Kathy Sawyer Papers
Scope and Contents
The Kathy Sawyer Papers are composed of 23.3 linear feet of research, writings, interviews, correspondence and photographs from her career in journalism. The dates of the collection are from 1965 to 2007 and contain most of the writings Sawyer produced during that period.
Personal Information: Includes notes, photos, and clippings from newspaper coverage of Sawyers life events including marriage, injury, and awards.
Human Space Flight, 1986-2000: Includes notes, documents, interviews, pictures, and reports regarding Sawyer’s research around human space flight. Extensive notes from Sawyer’s interviews with Neil Armstrong and the International Space Station are included in this section. The Moon, 1994-1998: Includes notes, documents, interviews, pictures, and reports regarding Sawyer’s Moon research.
Mars, 1992-2001: Includes notes, documents, interviews, pictures, and reports regarding Sawyer’s Mars research.
Jupiter, 1995-2000: Includes notes, documents, interviews, pictures, and reports regarding Sawyer’s Jupiter research.
Neptune/Saturn/Pluto, 1997-2000: Includes notes, documents, interviews, pictures, and reports regarding Sawyer’s research on the outer planets.
Asteroids, 1991-2001: Includes notes, documents, pictures articles, and reports regarding Sawyer’s asteroid research.
Extra Solar/Cosmology, 1992-2000: Includes notes, documents, pictures, and reports regarding Sawyer’s research around cosmology and planets.
Climate Change, 1993-1996: Includes notes, documents, and reports regarding Sawyer’s research on weather and climate change, including coverage of the weather at the 1996 Olympics.
Health, 1994: Includes notes, documents, interviews, and reports regarding Sawyer’s research on the NIC’s clinical trials.
Freelance: Includes notes, documents, interviews, pictures, reports, and scripts regarding Sawyer’s work for ABC, National Geographic, and others.
Articles, 1974-2007: Includes clippings of articles written by Sawyer as well as clips and bylines for Pulitzer.
The Washington Post , 1975-1999: Includes full issues of the Washington Postcontaining articles written by Sawyer.
Audio/Visual, 1998-2003: Includes cassettes, microcassettes, VHS tapes, CDs, and slides with interview recordings, debates, conferences and hearings as well as images.
Dates
- Creation: 1965 - 2007
Language of Materials
English
Conditions Governing Access
The physical materials from this collection may be viewed only in the reading room of Vanderbilt’s Special Collections and University Archives. Materials should be requested two to three days in advance to facilitate easier access. Contact specialcollections@vanderbilt.edu to schedule an appointment.
Biographical Sketch
Kathy Sawyer was born in Nashville, Tennessee and received her BA from Vanderbilt University in 1964. She began her journalism career as a feature writer for The Tennessean. She covered the music industry and a wide variety of other subjects. In 1970, she won the National Headliner Award for Best Domestic News Reporting for coverage of topics as varied as the war in Vietnam and East Tennessee chicken catches. In 1976 she went to work as a staff writer for The Washington Post. In 28 years at the paper, she covered politics, social issues, and the federal government, among other topics. She left the paper in 2004. For her final 17 years there, she focused on space science and technology, beginning with the 1986 Challenger accident that killed seven astronauts. Sawyer has also been published in magazines such as National Geographic and Astronomy. Twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, her honors include the David N. Schramm Award for journalism (1999), given by the American Astronomical Society. In 1992, Sawyer became the first woman to win the National Space Writer of the Year Award. In 2007, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, the nation’s premier scientific advisory body, selected her book, The Rock from Mars: A Detective Story on Two Planets as one of the three best books of the year.
Full Extent
23.3 Linear Feet
Abstract
The Kathy Sawyer Papers, 1965-2007, contain the writings, research, interviews, correspondence, and photographs of journalist Kathy Sawyer.
Provenance
This collection was donated by Kathy Sawyer in 2012 with additions in 2015, 2016, and 2018.
Copyright Information
Permission to publish, copy, reprint, digitize, orally record for transmission over public or private airways, or use material from the Kathy Sawyer Papers in any and all other current or future developed methods or procedures, must be obtained in writing from the Special Collections and University Archives Division of the Vanderbilt University Libraries. All rights are reserved and retained regardless of current or future development or laws that may apply to fair use standards.
- Title
- Finding Aid for the Kathy Sawyer Papers
- Status
- Completed
- Date
- 2014
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Vanderbilt University Special Collections and University Archives Repository
Special Collections Library
1101 19th Ave. S.
Nashville TN 37212 United States
specialcollections@vanderbilt.edu
About this Site
This site contains collection guides, or finding aids, to the archival collections held by Vanderbilt University Special Collections and University Archives, the History of Medicine Collection, and the Scarritt Bennett Center. Finding aids describe the context, arrangement, and structure of archival materials, allowing users to identify and request materials relevant to their research.
Requesting Materials
Each finding aid contains a link to request materials from the collections. Collections can also be requested by emailing the repository directly through the library website. Each repository has its own location, hours, and contact information. Please consult the repository with questions about using the materials. Collections are non-circulating and must be used in the repository’s reading room. In many cases, the collections are stored off-site and require advance notice for retrieval.