The Heritage Series

Station WQED of Pittsburgh has, in the judgment of the Peabody Board, originated the most distinguished programs in the field of education in television. The Heritage Series, which was planned and staged in Pittsburgh and which has since been distributed over most of the thirty educational channels, has literally opened the eyes of American adults and students to the richness of our intellectual life. Here, for instance, are ten half-hour programs with Robert Frost, America’s greatest living poet; in one we see and hear him talking with a group of Pittsburgh students; in another with Dr. Salk of the famous polio vaccine. In the same way we come to know Harold Urey, Nobel prizewinner and scientist; William F. Albright, the translator of the Dead Sea Scrolls; Henry Steele Commager, the historian; Clinton Golden, labor leader and philosopher; Ernest von Dohnanyi, the Hungarian composer and pianist; and Dame Edith Sitwell, poet and critic. The most graphic and beautiful of these programs was that in which Martha Graham and her company revealed the dancers’ world. For its impeccable taste and integrity, station WQED certainly has earned our full-hearted commendation and the Peabody Award for outstanding television education.