Title: Wellington Wales Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1940-1966

Creator:

• Wales, Wellington, 1917-1966

Call Number: U.S. Mss 110AF

Quantity: 0.8 cubic feet (2 archives boxes)

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 Wellington Wales, a newspaper reporter, editor, and combat photographer, which are arranged as correspondence, educational records, writings, and miscellany. Correspondence related to writing for the Boston Herald and career advancement comprise three folders. Educational records include research, papers, notes, and exams from journalism courses at Columbia University, an unfinished novel written under the direction of Archibald MacLeish while Wales was a Nieman Fellow, and lecture notes for a journalism course he taught at Boston University. Wale's writings consist of articles prepared for the Auburn (N.Y.) Citizen-Advertiser, the Albany (N.Y) Knickerbocker News, and the New York Times. Of particular interest are his editorials in the Boston Herald on military affairs during the 1950s and on medicine. Other material in the collection includes a diary kept while he was a photo editor of military news releases in 1944 and miscellaneous biographical and reference materials.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-us0110af

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Wellington “Duke” Wales, newspaper reporter and editor, combat photographer, and entrepreneur, was born 16 July 1917, at Hollywood, California, to Wellington Edward and Ethel Franklin (Oborn) Wales. His father was business manager of what was later to become Paramount Pictures, and his mother was an actress. Wales graduated from Dartmouth in 1938 with a B.A., and in 1941 received his M.S. in journalism from Columbia University. On September 13, 1941, he married Helen Woolsey. They had three children, Heathcote, Samuel and Jane MacGregor.

While at Columbia, Wales was an assistant editor for Acme Newspictures, and by 1942 he had become newspicture editor. His career was interrupted in 1942 by service in the U.S. Army, first as a private, later as an officer. Wales' primary tour of duty was in the Pacific, especially the China-Burma-India theatre, where he was a photo editor for military news releases. During this period he displayed a tendency to stand firm for the principles in which he believed by working to get his Commanding Officer removed for default of duty. In 1945-1946, he was given the responsibility for the operation of all Korean newspapers.

After the war Wales worked in various editorial positions at Acme, the New York Times and Reporter magazines, until he became editor of the Auburn (New York) Citizen-Advertiser in 1949. In 1950-1951 he studied city government at Harvard as a Nieman Fellow. Three years later, he resigned the editorship of the Citizen-Advertiser because the publisher had fired an Asian reporter with the comment, “a Jap is a Jap.” That same year he joined the Boston Herald as a reporter, and taught journalism at Boston University. From the Herald, Wales went to Woman's Day as managing editor, 1955-1957, and then to the New York State Commerce Department as Director of Publicity.

In a surprise move in August 1958, Wales moved to the Virgin Islands where he established his own road building concern, ran a deep sea fishing outfit, and opened a liquor store. He also was news director of a television station and associate editor of The Daily News of the Virgin Islands. Upon his return to New York in 1962, Wales became chief editorial writer for The Knickerbocker News in Albany, concentrating on upstate New York politics, and becoming associate editor by 1965. In July 1965, he moved to the New York Times as an editorial writer. He died of a heart attack on 10 April 1966.

The Wellington Wales Papers, spanning the years 1940-1966, consist of correspondence, military and student records, an unfinished novel, articles, editorials and clippings. There is a gap in the material from 1955 when Wales left the Boston Herald until 1962 when he returned from the Virgin Islands to work in Albany.

The collection is broadly arranged into four kinds of material: Correspondence, student-faculty records, writings, and biographical and reference. The correspondence, arranged chronologically, contains congratulatory letters and exchanges of information relating to his editorials and to his feature articles on medicine for the Boston Herald. Also present is job correspondence covering the early years of the 1940's and 1950's. It was kept separate from the general correspondence because Wales segregated it and because of its internal unity. It provides some suggestion of employment conditions in newspaper work during the early years of World War II, as well as a clear view of the drive possessed by Wales as a young journalism graduate. The later correspondence is that of a young but experienced editor, who has resigned a lucrative position over a matter of principle. As he writes in quest of a new position his letters reveal both the comradeship and the competition of the world of American journalism.

The student-faculty materials include research papers, course notes and exams from Wales' student years at Columbia University, an unfinished novel written under Archibald MacLeish while Wales was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard, and lecture notes for a journalism course Wales taught at Boston University in 1954-1955 while on the staff of The Boston Herald.

The bulk of Wales' writings consist of editorials that he prepared for the Auburn Citizen Advertiser, the Albany Knickerbocker News, and the New York Times. In addition, Wales kept a diary in India and Burma in 1944, while he was attached to the 164th Signal Corps; a photocopy of the diary is included in the papers. His other writings included articles and reference materials on military preparedness, a subject in which he was especially interested. Among other things, he opposed the Eisenhower plans for defense spending cuts. Also present are: a group of feature articles on the medical profession and the general problems of health and hospitalization; a folder of miscellaneous articles; and a review of a book authored by Edward Brooke, then Attorney General of Massachusetts.

Biographical and reference materials contain a short auto-biographical sketch and picture, military records, a folder of clippings, a cover to a Signal Corps Magazine with Wales' picture on it and a special issue of the Harvard Crimson which Wales helped prepare while a Nieman fellow.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Mrs. John N. Steele, New York, New York, August 5, 1967.

Processing Information

Processed by Dennis Rowley and Eleanor Niermann, July 6, 1970.

U.S. Mss 110AF	Series: Correspondence
Box   1 Folder   1	General correspondence, 1950-1966
	Employment correspondence
Box   1 Folder   2	1940-1941
Box   1 Folder   3	1952-1955
	Series: Student-Faculty Records	⇧
Box   1 Folder   4	Student research papers, Columbia University, 1940-1941
Box   1 Folder   5	Student notes, course in “Editorial Methods,” Columbia University, 1940-1941
Box   1 Folder   6	Student papers, course in “Proof-reading,” Columbia University, 1940-1941
Box   1 Folder   7	Student notes and exams, course in “Libel,” Columbia University, 1940-1941
Box   1 Folder   8	Student notes and exams, course in “Freedom of the Press,” Columbia University, 1940-1941
Box   1 Folder   9	Student notes & exams, course in “Political Writing,” Columbia University, 1940-1941
Box   1 Folder   10	Student novel, unfinished manuscript, Archibald MacLeish course, Harvard University, 1951
Box   1 Folder   11	Faculty lecture notes, “How Can Citizens Work With the Press,” Boston University, 1954-1955
	Series: Writings	⇧
Box   2 Folder   1	Military diary, 1944 March 1-September 18
Box   2 Folder   2	Articles on military preparedness, 1953-1954
Box   2 Folder   3	Articles on medical topics, 1954-1955
Box   2 Folder   4	Miscellaneous articles and a book review, 1940-1966
	Editorials
Box   2 Folder   5	Auburn Citizen-Advertiser, 1949-1954
Box   2 Folder   6	Albany Knickerbocker News, 1963-1965
	New York Times
Box   2 Folder   7	1965 September-December
Box   2 Folder   8	1965-1966
Box   2 Folder   9	1966 January-April
	Series: Biographical and Reference	⇧
Box   2 Folder   10	Autobiographical sketch, 1965
	Military records
Box   2 Folder   11	1942-1950
Box   2 Folder   12	1951-1953
Box   2 Folder   13	Miscellaneous clippings, 1944-1951