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18.
THE UNIVERSITY FOR MAN. A group of five semester catalogues from the Free University in Manhattan, Kansas:
i) c. January 1969; ii) Fall 1970; iii) Summer 1971; iv) Winter 1971; v) Spring 1973. Formats and pagination vary (folded broadside, quarto pamphlets, and two folded newsprint tabloids). Illustrated with photographs, drawings and cartoons.
The UFM was started by a group of Kansas State University students and faculty with the intention to bridge communication between the campus community and the local Manhattan community. Their first catalogue, published in January 1968, offered seven classes, with 150 people participating. A year later, as described in the broadside catalogue here, the number of courses had expanded to more than thirty, including a Women’s Liberation Workshop, a “Black-White Dialogue”, and others titled “On Becoming Human” and “The Psychedelic Experience”. The broadside also announces news of UFM sponsoring a 5-day Esalen Workshop, plans for a First National Conference on the Free University, and “the possibility of locating a UFM lounge and office in a vinyl-coated nylon dome or bubble.”
The growth in the number of courses, workshops and groups continued over the following years, as illustrated in the subsequent catalogues here, each one proclaiming on its cover that “The only Prerequisite is Curiosity!”. They included (among many): “Earth, Inc.”; “Psychokinetic Drawing”; “Junk Sculpture: A Humanistic Approach”; “Basic Sewing for Men”; “I’m O.K. - You’re O.K. Workshops”; “Becoming: A Beautiful Person”; “Organic Gardening”; “Women’s Self Health Care”; “Public Access to Cable TV”; “Subsistence Homesteading or Living Off the Land”; “Growth Evening for Intimates”; and “Human Sexuality Seminars.”
UFM still exists today. After its name was changed to University for Mankind in the 1990s, the words were eliminated altogether in 1999 and the additional explanatory words Community Learning Center were added, though it is still known by its original initials.
Severe staining to front cover of Summer ‘71 catalogue; wear to spine of Spring '73 catalogue; age-toning to newsprint paper; o/w Very Good. All items bear the written mailing address of Movement activist Michael Rossman.
Price:
£75.00
