Archives West Finding Aid

This series contains the scripts of "Elderberry Wine" a weekly commentary on KLCC-FM , the public radio station on the campus of Lane Community College. There are over 700 commentaries, which date from June 1982 until November 1996. The commentaries focused on issues of interest to older people, local events and services, local and national politics, and Wotton's reflections on the processes of living and growing older. The numbered scripts are arranged chronologically by broadcast date.

The series also contains a volume titled "Elderberry Wine: Selected Radio Commentaries by Peter Wotton." One hundred commentaries were selected by Carol Browne Wotton, Peter's wife, and published in 1998 in this volume.

The series contains a copy of Peter's last commentary about his own death which was broadcast after he died.

This series contains the audio cassette recordings of the Elderberry Wine broadcasts, which are numbered and arranged chronologically by broadcast date. The series also include a recording made at Peter's 75th birthday party.

This series contains copies of monthly newspaper columns, also titled "Elderberry Wine," which were often identical to the radio broadcasts. The columns were published in a number of local newspapers such as the Phoenix Senior World, Lane County Senior News, Senior News Monthly, and the OTHER paper. The columns are contained in three scrapbooks, which also include other newspaper articles written by Peter Wotton.

The series also contains letters, photographs and copies of speeches and sermons, as well as a scrapbooks, dated c. 1948 - 1965, containing samples of advertisements which Peter produced during his career in marketing in New York and Connecticut. There are also some records form his college days at Princeton University.

The series also contains a video tape made shortly before his death and a recollection titled "Peter's Death" by his sister, Mariah Marvin.