Norman C. Stageberg Papers
Scope and Contents
In the summer of 1997, June Stageberg donated this collection of papers to the University of Northern Iowa Archives. The collection consists primarily of three categories of material: (1) material related to Professor Stageberg's textbooks; (2) material related to his classroom teaching; and (3) material relating to his continuing research interests in ambiguity and meaning. There is overlap among these three categories. The current arrangement of these papers closely follows the rough subject arrangement in which Professor Stageberg kept his material.
Dates
- Creation: 1942-1980
Creator
- Stageberg, Norman C. (Person)
Language of Materials
Materials entirely in English.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions. Materials are open for research.
General Use, Reproduction, and Copyright Policies
Many items housed in the Rod Library Special Collections & University Archives, including unpublished images and manuscripts, may be protected by copyright, publication rights, trademarks, or model release rights which the library does not own and for which the library cannot grant permission or licensing. Materials currently under copyright are usually still available for research and limited reproduction under Fair Use laws. However, it is the sole responsibility of the patron to determine whether or not their use of a given material falls within Fair Use guidelines and to obtain permission for said use from the rightful copyright owner.
Sensitive Materials Statement
Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy or similar laws, and the Iowa Open Records Law (see Iowa Code ยง 22.7). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of Northern Iowa assumes no responsibility.
Biographical / Historical
Norman Clifford Stageberg was born April 7, 1905, at Owatonna, Minnesota. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Minnesota in 1926, a Master of Arts degree from the University of Iowa in 1932, and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1946.
Before coming to UNI, Stageberg was a teacher at Valley Springs, Minnesota, from 1926-1929, and served as head of the English department at Faribault, Minnesota High School from 1929-1939. From 1942-1946 he served in the U.S. Army. He again served in the military from 1951-1953 with the Air Force as an instructor at Air University and the University of Alabama.
Norman Stageberg joined the UNI faculty in 1946 as Assistant Professor of English. He retired in 1972 with the rank of professor, which he achieved in 1960. He was a highly respected scholar with expertise in languages, linguistics, ambiguity, and meaning.
Stageberg was most noted at UNI for creating a pioneering program in TEFL, Teaching of English as a Foreign language, in the 1960s.
Stageberg married first, in 1937, Alma, who died in 1975; then second, in 1975, Elaine McDavitt, a UNI faculty member, who died in 1979; and third, June Suzuki Talbott, a member of the UNI library staff.
Stageberg died on March 18, 1984. Under the terms of his will, he donated his professional linguistics collection to the UNI library. That collection remains intact in the Rod Library Special Collections division.
June Stageberg provided funds in Professor Stageberg's memory to furnish the Special Collections reading room. That gift was commemorated with a ceremony in Special Collections on April 18, 1997.
Extent
3.34 Linear Feet (8 boxes)
Processing Information
Collection organized by Gerald Peterson, University Archivist, September 1997; finding aid created by Gerald Peterson and Library Assistant Susan Basye, December 1997. Updated by Library Associate Dave Hoing, January 2018 and April 2018. Linear feet updated September 13, 2017.
- Title
- Norman C. Stageberg Papers
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script