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Preliminary Guide to the Harry S. Ashmore Collection
Mss 155
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Title: Harry S. Ashmore Collection
Dates: ca. 1922-1997
Bulk Dates: 1950s-1980s
Collection number: Mss 155
Creator:
Ashmore, Harry S.
Collection Size:
20 linear feet
(15 record containers, 2 document boxes, and 19 audiotapes).
Repository:
University of California, Santa Barbara. Library.
Dept. of Special Collections
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Abstract: Addresses and speeches, awards, biographical information, correspondence, writings, photographs, audiotapes and videotapes
of the newspaperman, writer, editor-in-chief of Encyclopaedia Britannica, and executive for the Center for the Study of Democratic
Institutions. Awarded the first double Pulitzer Prizes in history for distinguished service in the Little Rock school integration
controversy of the 1950s.
Physical location: Boxes 1-8 (SRLF); Boxes 9-11 (Del Sur Oversize); Audiovisual (Annex 2).
Languages:
English
None. Materials stored off-site; advance notice required for retrieval.
Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or
quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given
on behalf of the Department of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply
permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.
Harry S. Ashmore Collection. Mss 155. Department of Special Collections, Davidson Library, University of California, Santa
Barbara.
Multiple donations by Harry S. Ashmore, 1996-1997; transfer from University of South Carolina, 2003.
From Ashmore Civil Rights Commission Nomination files, 1976:
[Harry Ashmore] was born in Greenville, S.C., in 1916. He received his undergraduate education at Clemson College, and was
a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. He has been awarded LL.D. degrees by Oberlin, Grinnell, and the University of Arkansas.
He began his journalistic career in Greenville, serving as reporter for the afternoon Piedmont, and later as political writer
and state capitol correspondent for the morning
News.
In 1941 Mr. Ashmore entered the army, and saw combat service in the European Theatre with the 95th Infantry Division. He rose
from second lieutenant to lieutenant-colonel, and after V-E day was assigned to the War Department general staff. He was awarded
the Bronze Star with two oak leaf clusters.
In 1945 he went to the Charlotte (N.C.)
News as editor. In 1947 Mr. Ashmore joined the
Arkansas Gazette as executive editor, and in 1957 he and the
Gazette were awarded the first double Pulitzer Prizes in history for distinguished service in the Little Rock school integration
controversy. He was also awarded the 1957 Sidney Hillman Award. He has served as a director of the American Society of Newspaper
Editors.
Prior to the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision terminating racial segregation in public education, Mr. Ashmore directed a task
force of 45 scholars in a definitive survey of bi-racial education in the United States for the Fund for the Advancement of
Education.
In 1955-56 he served as personal assistant to Adlai Stevenson in the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.
He has been Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the California Democratic Party.
From 1960 to 1963 Mr. Ashmore served as editor-in chief of
Encyclopaedia Britannica. He has been a correspondent for the
New York Herald Tribune. He has written articles for many leading magazines, and is the author of seven books [...] He is the editor of Encyclopaedia
Britannica's three-volume
Perspectives (1968). In 1973-74 he was Senior Fellow in Communications at Duke University. In 1975 he was the first Howard R. Marsh Visiting
Professor at the University of Michigan.
Mr. Ashmore is vice chairman of the ACLU national Advisory Council, and a member of the Board of the National Committee for
an Effective Congress.
From the CSDI Collection guide (Mss 18):
Born: Greenville, S.C., July 27, 1916. Died: Santa Barbara, Jan. 20, 1998. CSDI: Member, Board of Directors, 1958-1979; Executive
Vice-President, 1967-1969, 1974-1975; President, 1970-1974; Fellow of the Center, 1965-1983; Senior Fellow, 1969-1975; Associate,
1975-1983. Reporter, writer, editor with several newspapers, including Executive Editor,
Arkansas Gazette, Little Rock, 1948-1959; on leave as Assistant to Stevenson for President campaign, 1955-1956. Recipient, Pulitzer Prize,
editorial writing, 1958. Editor in Chief,
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1960-1963; Developer, Editorial Projects, 1963-1966; Chairman, Executive Committee, Board of Directors, 1962-1967; Editor
of
Britannica Perspectives, 1964-1968. Publications include:
The Negro and the Schools (1954),
An Epitaph for Dixie (1958),
The Other Side of Jordan (1960),
The Man in the Middle (1966),
Mass Communications (with W. H. Ferry, 1966),
Mission to Hanoi: A Chronicle of Double-dealing in High Places (with William C. Baggs, 1968),
Fear in the Air; Broadcasting and the First Amendment: The Anatomy of a Constitutional Crisis (1973),
The William O. Douglas Inquiry into the State of Individual Freedom (1979),
Hearts and Minds: The Anatomy of Racism from Roosevelt to Reagan (1982),
Unseasonable Truths: The Life of Robert Maynard Hutchins (1989), and
Civil Rights and Wrongs: A Memoir of Race and Politics 1944-1994 (1994).
Scope and Content of Collection
Arrangement
The collection contains the following series:
- General. Addresses and speeches, awards (including Pulitzer Prize), materials from youth and college days at Clemson Agricultural Collection and Harvard (Lucius W. Nieman Fellowship), military service record in World War II, and articles about Arkansas Gazette days.
- Correspondence. Correspondents include Mortimer Adler, Julian Bond, Edmund G. [Pat] Brown, Dale Bumpers, McGeorge Bundy, Walter and Lois Capps, Alan Cranston, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Hugh Downs, Joseph Drown, Clifton Fadiman, William Fulbright, Gary K. Hart, Benjamin Hooks, Robert M. Hutchins, John Lewis, Milton Mayer, Ralph McGill, Maurice Mitchell, Fred Warner Neal, Leon Panetta, Carl Stover, Kenneth Thompson, and Sander Vanocur.
- Organizations/Issues/Events. Files pertaining to organizations and institutions that Ashmore supported and projects he was involved in, events honoring Ashmore, and related correspondence. Includes material on the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, Century Association, Common Cause, Dixiecrats, Little Rock, National Committee for an Effective Congress, Niemann Foundation, Sidney Hillman Foundation, Inc., Southern Regional Council, Adlai Stevenson.
- Writings. Includes drafts, correspondence, publicity, research files, reviews and other materials pertaining to monographs written by Ashmore, as well as drafts, copies, and correspondence for shorter works such as articles, editorials, and reviews.
- Photographs. Mainly of Ashmore, including publicity stills, photos in yearbooks, and from time at CSDI.
- Audiotapes. Mainly talks and interviews with Ashmore on a number of topics, including LBJ, the mass media, and his 1967 trip to North Vietnam.
The acronym HSA in the container list refers to Harry S. Ashmore.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Ashmore, Harry S.
Civil rights--United States.
International relations.
At UCSB Special Collections:
- Ashmore [Harry] Oral History (OH 11).
- Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions [CSDI] Collection, 1950-1991 [bulk dates 1961-1987]. Records of the internationally renowned Santa Barbara-based think tank, emphasizing issues such as education, freedom of the press, international relations, public policy, religion, and science and technology in modern society. Included are materials relating to CSDI leaders such as Robert Hutchins, Harry Ashmore, Elisabeth Mann Borgese, W. H. Ferry, Frank Kelly, Stanley K. Sheinbaum, and Harvey Wheeler. Also includes papers, talks, correspondence, and other materials relating to hundreds of other well known figures such as Mortimer Adler, Alexander Comfort, William O. Douglas, Mircea Eliade, J. William Fulbright, Hubert H. Humphrey, Clark Kerr, Eugene McCarthy, Gunnar Myrdal, Reinhold Niebuhr, Linus Pauling, James A. Pike, B. F. Skinner, Adlai Stevenson, Arnold Toynbee, UN Secretary-General U Thant, and Earl Warren. (Mss 18).
- Hutchins [Robert M.] Collection, ca. 1960-1991. Correspondence, memoranda, reports, programs, and other materials mainly regarding Hutchins' role as founder and long-time chief executive officer of the Center for Democratic Institutions (CSDI). (Mss 154).
- Mitchell [Maurice B.] Collection, ca. 1945-1990. Correspondence, reports, and other, relating to his work with Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, and other foundations and institutions such as the Annenberg. Also contains material relating to his interest in the history of printing. (Mss 160).
- Wheeler [Harvey] Oral History. Interviews with Wheeler re his life - before, during, and after his days with the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions (CSDI). (OH 102).
- Wheeler [Harvey] Papers, ca. 1940s-1990s. Correspondence, writings, and administrative files, mainly relating to Wheeler's long-term association with the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions. (Mss 201).
At Other Institutions:
- Syracuse University - manuscripts of various books and articles, ca. 1968-1978, including: Arkansas and the Burdens of Change, An Epitaph for Dixie, Fear in the Air, Mission to Hanoi, and The Other Side of Jordan.