Ira Reiss Collection

The Ira Reiss Collection contains materials related to Ira Reiss (b.1925), a sociologist specializing in the study of human sexuality.

Reiss was born in New York, NY and earned his Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University in 1953. From 1969 to 1996, Reiss was a faculty member of the Sociology Department at the University of Minnesota and also served as the director of the Family Study Center. He is the author of such titles as An Insider's View of Sexual Science Since Kinsey, Premarital Sexual Standards in America , The Social Context of Premarital Sexual Permissiveness, Journey Into Sexuality: An Exploratory Voyage, and Solving America's Sexual Crisis.

The Reiss Collection includes six binders of correspondence, publications, research and presentations/lectures, 3 manuscripts compiled by Reiss containing his works, and also audio and video recordings of Reiss’s professional presentations, lectures, media appearances, and other events. The recordings are stored on 84 separate compact discs, containing more than 70 hours of discussion on a myriad of topics, from Reiss’s publications, to adultery, sex research science, AIDS, and many other sexological subjects addressed from a sociological perspective. The recordings span an impressive 44 years, from 1960 to 2004.

The Collection also includes data from the National Opinion Research Center, Amalgam Survey, SRS 160 (1963)

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