Title: Lewis B. Sebring Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1830-1976

Creator:

• Sebring, Lewis B., 1901-1978

Call Number: Micro 602; MCHC76-097; M2001-036; Audio 1939A; PH 4560

Quantity: 13 reels of microfilm (35 mm); plus additions of 0.2 cubic feet, 0.6 cubic feet of photographs and negatives, 2 film reels, 2 disc recordings, and 68 drawings

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Papers of Lewis B. Sebring, a journalist and war correspondent for the New York Herald-Tribune, who reported on combat in the Southwest Pacific Area theater during World War II. Wartime papers, which comprise the most extensive and valuable portion of the collection, include letters to friends, relatives, and the staff of the Tribune. This section also includes photographs, 40 notebooks of on-the-spot observations, and copies of news articles. Other than the war years, the collection contains only scattered references to Sebring's professional career, though there are copies of some earlier writings for the Herald-Tribune and of his later columns in the Schenectady (N.Y.) Union-Star. Among Sebring's prominent correspondents are Martin Agronsky, Raymond Clapper, George Cornish, Joseph Driscoll, Frank Kelley, Joe Alex Morris, Drew Pearson, and Helen Rogers Reid. Also in the collection are three drafts of Sebring's unpublished book on Douglas MacArthur.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-micr0602

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Lewis Beck Sebring Jr., journalist, war correspondent, lecturer, and historian, was born January 20, 1901, in Schenectady, New York. Educated in the local public schools, Sebring received an A.B. degree from Union College in 1923. In 1938 he received an honorary Master of Letters from his alma mater.

Sebring began his newspaper career when he was hired by the Schenectady Gazette. From 1923 to 1928 he worked as legislative correspondent for the Associated Press in Albany. In November 1928, he resigned that position to work for the Association of Life Insurance Presidents in New York City. The following year, however, Sebring resumed his career in journalism when he was hired by the New York Herald-Tribune as a political reporter. In 1931 he was promoted to assistant night city editor; in 1935 he became night city editor, a position he held for the next five years.

In 1940 Sebring began that phase of his career for which he was best known when he was assigned as a reporter to cover pre-World War II military maneuvers. From March 1942, to June 1944, Sebring was the Tribune's war correspondent covering General Douglas MacArthur's SWPA headquarters in Australia. In this capacity Sebring covered the Allied war effort in the Southwest Pacific, reporting on wartime conditions and the defense of Australia in 1942, and later on the fighting in New Guinea and New Britain. During the fall of 1943 he covered Eleanor Roosevelt's visit to Australia.

In June 1944, Sebring was reassigned, and from his return from the Pacific until September 1945, he was in charge of all Pacific war news at the Tribune's home office. He also covered the political campaign of John W. Bricker, the Republican vice-presidential nominee in 1944. Sebring also devoted much of his time during this period to the preparation of a book-length manuscript, “The MacArthur Circus.” Rejected by two publishers because of fears that the book might be libelous, the manuscript was based upon Sebring's observations of General MacArthur's relations with the press. In May 1947, Sebring was transferred to the Tribune's telegraph desk, where he handled political and domestic news as assistant telegraph editor. In June 1949, he resigned to become director of public relations at Union College and to edit the school's alumni magazine.

In 1953 Sebring resigned that position and in subsequent years he returned to journalism only to write a bi-weekly column, “On Second Thought,” for the Schenectady Union-Star and the Winter Park (Fla.) Sun-Herald after his retirement to Florida in 1966. Sebring's retirement was, nevertheless, an active one devoted to a host of interests which included photography, travel, local history, genealogy, and philately. Lewis Sebring died on January 13, 1978.

The Lewis B. Sebring Papers, which include correspondence, speeches and writings, and notes, are an excellent source for evaluating the nature of wartime journalism. Sebring's experience in the Pacific theatre during World War II is even more interesting because his assignment permitted a close examination of General MacArthur's controversial relations with the press. Unfortunately, the papers offer only fragmentary documentation of Sebring's other years as a journalist--years which witnessed a rise from young reporter to night city editor of the New York Herald-Tribune.

The papers are organized into several series, including biographical material; personal, wartime, and business correspondence; speeches and writings; diaries and notebooks; and miscellany.

The BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL includes an annotated copy of Sebring's birth certificate, press releases drafted during various stages of his career, a twenty-five page autobiography, and news clippings which refer to Sebring.

CORRESPONDENCE is divided into three categories: personal, wartime, and business. The personal correspondence dates from 1917 to 1941 and from 1945 to 1969 and contains little documentation of Sebring's career as a journalist. Among the few professional correspondents are Joseph Driscoll and Russell Hathaway. There are also fragmentary references to his journalistic training at Union College and his travels which resulted during the 1930s in friendships with lecturer Arthur H. Merritt and Sir Wilfred Grenfell and a number of related free-lance articles. Other topics frequently noted include the Boy Scouts of America, photography and filmmaking, and local history and genealogy. A substantial amount of correspondence (primarily dated 1937 and 1938) relates to research done on his ancestor Dirik Romeyn, a founder of Union College.

The wartime correspondence, which comprises the most valuable and extensive portion of the collection, consists of correspondence between Sebring and his parents, other relatives, acquaintances, and friends in the United States, and acquaintances and friends in Australia and New Guinea. The correspondence to his parents, which was frequent, provides a detailed account of conditions in Australia, jungle fighting in New Guinea and New Britain, and some references to press censorship. Particularly noteworthy are the firsthand accounts of his travels with the 32nd U.S. Army Division during the Buna-Gona campaigns, his tour of Cape Gloucester, and the visits of Eleanor Roosevelt and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge in 1943. The incoming correspondence from his parents includes both regular mail and V-Mail; although dating from the same period the two categories were separated to facilitate microfilming. Among Sebring's parents' mail is correspondence with Martin Agronsky and Raymond Clapper. Correspondence with Herald-Tribune Society Editor John G. Logan is to be found among mail from friends in the U.S. The correspondence with his Australian and New Guinean sources deals with press censorship, wartime conditions, and combat as well as his own social engagements. There are letters from Prime Minister John Curtin, the Australian publicity censor, and officials of the Australian Departments of the Army and Information, the Red Cross, and the Australian-American Association.

The business correspondence includes correspondence with the New York Herald-Tribune during the war and subsequent correspondence with publishers interested in Sebring's manuscript on MacArthur. Much of the correspondence between 1942 and 1944 is with Managing Editor George Cornish and Foreign Editor Joe Alex Morris, but there are also scattered letters to and from Helen Rogers Reid, Ogden Reid, and Whitelaw Reid. Possible publication of his book prompted correspondence with Frank Kelley and Drew Pearson.

SPEECHES AND WRITINGS is an incomplete file of Sebring's magazine and newspaper articles, speeches, and book-length manuscripts. In several cases several drafts of a particular manuscript are included. The section, which includes only by-lined articles, is most thorough in its documentation of the period August 1940 to December 1944; clippings prior to 1940 and from 1945 to 1949 are obvious in their absence. Materials relating to his column “On Second Thought” (1959-1972) were received after the original donation had been filmed. This material is consequently filmed out of sequence on Reel 13.

The section of speeches and writings also includes three drafts of Sebring's unpublished manuscript, “The MacArthur Circus.” Also in existence but not included on this film is a series of censored press dispatches to the Tribune which are part of the collection of Union College.

Much valuable material is also to be found in the section DIARIES AND NOTEBOOKS. In addition to diaries kept during his youth and first year as a journalist, this section includes forty handwritten memoranda books dating from Sebring's first assignment as a military reporter in August 1940, to his return from SWPA headquarters in June 1944. The pre-war notebooks detail such subjects as training, transportation and supply, recreation and entertainment, and camp construction. The wartime notebooks relate to such subjects as General MacArthur's strategic concept of the war, campaigns in the Southwest Pacific area, conditions in Australia and New Guinea, and press censorship.

MISCELLANY includes some undated notes, research materials, and printed matter generally relating to the activities of correspondents during World War II.

Because of its rapidly deteriorating condition, the Sebring collection has been microfilmed, and the originals discarded. A quantity of material relating to the Sebring-Daniel-Bulla family has been separately accessioned and is not part of this microfilm edition.

This collection was received in multiple parts from the donor(s) and is organized into 4 major parts. These materials have not been physically interfiled and researchers might need to consult more than one part to locate similar materials.

• Part 1 (Micro 602): Original Collection, 1830-1976
• Part 2 (MCHC76-097): Additions, 1830-1920
• Part 3 (M2001-036, Audio 1939A): Additions, circa 1932-circa 1948
• Part 4 (PH 4560): Additions, circa 1909-1915

Acquisition Information

Presented by Lewis B. Sebring Jr., Winter Park, Florida, August 1, October 19, and November 12, 1973; and June 21 and November 2, 1976. Accession Number: MCHC73-89, MCHC73-126, MCHC73-137, MCHC75-83, MCHC76-50, MCHC76-097, M2001-036

Processing Information

Processed by R. Bruce Parham (archives intern) and Carolyn Mattern, December 1976.

Micro 602	Part 1 (Micro 602): Original Collection, 1830-1976 Physical Description: 13 reels of microfilm (35 mm)
	Biographical material
Reel   1 Frame   1	Birth certificate, press releases, autobiography
Reel   1 Frame   51	News clippings, 1918-1964
	Series: Correspondence	⇧
	Personal correspondence
Reel   1 Frame   218	1917-1935
Reel   2	1936-1950
Reel   3 Frame   1	1951-1969 August
	Wartime correspondence
	Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Sebring Sr.
Reel   3 Frame   383	Outgoing, 1942 January-1944 May
Reel   3 Frame   781	Incoming, 1942 February-1944 April
Reel   4 Frame   1	V-Mail, 1942 September-1944 May
Reel   4 Frame   378	Relatives, 1942 February-1944 May
Reel   4 Frame   583	Acquaintances and Friends in United States, 1942 January - 1943 April
	Acquaintances and Friends in Australia
Reel   4 Frame   772	1942 April-1943 December
Reel   5 Frame   1	1944 January-May
Reel   5 Frame   119	Business correspondence, 1942-1975
	Series: Speeches and Writings	⇧
	Articles
Reel   5 Frame   652	1928-1941
Reel   6 Frame   1	1942-1958
Reel   13	1959-1972
Reel   6 Frame   281	Speeches, 1938-1973
	Books (unpublished)
Reel   6 Frame   426	“Dirik Romeyn,” 1938
	“The MacArthur Circus”
Reel   7	Draft 1
Reel   8	Drafts 2 & 3
	Series: Diaries and Notebooks	⇧
Reel   9 Frame   1	Diaries, 1916-1920, 1923
	Notebooks
Reel   9 Frame   378	#1-8
Reel   10	#9-20
Reel   11	#21-34
Reel   12 Frame   1	#35-40
	Series: Miscellany	⇧
Reel   12 Frame   401	Notes, undated
Reel   12	Printed matter
MCHC76-097	Part 2 (MCHC76-097): Additions, 1830-1920 Physical Description: 0.2 cubic feet (1 archives box)  Scope and Content Note: Additions, 1830-1920, consisting of "A German Odyssey," a history by Lewis Sebring of his Daniels and Bulla family relatives, together with miscellaneous documents and correspondence of several members of the two families. Sebring's mother was Agnes Emma Bulla Sebring and his grandmother was Mary Daniels Bulla. This material was originally accessioned as a seperate collection and partially processed in 1980, at which time the volume was reduced. A draft register prepared at that time is in the Sebring case file. Because of its disparate nature the accession was returned to the Sebring collection in 2008.	⇧
M2001-036	Part 3 (M2001-036, Audio 1939A): Additions, circa 1932-circa 1948 Physical Description: 0.6 cubic feet (photographs and negatives), 2 film reels, and 2 disc recordings  Scope and Content Note: Additions, circa 1932-circa 1948, consisting of photographs and negatives of some of Lewis' trips, two film reels from the movie South of Zero, and two disc recordings of a 1937 Herald Tribune radio broadcast over station WOR. Films have been processed and assigned call numbers FH 367-FH 368.	⇧
PH 4560 (3)	Part 4 (PH 4560 (3)): Additions, circa 1909-1915 Physical Description: 68 drawings (1 folder)  Scope and Content Note: Crayon, pencil, and watercolor drawings of birds, flowers, vegetables, and people as well as many other objects, created by Lewis B. Sebring while he was in grade school in Schenectady, New York from about 1909-1915.	⇧