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Archives: Guide to Peter Wotton Papers, 1933-1998
 Title: Peter Wotton Papers
Dates: 1933-1998
Collection number: M-003
Size: 5 document boxes, 33 audio cassette tapes (2.0 cubic feet) Description: Peter Wotton broadcast "Elderberry Wine" commentaries, focusing on issues of interest to older people, on KLCC radio in Eugene, Oregon, 1982-1996. The collection includes "Elderberry Wine" scripts, audio recordings, and newspaper columns; correspondence, speeches, sermons, poems, short stories, scrapbooks, and photographs.
Access Restrictions: Collection is open for research. Permission to rebroadcast or publish the "Elderberry Wine" commentaries must be obtained from KLCC radio.
Provenance: Donated by Carol Browne Wotton on September 25, 1999 and November 2001. The accession numbers were 1999-053 and 2001-077.
Processed by: Elizabeth Uhlig, 1999, 2001.
Collection Citation: Peter Wotton Papers, 1993-1998 (M-003), Lane Community College Archives, Eugene, Oregon
"Elderberry Wine" Citation: Elderberry Wine Commentary ###, Peter Wotton Papers, 1933-1998 (M-003), Lane Community College Archives, Eugene, Oregon
Repository:
Lane Community College
Archives and Records Management
Elizabeth M. Uhlig, Archivist
4000 East 30th Avenue
Eugene, Oregon 97405 USA
Telephone: (541) 463-5466
Fax: (541) 463-3996
E-mail: archives@lanecc.edu
Biography: Peter Wotton
Peter Wotton was born in Pasadena, California, in 1920. He attended Princeton University from 1938-1942, graduating with a degree in English literature. During World War II he served in the U.S. Armed Forces in the Pacific and in Europe from 1942-1946.
For the next 17 years, he worked in marketing, advertising, and public relations for a number of firms in New York and Connecticut. In 1963 he switched careers to public health administration. He received a Masters Degree in public health from Yale University in 1967. He worked as an administrator and planner in hospitals working in health education, psychiatric administration, and counseling in Connecticut until 1979 when he moved to Eugene, Oregon. In Oregon, he continued his work as an administrator in community health and senior services and as an in-home care provider.
Peter was active in the community as a member of the Unitarian Church and the Eugene Peace Choir. He served on a number of advisory committees and boards dealing with human rights, public health, senior citizens, the rights of aging, disabled services, and grief counseling. Peter was also a journalist, and from 1982 until his death in 1996, he broadcast a weekly commentary on KLCC radio in Eugene which he called “Elderberry Wine.” His commentaries focused on issues of interest to older people and the processes of living and growing older. In addition to the weekly radio broadcasts, Peter covered similar topics in the “Elderberry Wine” columns he wrote for local newspapers.
Peter married five times and was survived by his wife Carol Browne Wotton, son George, sister Mariah Marvin, and several step-daughters and step-sons. He had a heart attack in 1977 and was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1980. He died on November 3, 1996.
Scope & Content Note
The core of the Peter Wotton Papers is the scripts and audio recordings of "Elderberry Wine," a weekly commentary on KLCC-FM, the public radio station on the campus of Lane Community College.
The collection is divided into 3 series.
- Series A:
Elderberry Wine Commentaries, Scripts, 1982-1998
- There are over 700 commentaries, which date from June 1982 until November 1996. The commentaries focused on issues of interest to older people, local events and services, local and national politics, and Wotton's reflections on the processes of living and growing older. The numbered scripts are arranged chronologically by broadcast date.
- The series also contains a volume titled "Elderberry Wine: Selected Radio Commentaries by Peter Wotton." One hundred commentaries were selected by Carol Browne Wotton, Peter's wife, and published in 1998 in this volume.
- The series contains a copy of Peter's last commentary about his own death which was broadcast after he died.
- Series B: Elderberry Wine Commentaries, Recordings, 1982-1996
- This series contains the audio cassette recordings of the Elderberry Wine broadcasts, which are numbered and arranged chronologically by broadcast date. The series also includes a recording made at Peter's 75th birthday party.
- Series C: Subject Files and Recordings, 1933-1996
- This series contains copies of monthly newspaper columns, also titled "Elderberry Wine," which were often identical to the radio broadcasts. The columns were published in a number of local newspapers such as the Phoenix Senior World, Lane County Senior News, Senior News Monthly, and the OTHER paper. The columns are contained in three scrapbooks, which also include other newspaper articles written by Peter Wotton.
- The series also contains letters, photographs and copies of speeches and sermons, as well as scrapbooks, dated c. 1948 - 1965, containing samples of advertisements which Peter produced during his career in marketing in New York and Connecticut. There are also some records from his college days at Princeton University.
- Also included in this series are a video tape made shortly before his death and a recollection titled "Peter's Death" by his sister, Mariah Marvin.
Finding Aid
For a detailed finding aid which includes a complete list of the contents of this collection, refer to:
Related Resources
Elderberry Wine. An online exhibit featuring selected radio commentaries by Peter Wotton.
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