Radcliffe Gets Tape Collection

Schlesinger Library next month will receive a collection of videotapes that spotlight women of the 1980s.

The 300 tapes, from the Long Island Cablevision show "Focus on Women," contain interviews with celebrities such as Ms. magazine founder Gloria Steinem and New York City comptroller Elizabeth Holtzman, as well as with less-famous women from a range of backgrounds and professions.

Florence Rapaport, a former screenwriter, speechwriter and economic analyst, conducted the interviews for the weekly cable show. She initiated the program in 1983.

Schlesinger Library director Patricia M. King said the tapes will serve as a social historical document.

"We collect for the future," King said. "It will be available when some historian in the year 2010 decides they want to know what was going on in the 1980s."

Cablevision donated the videotapes. A ceremony on Friday will commemorate the gift, and will include a 30-minute screening.