Title: John M. Hightower Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1944-1971

Creator:

• Hightower, John. M., 1909-

Call Number: U.S. Mss 43AF; MCHC71-047

Quantity: 5.2 c.f. (13 archives boxes); plus additions of 1.2 c.f.

Repository:

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

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

See the catalog entry for information of possible additional materials and shelf locations.

Abstract:

Papers of John M. Hightower, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press correspondent and editor who specialized in international affairs. Most of the collection consists of notebooks, 1944-1971, about interviews, press conferences, and Hightower's own research. Correspondence, 1945-1960, includes informative personal letters about his coverage of the Council of Foreign Ministers in Russia, 1947, and Berlin, 1954. Background files exist primarily on such government officials as John Foster Dulles, W. Averell Harriman, and George C. Marshall.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-us0043af

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John M. Hightower was born in Coal Creek, Tennessee, on September 17, 1909, the son of James and Mary Murmann Hightower. From 1927 to 1928, he was a student at the University of Tennessee.

John Hightower was editor of Drug Topics magazine from 1929 to 1930, and from 1931 to 1933, he was a reporter for the Knoxville, Tennessee, News-Sentinel. In 1933, he joined the Associated Press (AP) in Nashville, working up to an editor's position, and in 1936, he was assigned to the AP Washington bureau. In Washington, he did general reporting and news editing, 1936-1940; covered the Navy Department, 1940-1943; and has covered the State Department and international affairs since 1944.

Hightower covered the United Nations organization sessions in San Francisco, 1945; the opening session of the United Nations in London, England, 1946; the European peace treaty sessions, and the Council of Foreign Ministers, 1946 to 1948; the organization of the Marshall Plan; the institution of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Japanese Peace Conference, San Francisco, 1951; the Bermuda Conference, 1953; the Berlin Foreign Ministers' Conference, 1954; the Big-Four Summit Conference and the Four-Power Foreign Ministers' Conference, Geneva, 1955; the second Bermuda Conference, 1957; and the NATO Summit Conference, 1957.

Hightower was awarded the Pulitzer Price for international reporting in 1951, when he also received the Raymond Clapper Memorial Award. In 1955, he received a citation from the Overseas Press Club.

On November 19, 1938, he married Martha Nadine Joiner. They had three children.

This collection was received in multiple parts from the donor(s) and is organized into 2 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 (U.S. Mss 43AF): Original Collection, 1944-1965
• Part 2 (MCHC71-047): Additions, 1953-1971

Acquisition Information

Original Collection presented by John M. Hightower, Washington, D.C., 1962 and 1966. Accession Number: U.S. Mss 43AF, MCHC71-047

U.S. Mss 43AF	Part 1 (U.S. Mss 43AF): Original Collection, 1944-1965 Physical Description: 5.2 c.f. (13 archives boxes)  Scope and Content Note: Included in the John Hightower Papers are: correspondence, 1945-1960, including a good series of letters to his wife while he was covering the Council of Foreign Ministers in Moscow, 1947, and Berlin, 1954; background information, the bulk of which is made up of confidential memoranda from press conferences of government officials such as John Foster Dulles, Averill Harriman, and George C. Marshall; notes; State Department and foreign embassy press releases; clippings of Hightower's articles; and bank statements. By far the greatest amount of material is made up of notebooks kept by Hightower on press conferences, diplomatic conferences, interviews, and trips he took to areas where major news stories were breaking. The final items in the collection are ten desk calendars, on which Hightower kept notes.
Box   1	Correspondence, 1945-1960
Box   1	Background information, 1944-1960, undated
Box   1	Notes, 1946-1959, undated
Box   1	State Department press releases, 1954-1960
Box   1	Foreign embassy press releases, 1957-1959
Box   1	Clippings, 1948-1960
	Notebooks
Box   2	1944, January 3-1948, March 26
Box   3	1948, April 14-1953, January 14
Box   4	1953, March 10-1955, January 15
Box   5	1955, January 24-1956, August 28
Box   6	1956, August 31-1958, January 15
Box   7	1958, January 17-1959, September
Box   8	1959, October 6-1960, November 1
Box   10	1959, November 29-1961
Box   11	1962-1963
Box   12	1964-1965
Box   13	Undated
Box   9	Desk calendars, 1949-1959
MCHC71-047	Part 2 (MCHC71-047): Additions, 1953-1971 Physical Description: 1.2 c.f. (1 record center carton and 1 archives box)  Scope and Content Note: Additions of notebooks containing Hightower's handwritten notes for news events. The notebooks date mainly from circa 1965 to 1971, but there are also some notebooks dating 1953, 1957-1959. Some notebooks are only dated by the month or lack dates altogether.	⇧
Box   1	Notebooks, circa 1965-1971, 1953, 1957-1959 Physical Description: 6" x 9"
Box   2	Notebooks, circa 1965-1971, undated Physical Description: 4" x 6"