John Frederick MacDonald (14 March 1941 – 9 April 2015) was a professor of history at Northeastern Illinois University, and an archivist of historical films.
In 1967 he was granted a Fulbright Fellowship, and was the first American scholar to have access to the personal papers of Théophile Delcassé, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs 1898–1905.
[3][4] He was also: the first curator (1985–1990) of the Museum of Broadcast Communications, President of the Popular Culture Association (1980–1982), producer and host of his own documentary radio series, Journeys at WBEZ, the Chicago outlet of National Public Radio,[3] (1980–1981), originator and General Editor of the Media and Society series of scholarly books (1987–1990) published by Praeger Publishers.
He and his wife began in 1972, at their own expense, a private archive of vintage pop music, long-forgotten radio programs, and a wide-range of historical 16mm motion pictures.
Their purpose was to introduce high school and college students to the methodology of historians who draw their understanding of history from the examination of original source materials.