he would always include a recent contemporary novel for every class. He taught literature from an ideological perspective, focusing on the ideas within a novel as opposed to the content.

Owen devoted his life to teaching English language and literature, but he also believed that language was inadequate for explaining the human experience. He believed that the liberal arts emerged to help describe the human experience through the connection of abstract thought and human language. These unique teaching perspectives made his classes highly sought after by undergraduate and graduate students alike.

Owen had been teaching at Syracuse University since 1948 when he retired as professor emeritus of English in 1977. He died in October 1990.

Scope and Content Note

The David Owen Papers contain materials dating from 1896 to 1985.

The papers comprise of one box that mainly contains lecture materials for Owen's classes. These materials include lecture notes, audio recordings of lectures and transcriptions of recorded lectures. Because Owen sometimes recorded over cassette tapes he had already used, many of the transcriptions do not correspond to the recordings. Furthermore, there are several response papers written by his students that relate to the lecture materials.

In addition the papers also include certificates Owen was awarded, his Ph.D. diploma and dissertation, biographical information, newspaper clippings, personal correspondence, and information on the courses he taught at the University. Additionally, there are papers written by Owen and various publications, including a book for which he wrote an article and articles he annotated. There is also information on the Syracuse University Summer Institute in Gerontology, with which Owen was involved.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions:

Please note that the collection is housed off-site, and advance notice is required to allow time to have the materials brought to the Reading Room on campus.

Use Restrictions:

Written permission must be obtained from University Archives,
Special Collections Research Center
Syracuse University Libraries and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

Related Material

In addition to these papers, the Syracuse University Archives holds a clippings file and a portrait file for David Owen.

Selected Search Terms

Names

Owen, David, 1911-1990.
Syracuse University -- Faculty.
Syracuse University.

Subjects

Syracuse University -- History.
College teachers.
Higher education.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

David Owen Papers,
University Archives,
Special Collections Research Center
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

The Archives received the David Owen Papers on July 23, 2001.

Processing Information

Materials were placed in acid-free folders and boxes.

Table of Contents

Papers

Inventory