Fargo-Moorhead Open Forum Photographs
Collection
Identifier: Photo 482
Scope and Contents
The photographs in this collection were removed from the Fargo-Moorhead Open Forum Records collection, MSS 75. This collection is divided into two parts, speaker portraits and events.
Dates
- Majority of material found within 1936-1967
Access
The collection is open under the rules and regulations of the NDSU Archives.
Copyrights
Copyrights to this collection is held by the NDSU Archives
Biography
The Fargo-Moorhead Open Forum was begun in 1930 when a group of five persons formed a committee
that was interested in providing adult education for the community and plans for holding public meetings
were soon developed. Originally the Open Forum was part of the U.S. Dept. of Education’s Program for
Adult Study. For some years funding was received from the Carnegie Foundation, however, contributions
from the community were the main source.
The Fargo-Moorhead Open Forum was patterned after the historical New England town meeting. As stated in one of its brochures "the Fargo-Moorhead Open Forum is actually Fargo's own 'town meeting' - where folks from every walk of life may participate in discussions on a wide range of subjects." The primary reason why the Open Forum was started as a civic undertaking was to provide a medium for the community to become better informed through an exchange of information, ideas and opinions as well as a means of discussion.
The Open Forum held meetings when authoritative speakers of national and international stature could be obtained. The speaker was allowed 45 minutes to present his point of view; the remaining 45 minutes was devoted to questions from the audience with an open and free discussion. Most of the public meetings were held at Emerson Smith School auditorium in Fargo. When Eleanor Roosevelt spoke at the Open Forum in October, 1953, it was estimated that 6,000 people were in attendance and this was considered to be the largest audience ever to hear a speaker in Fargo-Moorhead in an indoor facility up to 1953. The board of directors started with eight members in 1933, later totaling more than forty. The officers included the president, 1st vice-president, 2nd vice-president, secretary, and treasurer. Perhaps the most notable president of the Open Forum was Joseph W. "Joe" Cohen who was president from 1949 to 1954 and served as a director for ten years.
When Cohen stepped down from active leadership in the Open Forum in 1954, the Fargo Forum praised him for "his uncanny ability in bringing diplomats and leaders to Fargo-Moorhead." Cohen was born in 1895 of immigrant Lithuanian parents in north-central Minnesota; he became president of the Wilcoh Company, a wholesale potato concern in Moorhead, in 1937, and was in that position until his death in 1961. An annual Cohen Memorial Lecture sponsored by the Open Forum was begun in 1962 in memory of Joe Cohen.
The speakers to the Open Forums included political leaders, ambassadors, senators, and educators. Some of the more prominent speakers included the following: Dr. Ralph Bunche, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Sir Oliver Franks, British Ambassador to the U.S., Senator Milton R. Young, Eleanor Roosevelt, journalist Carl Rowan, Dr. Charles Mayo, Ezra Taft Benson, Justice William O. Douglas, M.A.H. Ispahani, Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S., and anthropologist Dr. Margaret Mead.
The Open Forum continued to serve the community into the early 1960's, however, with the popularity of television, speakers sponsored by the three colleges and other resources, the Fargo-Moorhead Open Forum was no longer active after 1967, Carl T. Rowan, a staff writer for the Minneapolis Tribune, spoke highly of the Open Forum, stating that the Fargo-Moorhead Open Forum was an Upper Midwest institution.
(For a complete history of the Fargo-Moorhead Open Forum consult the following thesis: A Record of the Activities Conducted by the Fargo-Moorhead Open Forum, in Fargo and Moorhead from 1930 through 1959 by Paul Thomas Crary, Master of Science Thesis, 1959, LC6553 F2 C7.
The Fargo-Moorhead Open Forum was patterned after the historical New England town meeting. As stated in one of its brochures "the Fargo-Moorhead Open Forum is actually Fargo's own 'town meeting' - where folks from every walk of life may participate in discussions on a wide range of subjects." The primary reason why the Open Forum was started as a civic undertaking was to provide a medium for the community to become better informed through an exchange of information, ideas and opinions as well as a means of discussion.
The Open Forum held meetings when authoritative speakers of national and international stature could be obtained. The speaker was allowed 45 minutes to present his point of view; the remaining 45 minutes was devoted to questions from the audience with an open and free discussion. Most of the public meetings were held at Emerson Smith School auditorium in Fargo. When Eleanor Roosevelt spoke at the Open Forum in October, 1953, it was estimated that 6,000 people were in attendance and this was considered to be the largest audience ever to hear a speaker in Fargo-Moorhead in an indoor facility up to 1953. The board of directors started with eight members in 1933, later totaling more than forty. The officers included the president, 1st vice-president, 2nd vice-president, secretary, and treasurer. Perhaps the most notable president of the Open Forum was Joseph W. "Joe" Cohen who was president from 1949 to 1954 and served as a director for ten years.
When Cohen stepped down from active leadership in the Open Forum in 1954, the Fargo Forum praised him for "his uncanny ability in bringing diplomats and leaders to Fargo-Moorhead." Cohen was born in 1895 of immigrant Lithuanian parents in north-central Minnesota; he became president of the Wilcoh Company, a wholesale potato concern in Moorhead, in 1937, and was in that position until his death in 1961. An annual Cohen Memorial Lecture sponsored by the Open Forum was begun in 1962 in memory of Joe Cohen.
The speakers to the Open Forums included political leaders, ambassadors, senators, and educators. Some of the more prominent speakers included the following: Dr. Ralph Bunche, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Sir Oliver Franks, British Ambassador to the U.S., Senator Milton R. Young, Eleanor Roosevelt, journalist Carl Rowan, Dr. Charles Mayo, Ezra Taft Benson, Justice William O. Douglas, M.A.H. Ispahani, Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S., and anthropologist Dr. Margaret Mead.
The Open Forum continued to serve the community into the early 1960's, however, with the popularity of television, speakers sponsored by the three colleges and other resources, the Fargo-Moorhead Open Forum was no longer active after 1967, Carl T. Rowan, a staff writer for the Minneapolis Tribune, spoke highly of the Open Forum, stating that the Fargo-Moorhead Open Forum was an Upper Midwest institution.
(For a complete history of the Fargo-Moorhead Open Forum consult the following thesis: A Record of the Activities Conducted by the Fargo-Moorhead Open Forum, in Fargo and Moorhead from 1930 through 1959 by Paul Thomas Crary, Master of Science Thesis, 1959, LC6553 F2 C7.
Extent
33 Items (Contains 33 photographic prints of speakers and events from the Fargo-Moorhead Open Forum series.)
Language of Materials
English
Overview
The photographs in this collection were removed from the Fargo-Moorhead Open Forum Records collection, MSS 75. This collection is divided into two parts, speaker portraits and events.
Provenance
Donated by Mrs. Joseph Cohen, Fargo, North Dakota, 1972 (Acc. 1900) and 1983 (Acc. 2091).
Property Rights
The NDSU Archives owns the property rights to this collection.
- Title
- Finding Aid to the Fargo-Moorhead Open Forum Photographs
- Description rules
- Appm
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Institute for Regional Studies Repository
Contact:
West Building N
3551 7th Avenue North
Fargo North Dakota 58102 United States
ndsu.archives@ndsu.edu
West Building N
3551 7th Avenue North
Fargo North Dakota 58102 United States
ndsu.archives@ndsu.edu