Eleanor Medill Patterson Papers

When Mrs. Patterson died on July 24, 1948, she left more than a hundred packing cases of papers which fell into three categories: her personal correspondence and financial papers (most of which were subsequently burned by her daughter Felicia Pearson DeLavingne Magruder); her business papers relating to the Times-Herald (given to the Times-Herald); and the so-called "historical papers." Under terms of an agreement among all the interested parties, Col. Robert R. McMormick purchased these historical papers for $1,000 from Felicia on March 4, 1952, and they were shipped to Chicago in 2 large envelopes and 3 cardboard transfer cases (labeled FAM-1, FAM-2 and FAM-5) in late March of that year. The only portion of the papers not included in this purchase were those relating to Joseph M. Patterson and the N.Y. Daily News, which were sent to Alicia Patterson Guggenheim.(Note: For detailed information on the acquisition of these papers, and the character and disposition of other papers in Mrs. Patterson's estate, see file folder VI-4.2 in the restricted files of the Tribune Company Archives. For a concise summary, see the September 17, 1953 memorandum of Charles R. Cutler to Perry S. Patterson in the same file.)

In 1952, J. Loy ("Pat") Maloney went through the papers for Col. McCormick. File folder VI-5.1 contains his analysis of the papers from the 2 large envelopes, the transfer case labeled FAM-1, and the first three expandable file envelopes in the transfer case labeled FAM-2. It is not know at this time (November 1975) if Mr. Maloney finished an analysis of the collection. His work is an invaluable aid in studying the collection as it highlights in concise form many interesting and informative passages in the almost countless number of items making up the collection.

The transfer cases and envelopes were then nailed up in three large wooden boxes, and not opened again until August 1975 by Harold Hutchings, Tribune Company Archivist, and his assistant, Lee Major. An inventory was made at this time which indicated, when compared with the inventory which arrived with the papers in 1952, that all the material purchased by Col. McCormick was intact. A copy of both these inventories is in the file folder VI-5.

In addition to the material listed in the inventory, the transfer case FAM-5 also contained a wrapped package labeled "Photographs of all Medill letters to Lincoln. Letter from Cissy Patterson enclosed." The red leather box inside the wrapper was empty, however, and it was not originally known what happened to the copies. The letter can found in file folder VI-5. The copies of Medill letters to Lincoln were found on September 6, 1978, in a safe belonging to the Robert R. McCormick Charitable Trust; they now form collection III-23.