The Walter H. Ebling Papers consist of the correspondence that Ebling collected in his years of youth work in Madison. The papers are divided into three groupings: the YMCA Correspondence, 1932-1954, the Madison USO Correspondence, 1942-1946, and the NYA Correspondence, 1941-1942.
The YMCA papers are primarily the routine correspondence of the local chapter and provide a fairly clear picture of its operation. There are letters to and from such men as F. O. Lieser, Robert Eikmeyer, R. L. Blodgett, and Loren Cockerell, all important contributors to Madison YMCA work. These letters deal with administrative, program, and fund-raising problems. Of particular interest are those papers connected with foreign YMCA chapters. These Mr. Ebling accumulated during his term as chairman of the World Service Committee. They are letters concerning YMCA establishments in both Europe and the Orient, and include a mimeographed copy of Eugene Barnett's confidential report of the condition of the YMCA under Nazi and Soviet domination, entitled “Europe in the Summer of 1938”.
The YMCA correspondence also includes a letter from D. W. Tyrrell to Walter Ebling, May 24, 1950, with which was enclosed a copy of Joseph Kamp's pamphlet Behind the Lace Curtains of the YWCA, an exposé of communist infiltration into that organization, and a photographic copy of a $5,000 reward poster published by Kamp as an offer to anyone who could prove his charges untrue. Another photograph of a letter from Kate Roemer French, former president of the YWCA who resigned in 1941 because of “communist infiltration” into the organization, is enclosed. This defends Kamp and makes additional charges against the YWCA.
The USO and NYA papers deal almost exclusively with the routine matters of local operation. There are rather complete financial records of the USO, and numerous letters to and from Joseph Machotka, who served as local head of the club.
