The following documents were photocopied from the NCTE archive collection housed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Information in parentheses following each document description refers to the Record Series and location in the archive.
It was a cold December day in Chicago when the founding members of the National Council of Teachers of English gathered. Approximately 65 men and women met at the Great Northern Hotel, and there NCTE was born. In an ordinary ledger book 35 of those present signed their names as the charter members of NCTE, and also in that ledger are the handwritten minutes of the December 2, 1911 meeting (taken by James Fleming Hosic, first NCTE Executive Director) and meetings which followed in 1912. (UIUC Archives, Record Series 15/70/3, Box #1)
NCTE resolutions often address topics of wide concern, and in these minutes of the Annual Business Meeting of Members, November 29, 1935, those assembled considered resolutions regarding impending war, the need for world peace, and their concern that schools and colleges might be “militarized.” (UIUC Record Series 15/70/1, Box #1, File 1)
When NCTE member Ernece B. Kelly went to a national educational conference in spring 1970, she was so disturbed by the tenor of the discussion on race that she thought it would be a fitting subject for the newly created Task Force on Racism and Bias to pursue. Established in 1969, the Task Force worked quickly, and in November 1970 issued an official NCTE position paper on criteria for teaching inclusive materials in reading and literature. Later, on the same topic, Kelly wrote the NCTE-sponsored Searching for America. This document is a just one of many letters between NCTE staff member Nancy S. Prichard and Kelly regarding the need for inclusive materials and the “real and dangerous pressures” educators face. (UIUC Archive, Record Series 15/73/8, Box #1, File 3)
The following documents are not taken from the archive but provide interesting information about NCTE history.
Numbers of scholars have researched and written theses and dissertations regarding aspects of English language teaching and the role of the National Council of Teachers of English. This list is only a partial compilation and will be added to periodically.
Are you curious about the history of English Journal (EJ)? This short booklet was produced to showcase the 90th year of EJ and was distributed at a celebration reception at the 2002 NCTE Annual Convention in Atlanta. Researched and written by former EJ editor and then NCTE president Leila Christenbury, the booklet gives an overview of the history of EJ, editor by editor, and features a copy of the first article in the first issue of EJ (January 1912) as well as five historical articles written by fomer EJ editors. Appendix material includes a list of journal editors, department/column editors, and Advisory Committee members. (Please note: this is a large PDF file and may take a few moments to open.)