William KruseI've worked in instructional technology for over 20 years now and during that time I've probably explored the history of the field as extensively as anyone. One of my favourite historical figures from instructional technology's past is William Kruse. Kruse was a communist in Chicago in the 1920s, visited the USSR multiple times and even made films there. He also worked for Bell and Howell and was critical in the development of the main library archive for my field. I've visited his archives in Maryland and New York and really need to put something together about him. I've often thought his life reads like a Cohen brother's film.

From some of my previous writing on Kruse: Much of the AECT archive was organized and collected by William Kruse. Kruse was appointed DAVI archivist in 1955 and among the AECT holdings is an unpublished history of the field by Kruse titled The Projected Image. In the guide to the AECT archive this history is erroneously referred to as Kruse’s dissertation; it was not Kruse’s dissertation. A section from Kruse’s The Projected Image was published in the Journal of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers under the title Willard Beach Cook: Pioneer Distributor of Narrow-Gage Safety Film and Equipment. In the introduction to Kruse’s article, The Projected Image was described as an “unpublished book length manuscript”. Though Kruse’s unpublished book appears to be extensive, none of the other historians discussed in this study referenced it and Kruse’s long history appears to not be very well known.