Turner Catledge papers
Scope and Content
The collection consists of the personal and business papers of William Turner Catledge (1901-1983), graduate of Mississippi A&M College, journalist, and editor of The New York Times. Catledge was reared in Neshoba County, Mississippi, and worked for several Mississippi newspapers, the Memphis Commercial Appeal, and the Baltimore Sun before beginning his distinguished career with The New York Times in 1929. The bulk of the files date from 1945 to 1968, the period during which Catledge served as assistant managing editor, executive managing editor, managing editor, and executive editor of the Times. Included are correspondence, memoranda, clippings, reports, photographs, tapes, phonograph records, memorabilia, and publications. The collection is divided into two series: 1 - papers transferred to MSU from the Catledge home in New Orleans, mostly personal and dated after Catledge’s retirement from The Times, 1873-1985, and includes some miscellaneous items donated by other people (circa 20 cubic feet), and 2 - office files transferred to MSU from the New York Times office in New York, 1922-1970 (circa 112 cubic feet).
Dates
- 1873 - 1985
Biographical Note
Since he eased into the profession at 14 and eased out at 69, Turner Catledge can be said to have been a newspaperman for over half a century, most of it with The New York Times. He served that newspaper as a reporter, a Washington correspondent, national correspondent, assistant managing editor, executive managing editor, managing editor and as its first executive editor.
When he resigned as a vice president in January, 1970, although continuing as a member of the board of directors until April, 1973, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, president and publisher of The Times, paid this tribute to him: "Turner Catledge's name is written large in the history of The New York Times. He has served the paper with distinction for over 40 years and during most of that time, as managing editor and executive editor, has guided the news departments to new heights of achievement. He leaves us a tradition of superlative performance.''
Mr. Catledge was born on March 17, 1901, in Ackerman, Mississippi, and grew up in Philadelphia, Mississippi. He started newspaper work at 14, setting type for the weekly Neshoba Democrat. After being graduated from Mississippi State College in 1922, he became editor of The Tunica Times and then managing editor and mechanical superintendent of The Tupelo Journal. On both newspapers he campaigned against the then strong Ku Klux Klan.
He first began to attract more than local notice as a newspaperman of unusual abilities in 1924, when he became a reporter on the Memphis Commercial Appeal. He joined the staff of The Baltimore Sun in June, 1927, and remained there until he carne to The New York Times in July, 1929.
He was employed by The Times as a direct result of a letter sent to Adolph S. Ochs, then publisher of The Times, by Herbert Hoover, then Secretary of Commerce, who had observed Mr. Catledge's work in covering the 1927 Mississippi floods. Mr. Catledge was on the local staff of The Times for five months before being transferred to the Washington bureau. He remained in the bureau in various capacities, including those of Capitol correspondent and White House correspondent, until 1936, when he became The Times chief news correspondent. In this post, he covered all phases of government, political and national life, and traveled in virtually every state of the union.
In December, 1941, Mr. Catledge moved to The Chicago Sun, where he was successively its roving correspondent and editor-in-chief.
He returned to The New York Times in May, 1943, as the newspaper's national correspondent, with headquarters in Washington. That same year he went to the European battlefronts and covered the activities of the American Red Cross for The Times.In November, 1944, he accompanied the late publisher of The Times, Arthur Hays Sulzberger, on a long tour of the South Pacific. Since that time, he has traveled extensively in Europe, including Russia, and other parts of the world.
Mr. Catledge became assistant managing editor of The Times in January, 1945; executive managing editor in January, 1951; and managing editor in December, 1951.He was executive editor of The Times from September, 1964, until June, 1968, when he became a vice president.
In May 1957, he scored a world reporting exclusive, an interview with Russian Premier Nikita S. Krushchev in which the Premier urged a summit meeting of great-power leaders.
Mr. Catledge has been a member of the American Society of Newspaper Editors since 1951, was elected to its board of directors in 1954 and served as president in 1960-61. He was also a member of the Pulitzer Prizes Advisory Board; American Press Institute Advisory Board; Associated Press Managing Editors Association; and is a Fellow of Sigma Delta Chi. He has served on the board of trustees of Sarah Lawrence College, and since 1970 has been a member of the Board of Visitors of Tulane University.
Mr. Catledge holds honorary degrees from Washington and Lee, Southwestern at Memphis, the University of Kentucky and Tulane University. His clubs are the National Press and Gridiron of Washington, and the Boston Club and New Orleans Country Club in New Orleans. He also is a member of International House, New Orleans.
Mr. Catledge in April, 1968, received the first Carr V. Van Anda Award of the Ohio University School of Journalism, named for the managing editor of The Times who served from 1904 to 1932. The citation said Mr. Catledge had been "an innovator in news coverage and adherent to the finest standards of excellence in journalism," and had devised "new formats and new approaches to the news and the public need for knowledge."
He is the author, with Joseph W. Alsop, Jr., of "The 168 Days,'' published in 1937, a study of President Roosevelt's unsuccessful effort to expand the Supreme Court; also "My Life and The Times," published in 1971, a volume of memoirs of his career.
Mr. Catledge is now a resident of New Orleans, which he made his home city upon his retirement in 1970. He is a frequent lecturer and speaker on journalism and public affairs at schools, colleges and before civic groups, and associates himself with community affairs in his home city.
Abby Ray Catledge, Turner Catledge’s widow, died October 15, 2008, at the age of 91, leaving to Mississippi State University Libraries the remainder of the materials from the Turner Catledge office in the New Orleans home where the Catledges lived after his retirement from The Times in 1970. Among the photographs from the Catledge office are signed photographs of presidents from Hoover to Nixon, including the well-known photo of Catledge and Kennedy made at the time of the Bay of Pigs invasion, photographs of dignitaries such as Associate Justice Hugo Black and Chief Justice Warren Burger, photographs of the Catledges with their friends and Times publisher Arthur Ochs “Punch” Sulzberger and wife, photographs of Abby Catledge during her life with Turner in New York, voluminous photographs from the Catledge’s travels, and family photographs.
Extent
132 Cubic Feet
Language of Materials
English
Arrangement
Series I of the Turner Catledge papers consists of records donated directly to Mississippi State University by Mr. or Mrs. Catledge from 1975 to Mrs. Catledge’s death in 2008.
Included are biographical sketches; clippings; correspondence; manuscripts of articles, speeches, and the autobiography My Life and the Times; memorabilia; oral history interviews; phonograph records; photographs; publications; research material; and tapes. The inclu¬sive dates are 1878 to 1983, but much of the series, especially the clippings, correspondence, and manuscripts, fall during the years from 1970 to 1983.
The main topics, in addition to biographical data, are The New York Times and journalism. Among items of particular interest are. Catledge's reminiscences of his 1944 "Visit to the Pacific" war zone with The New York Times publisher Arthur Hays Sulzberger, his correspondence with fellow journalists, the oral history interview conducted with him by The New York Times Company, the phonograph recordings of his famous imitation of Senator "Cotton Ed" Smith, and the drafts of his autobiography, which contain many details that were not included in the published version.
Series I. is divided into sub-series, as follows:
Sub-series 1.1 Correspondence, clippings, manuscripts, research material, miscellany
Boxes 1-4
4 cu. Feet
See separate list of significant correspondents.
Sub-series 1.2 Photographs
1. Framed (Box 10)
2. Unframed (Box 6, no oversized photos)
3. Unframed oversized, Box 8
Sub-series III. Publications
Boxes 7, 13, and 14
Subseries IV. Tapes/Phonograph Records
1. Videotapes (Boxes 7 and 13)
2. Audiotapes (Box 7)
3. Phonograph records (Box 11)
Sub-series V. Memorabilia
1. Certificates/Memorabilia
a. Framed (Boxes 10 and 12)
b. Unframed (Box 8)
2. Plaques (Boxes 11 and 12)
3. Scrapbook (Box 8)
4. Miscellaneous Memorabilia (Box 9)
Sub-series VI. Additions
Box 5
1. Memorial service for Turner Catledge, June 28, 1983
2. Designation of Catledge Papers as historic site in journalism by the Society of
Professional Journalists, Sigma Delta Chi, March 27, 1986
3. First Turner Catledge Lecture, given by Harrison Salisbury, March 27, 1986
4. Plaques
OS 1 I.C Clippings: Dixie Magazine, 1973
OSN I.C. Publications: Newspapers
Series II. Office files, 1922-1970
Boxes
112 cu. feet
Files transferred to MSU from the New York Times office in New York, 1922-1970
Series II consists of Turner Catledge's files from his New York Times office during his service as assistant managing editor (1945-1951), executive managing editor (1951), managing editor (1951-1964), and executive editor (1964-1968). The files contain correspondence, memoranda, clippings, reports, and other papers documenting the operation of The Times during Catledge's tenure. Personal papers are also included. Inclusive dates for the series are 1922-1970, but few items predate 1945.
The series, which originally consisted of one sequence of files, has been divided into four sections for processing reasons. The divisions were not made along clear chronological or topical lines; consequently, the researcher should consult the whole finding aid to the series. Part of the series was processed by Mississippi State University; the rest was processed by the New York Times Archives. With the exception of Series II. B and E, the series has been microfilmed.
Mississippi State University holds both the originals and the microfilm. The New York Times holds the microfilm, as well as the originals of selected "autograph" letters in Series II. C/D. Photocopies of these items have been substituted in the files and are clearly marked.
The following outline describes the arrangement of the series.
Series II. A: 1945-1960. 57 cubic feet.
Boxes
Consists primarily of business files arranged alpha¬betically within chronological
divisions. The original filing system was maintained as closely as possible.
Originals and microfilm.
Processed by Mississippi State University.
The Turner Catledge papers, Series II. A, consist of Catledge's office files from 1945 to 1960, beginning with his appointment as assistant to the managing editor of the New York Times and continuing after he was named managing editor in 1951.
This group of papers has been processed by Mississippi State University, which holds both the original papers and the microfilmed papers. A second copy of the microfilm is held by the New York Times Archives.
The original filing system has been maintained, with minor modifications to improve consistency. The folders are arranged alphabetically within each of the following chronological divisions: 1945-1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960.
Within each folder, the items are in chronological order with one basic exception: items that were originally attached have been numbered and kept together, with the date on the top page used to determine the position in the folder. One other minor exception is the folders entitled "Applications," in which the items are arranged in alphabetical order according to the name of the applicant.
The finding aid to this series is divided into three sections. Section 1 is the folder list, which reflects the order in which the collection was filmed and is stored. Horizontal lines mark the divisions between the microfilm reels (R). An asterisk preceding the reel number indicates that the underlined folder is split between that reel and the next one.
The indexes to personal names and subjects, which make up Sections 2 and 3 respectively, guide the user to pertinent folder titles in Section 1. The indexes are based solely on information included in the folder titles and do not refer to items within the folders.
Series II. B: 1939-1970. 8 cubic feet.
Boxes
Includes papers primarily concerning organizations or personal matters. Originals only. Separated from the items in Series II. C/D by the New York Times Archives, which decided not to microfilm them.
Series II. C: 1944-1970. 9 cubic feet.
Boxes
Consists of folders with personal names as titles, arranged alphabetically.
Originals and microfilm.
Processed by the New York Times Archives.
Series II. D: 1922-1970. 25 cubic feet.
Boxes
Consists of folders with subjects as titles, arranged alphabetically. Originals and
microfilm.
Processed by the New York Times Archives.
Series II. E: 1945-1970. 13 cubic feet.
Boxes
Consists of cross reference sheets removed from the preceding parts of the series and arranged in one alphabetical sequence. Many of the sheets refer to folders that no longer exist or to items that have been moved to different folders. This subseries is of limited value because so many of its references are incorrect; however, it does provide some clues to items included in the collection. Originals only.
Processed by Mississippi State University.
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
Repository Details
Part of the Manuscripts Repository