Nathaniel Branden Institute

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Nathaniel Branden Institute (originally Nathaniel Branden Lectures) was an organization founded by Nathaniel Branden in 1958 to promote Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. The institute was responsible for the many Objectivist lectures and presentations around the country. Many of those associated with NBI worked on the Objectivist magazines, The Objectivist Newsletter and The Objectivist.

NBI also issued many of the lectures and presentations, as well as those done by Rand to other groups, as records, which were sold/distributed around the country for those who could not get to a live NBI lecture.

There were several subsidiary companies, such as the NBI Press (publishing arm that printed a couple of plays as well as special editions of Calumet "K" and Victor Hugo's The Man Who Laughs with intros by Rand), NBI Book Service (sold Objectivist books and books by non-Objectivists with similar views in a particular area), NBI Art Reproductions (art by Frank O'Connor, Joan Blumenthal, and the portrait of Ayn Rand by Ilona Royce Smithkin). It also reprinted many articles from The Objectivist Newsletter and The Objectivist in pamphlet format. There was an attempt to setup a "NBI Theater" in early 1967, which was planning to produce The Fountainhead as a play, based on a script by Barbara Branden. It was shutdown prior to NBI itself being shutdown.

The institute disbanded after his break with Rand in August of 1968. The closest modern analogues are the Ayn Rand Institute and the The Atlas Society (formerly known as The Objectivist Center). Branden is associated with the latter. [1]