Manuscript Collections - Frank C. Waldrop Papers

 

FRANK C. WALDROP PAPERS, 1902-1990
13 linear feet, 7 liner inches (31 LGA-S boxes)
Herbert Hoover Presidential Library

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Frank C. Waldrop was a reporter, editor, biographer and historian.  Waldrop was born in Veto, Alabama in 1905, attended the U. S. Military Academy at West Point from 1926-1928, then took his first reporting job at the Nashville Tennessean in 1929.  Over the next four years, he worked his way up to managing editor of this paper before moving to Washington.

Waldrop went to Washington in 1933 to work as a reporter for the Washington Herald.  He eventually became the executive editor of the Washington Times-Herald, working for Cissy Patterson.  The highlight of Waldrop’s time as a Washington journalist came on December 7, 1941, when he was first to report the attack on Pearl Harbor to the nation’s capitol.  Waldrop left the paper in 1953 to pursue his interests in biography and history, and to tend cattle ranches in Alabama and Tennessee.

After leaving the Times-Herald, Waldrop wrote reviews, magazine articles and books.  Among the books he wrote was McCormick of Chicago, a biography of Cissy Patterson’s cousin, Col. Robert McCormick, the publisher of the Chicago Tribune.  Frank Waldrop died December 21, 1997.

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

The Frank C, Waldrop papers run to13 linear feet of material and contain book manuscripts, research files, correspondence, topical files and photographs.  The Waldrop papers are arranged in five series:  Book: McCormick of Chicago, 1932-1976; Columns and Articles, 1933-1990; Correspondence, 1919-1988; Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1920-1982; Topical File, 1902-1981; and Photographs.   The collection provides uneven documentation of Waldrop’s career as a journalist, editor, and writer, offering richest coverage of his career as reporter and editor for the Washington Times-Herald and his book, McCormick of Chicago.

The Book: McCormick of Chicago, 1932-1976 series consists of about two linear feet of typescript drafts and research files for Waldrop’s biography of Chicago newspaperman, Robert McCormick.  The two typescript drafts are the first items in this series, followed by research files arranged alphabetically.  Of special interest are pamphlets of McCormick’s writings and speeches in Box 4.

The Columns and Articles, 1933-1990 series reflects Waldrop’s work for the Washington Times-Herald and his freelance writing after 1953.  These articles comprise one linear foot of material and are arranged alphabetically by title (with untitled drafts at the end of the series).  This series reveals Waldrop’s eclecticism as a writer, with a range of book reviews, light humor, history and political analysis appearing.   The Times-Herald articles contain a series on European recovery after World War II. 

The Correspondence, 1919-1984 series complements Columns and Articles in providing documentation of Waldrop’s career as journalist and writer.  This bulk of correspondence is arranged chronologically, with a short run of prominent correspondents arranged alphabetically at the end.  Altogether this series contains four linear feet of letters.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1920-1982 series contains under two linear feet of material compiled by Waldrop in his efforts to understand the exercise of power in Washington, especially as it was felt by newspapers, anti-Communist activists, and informants.  There is some overlap between materials in this series and the topical files on the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover.

The Topical File, 1902-1981 series consists of three linear feet of disparate materials.  Arranged alphabetically by topic, the strengths of this series are: the files compiled by Waldrop for a biography of Eleanor (Cissy) Patterson, his erstwhile boss at the Times-Herald, and the materials related to his cattle ranching business (under ‘Ranch’).

The last series, Photographs, consists of largely unidentified candid images of Waldrop, Cissy Patterson, and other denizens of Washington society from the mid-1930s to the 1950s. 

FOLDER LIST

1

McCormick of Chicago, 1932-1976

Draft, 1963-1966 (4 folders)
Manuscript Edited, 1964-1966 (6 folders)

2

Research

Annual Spring Luncheon, 1946
Award, 1969
Biographies and clippings, Undated (2 folders)
Correspondence, 1963-1976 (6 folders)

Death Documents, 1955
Eisenhower, Dwight D., 1963

3

Hoover, Herbert H., 1963
Kennedy, Joseph P., 1963
McCormick, Amy, First Wife, 1895-1963
Midway Case, Charged With Espionage, 1942-1964
Military Career, 1963
Plan for Book, Undated
Promotion Photos
Publicity Questionaire, 1964
Research By Assistants, 1963-64
Research Documents, 1880-98
Reviews of Book, 1966
Roosevelt, Franklin D., 1932-62
Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, 1963-64
"Time, Inc.,” Memos and Correspondence, 1936-64                            

Truman, Harry S., 1945-63

4

Writings and Speeches of Robert McCormick, 1932-1954     

5

Columns and Articles, 1933-1990

The Admiral’s Return, undated
Angelica’s Other Life, undated
Baptists, undated
Book Reviews, 1951-1966 (3 folders)
Books Read or Dipped Into in the Waldrop Library, undated
Christian Heurich At Home, undated
Civil War, 1988
Colson, Kennedy and the Nazi Spy, undated
FDR and JFK and JEH and Inga, 1978
Five in Peril, undated

Four Steps to Reduce Error in Selection of New Foreign Service 
 Officers, undated

Harvard’s Ku Klux, 1941
Headhunting Among an Endangered Species, undated
Henry James at Mt. Vernon, undated
Learning the Hard Way, 1938
MacArthur’s Mother, 1964
MacArthur on War, 1942-1947
Ma Graham vs. Ma Bell, 1990
The Monarchial Executive, undated
My Enemy, the Snail Darter, undated
The Perils of BJ: A Foundling’s Tale, undated
Political Abuse and the FBI, undated
Selling the Canal, undated
Shelters and Survival, 1962
State Department Consultant, 1960
Taking Chances, Chapters 1-2, Undated
Television: The Struggle For Power, 1937-1939
That’s Washington, undated
Times-Herald

Articles, 1936-48
Biggest Story, 1950
Brussels, France, 1945
Communism, 1950

6

Editorials, 1937-1950 (2 folders)
England, 1945
Germany, 1945-47
Holland, 1947
Scandinavia, 1947

The Ultimate Wiretap, 1973
Weird Washingtonians, undated
What is White Slavery? 1938
Why You Should Know Where Washington Really Is, undated
Untitled drafts, 1933-1986 (2 folders)
Untitled drafts, undated (2 folders)

7

Correspondence, 1919-1943 (9 folders)

8

Correspondence, 1944-1948 (10 folders)

9

Correspondence, 1949-1957 (6 folders)

10

Correspondence, 1958-1962 (6 folders)

11

Correspondence, 1963-1964 (8 folders)

12

Correspondence, 1965-1971 (9 folders)

13

Correspondence, 1972-1979 (9 folders)

14

Correspondence, 1980-1984 (8 folders)

15

Correspondence, 1985-1988 (4 folders)

DeSavitsch, Eugene, 1932-44
Duell, C. Halliwell, 1935-53
Essary, Helen, 1909-40
“The Evening Tennessean,” 1932-1945 (3 folders)
Fairbanks, Douglass Jr., 1944
Kent, Tyler, Trial, 1961-63
Limpert, J., 1979
Kennedy, Kathleen, 1933-34
Kennedy, Joseph P., 1942-48

16

McClean, Evalyn Walsh, 1945-46, Undated
Magruder, Felicia, 1979
Mencken, H. L., 1941-47
Meyer, Stanley, Director of Loewe’s, Inc., 1957
Monteagle Sunday School Assembly, 111964-86
Patton, George S., 1945
Pearson, Drew, 1938-70
Personal, 1960-69
Phillips, Laughlin, “Washington Magazine,” 1968-69
Goldwater, Barry, 1964
St. Johns, Adela Rogers, 1935-41
Soviet-American Relations, 1960-62
Washington School of Psychiatry, 1963
White, John, 1942-45
White, T. J., Chicago Herald American, 1940-49

17

Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1920-1982

Arvad, Inga, aka Mrs. Paul Fejos, Mrs. Tim McCoy, 1941-1978
Domestic Responsibilities, 1932-1964 (2 folders)
Espionage, 1930-56
Freedom of Information, 1942
Hoover, J. Edgar, 1920-1972 (4 folders)
SEE ALSO: Topical File

18

Kent, Tyler Gatewood, 1944-1982 (4 folders).
Miscellaneous, 1942-44
News Articles in Chicago Tribune and Washington Times Herald 1941-42  (2 folders)
Questions Asked By Frank C. Waldrop, 1937-1938 (3 folders)
Security Clearance, 1958

19

Telephone Conversations, 1942
Times-Herald, 1942-1982 (2 folders)
Tolson, Clyde, Assistant Director, 1931-1978 (6 folders)

20

Waldrop Informer, 1936-56
Waldrop and Sissy Patterson, 1945-1955 (2 folders)
White, Harry Dieter, 1949-50

21

Topical File, 1902-1981

Alien Registration Act, Violations, 1942
American Newspaper Publishers Association, Convention, 1936
Anti-Communism, 1949
Brodie, Fawn, M., “I Think Hiss Is Lying,” 1981
Correspondence Course, 1931
District of Columbia Vote for Suffrage, 1937-45
Friends of Democracy, Inc., 1946
Guyana Electric Company, 1981
Hiss, Alger

Court Opinion, 1950
U.S. District Court, New York, 1973 

Weinstein, Allen, 1977-1978 (2 folders)
Hoover, J. Edgar, 1942-1947 (2 folders)

22

Hoover, J. Edgar, 1948-1954 (2 folders)

Research for Book, 1913-1978 (7 folders)
SEE ALSO: FBI Files

23

McCormick Charitable Trust, 1960
McCormick, Robert L., Proposal for a New Newspaper, 1963
McSwain, . John J., 1936
Nadeau, Remi, History of Panama Canal Research, 1961-62
Notes, Undated
Panama Canal

Court Case, Government v. Press Publishing Company, 1910
Government Documents, 1902-1910 (4 folders)

24

Libel Case v. “New York World” and “Indianapolis News,” 1910 Panama
Book Research, 1966-1967 (2 folders)

1966
1967

Unites States v. Press Publishing Company, 1909

Patterson, Eleanor (Cissy)

Abstract of Title, State of Wyoming, 1924
Biography of Sissy Patterson, Undated
Correspondence, 1938, 1942
Court Case, 1932-1948 (2 folders)
Death, 1948-72

25

House in Washington, DC, 1902-26
Research for Biography
Review of Biography, 1980
Trust Fund, 1960-67
Scrapbook Kept by Mother, 1874-1907
Wendel, Rudolf, Lighting for Washington Residence, 1946-47
Will, 1946
Writings, 1942

Patton, George S., Jr. Speech, 1944
Pearl Harbor Cable, December 7, 1941
Personal, Family Papers, Undated
“Pioneers of Tennessee,” Speech by John W. Childriss, Jr., 1897
Preston, Georgianna, column, ”Having a Wonderful Time,” 1942

26

Ranch Business

1956-1958 (8 folders)

27

1959-1962 (5 folders)

28

1963
Inventory, 1959-1962 (3 folders)
Land Use Maps, undated (2 folders)
Receipts and Payments, 1962-63

29

Senate Subcommittee on Subversion and Terrorism, 1981
Times-Herald Lawyers, 1942
Trips

Correspondence to Friends, 1947
Denmark, 1947
England, 1947
Europe, 1945
Finland, 1947
Germany and Holland, 1947
Letters to Family, June-August, 1952
Sweden, 1947
“SS Occidental Victory,” Germany, 1947
Travel Plans, 1946

Waldrop, Eleanor, “A Trip to New York,” 1957
Wechsler, Herbert I., 1941-53
Winchell, Walter, 1942
Yearbook, 1947

30

Photographs, Identified

McCormick, Robert (4 folders)
Patterson, Eleanor ‘Cissy,’ (3 folders)

31

Photographs, unidentified