Chicago tribune. John M. Flynn files

When Flynn retired in 1962, his files and some of his responsibilities were inherited by E.R. ("Al") Noderer. After his retirement, the files, occupying most of four legal-sized filing cabinets, came to the Tribune Company Archives. At that time, the materials were not processed; they were simply kept intact and assigned the identifier XI-174. During 1987-02, after a decision (later reversed) to move to the archives to the 7th floor of Tribune Tower in the fall, the files were partially processed, and steps taken toward the preparation of a finding aid.

The materials were originally sorted into several broad categories: color printing; freedom of the press; alphabetically-arranged folders dealing with Col. McCormick and the Chicago tribune (much dealing with what were felt to be "attacks" on the Colonel or the Tribune); other newspapers; Tribune operations in Canada.

The "freedom of the press" files were transferred to the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

As the materials were being processed, the materials on other newspapers were merged with the alphabetically-arranged folders; and certain materials were separated from the Flynn collection altogether (with the intention of discarding them, or adding them to other parts of the Tribune Company Archives).