Title: Edward P. Morgan Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1923-1986

Creator:

• Morgan, Edward P., 1910-1993

Call Number: U.S. Mss 11AF; Tape 423A

Quantity: 43.6 c.f. (109 archives boxes) and 38 tape recordings

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 Edward P. Morgan, a journalist and news commentator for radio and television best known for his award-winning ABC news program Edward P. Morgan and the News. Annotated scripts for this program constitute the bulk of the collection, but there are also materials for other television programs for ABC and CBS and for PBL, an experimental program aired by the Public Broadcasting Laboratory. Also included are opening and closing messages which reflect the views of the AFL-CIO, Morgan's sponsor, and numerous recordings. Correspondence includes fan mail and letters from many prominent individuals which are of both personal and professional interest. Further documenting Morgan's career are notes and drafts of his book Clearing the Air; copies of his Newsday column “The Shape of the News”; and stories and related research for Collier's, United Press, the Chicago Daily News, and other journals and magazines. There are also several diaries which primarily relate to his coverage of World War II; many research files and notes; and other miscellaneous personal and biographical items.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-us0011af

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Edward Paddock Morgan was born in Walla Walla, Washington on June 23, 1910. In 1932, he graduated cum laude from Whitman College where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He had a year of graduate study at the University of Washington, 1932-1933.

From 1932 to 1934, Mr. Morgan was a reporter for the Seattle Star, after which he became a correspondent for United Press International until 1943. From 1943 to 1946 he was with the Chicago Daily News Foreign Service, and from 1946 to 1948 an associate editor of Collier's Weekly. After two years of free lance writing in Europe, he became a correspondent for CBS news and was appointed director of radio and television news for CBS in 1954.

From 1955 to 1967, Morgan broadcast an evening radio program of news and commentary, Edward P. Morgan and the News, that won him the George Foster Peabody Award, broadcasting's most venerable honor, in 1956. In 1956, Morgan was based in New York City and working for the ABC Radio Network. He broadcast a professional news report of the collision of the ocean liners S.S. Andrea Doria and S.S. Stockholm off the Massachusetts coast, not telling listeners that his 14-year-old daughter had been aboard the Andrea Doria and was believed to have been killed. His daughter, Linda Morgan, was discovered alive the next day, having been catapulted to a deck of the Stockholm when its bow knifed into her cabin. Dubbed by media the “miracle girl,” she had received only a broken arm. Morgan then made another memorable broadcast emotionally describing the difference between reporting the news about strangers and how different it was with his own loved ones involved, describing also the extreme emotions he had experienced.

Morgan moved to ABC News in the early 1960s and become one of several rotating anchors of television's The ABC Evening News. He and Howard K. Smith were anchors for ABC's coverage of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and for Presidential nominating conventions. He also served on the press panel at the second campaign debate between Kennedy and Vice President Nixon in 1960. For many years Mr. Morgan broadcast a nightly ABC radio report and commentary with a liberal viewpoint, sponsored by the AFL-CIO. A critic of commercial broadcasting as timid and bland, he left ABC in 1967 to become the chief correspondent for the Public Broadcast Laboratory of National Educational Television and did commentaries for public radio.

Morgan retired in 1975. He died January 27, 1993 at his home in McLean, Virginia, from complications of lung cancer.

The Edward P. Morgan Papers were presented to the Wisconsin Historical Society in several separate gifts. The papers described here were organized at the Historical Society at three different times thus exist in three separate parts. All three parts overlap in date almost completely. All three contain broadcast scripts; Parts I and II contain other materials as well.

Part I is designated the “Original Collection” and includes the contents of Boxes 1-35. The papers date 1955-1964 and consist primarily of fan mail and scripts. The fan mail comprises letters requesting copies of scripts, praising Morgan's reporting, or expressing opinions on current questions. The scripts are particularly interesting for Morgan's commentaries in which he addresses great and small questions of the day. Also in Part I are other small groups of papers: letters relating to the Andrea Doria sinking, in which Morgan's daughter Linda was involved; materials concerning the chapter about Stuart Symington which Morgan wrote for Candidates, 1960; and notes which Morgan took at Kennedy headquarters in Hyannis, Massachusetts, on election night in 1960.

Part II is designated the “1966 Additions”; these materials fill Boxes 36-75, date 1955-1966, and like Part I contain fan mail and scripts but also include personal and business letters, research and subject files, materials relating to his book Clearing the Air, articles, columns, and clippings. Part II also includes 38 tape recordings of news programs, speeches, and other items.

Part III is designated the &; it comprises Boxes 76-101, dates 1955-1964, and consists totally of scripts for Morgan's radio news and commentary and for the program announcer's opening and closing remarks and commercial messages used for these ABC broadcasts. The news and commentary scripts are very nearly complete for the Monday through Friday broadcasts. Each program was divided between the news and Morgan's own commentary on important and interesting issues of the time. Many of the scripts in these additions duplicate those in the Original Collection segment; both sets were saved because those in the Original Collection contain penciled editing probably done by Morgan himself but are printed on very poor and impermanent paper. The scripts in Part III are printed or Xeroxed copies of the originals which incorporate the pencilled editing and are on a grade of paper which is more permanent.

The opening and closing scripts contain all commercial messages used in each broadcast. They are especially significant because the program was sponsored by the American Federation of Labor (and after the merger, by the AFL-CIO). The commercial messages usually editorialize on contemporary issues or center on the labor organization's notable achievements. Consequently they reflect the AFL-CIO's official stand on major social, political, and foreign policy issues and give an accurate picture of the public image which the union sought to create for itself.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Edward P. Morgan, Washington, D.C., 1955-1969; and by Morris S. Novik, New York, New York, 1973. Accession Number: MCHC-133, MCHC61-039, MCHC62-075, MCHC63-032, MCHC63-094, MCHC64-074, MCHC66-046, MCHC66-119, MCHC73-106

Processing Information

Portions processed by Janice O'Connell, 1968, and by Harry Miller, 1973.

U.S. Mss 11AF	Series: Part I, Original Collection, 1955-1964
	Subseries: Correspondence, 1955-1963
Box   1	1954 December-1957 January
Box   2	1957 February-June
Box   3	1957 July-December
Box   4	1958 January-June
Box   5	1958 July-December
Box   6	1959 January-October
Box   7	1959 November-1960 April
Box   8	1960 May-October
Box   9	1960 November-1961 March
Box   9a	1, 961 April 1-September 26
Box   9b	1961 September 27-1962 January 31
Box   9c	1962 January-June 25
Box   9d	1962 June 26-October 18
Box   9e	1962 October 19-1963 February 5
Box   9f	1963 February 6-August 12
Box   9g	1963 August 13-December
Box   9h	Letters re the Andrea Doria Disaster, 1956
	Subseries: Scripts, 1955-1964	⇧
Box   10	1955 July-1957 April
Box   11	1957 May-August
Box   12	1957 September-December
Box   13	1958 January-March
Box   14	1958 April-June
Box   15	1958 July-September
Box   16	1958 October-December
Box   17	1959 January-April 6
Box   18	1959 April 7-July 9
Box   19	1959 July 10-November 3
Box   20	1959 November 4-1960 January 28
Box   21	1960 January 29-May 18
Box   22	1960 May 19-September 23
Box   23	1960 September 24-1961 January 5
Box   24	1961 January 6-May 1
Box   25	1961 May 2-August 15
Box   26	1961 August 16-November 27
Box   27	1961 November 28-1962 March 16
Box   28	1962 March 19-July 3
Box   29	1962 July 4-October 23
Box   30	1962 October 24-December 31
Box   31	1963 January 1-April 5
Box   32	1963 April 8-July 26
Box   33	1963 July 29-November 15
Box   34	1963 November 18-1964 March 6
Box   35	1964 March 9-31
Box   35	Material on Stuart Symington for Candidates, 1960
Box   35	Election Notes, 1960
	Series: Part II, 1966 Additions, 1955-1966	⇧
	Subseries: Correspondence
	Personal Correspondence
Box   36	1956-1965 September
Box   37	1965 October-1966; undated
Box   37	Business Correspondence, 1955-1957; undated
Box   37	Special Fan Mail, 1965-1966
	Listeners' Mail
Box   38	1957-1961
Box   39	1962
Box   40	1963 January-November
Box   41	1963 November
Box   42	1963 November-December
Box   43	1963 December
Box   44	1964 January-April 22
Box   45	1964 April 23-September 12
Box   46	1964 September 13-1965 February 21
Box   47	1965 February 22-August 20
Box   48	1965 August 22-December 31
Box   49	1966 January-May
Box   50	1966 June-July
Box   50	Correspondence with Federal Employees and Government Officials, 1959-1965
Box   50	Correspondence with Newspaper and Literary Figures
Box   61	Post Cards
Box   72	Correspondence about Speeches and Meetings
	Research Letters, and Brochures
Box   51	1955-1957
Box   52	1958-1961
	Subseries: Subject File	⇧
Box   53 Folder   1	Academic Freedom
Box   53 Folder   2	ADC & AFL-CIO
Box   53 Folder   3	African student & American university
Box   53 Folder   4	Air safety research material
Box   53 Folder   5	American Legion research notes
Box   53 Folder   6	Agriculture
Box   53 Folder   7	A.M.A.
Box   53 Folder   8	Atomic energy, 1958
Box   53 Folder   9	Awards
Box   53 Folder   10	Briefing session
	Bulldozer
Box   53 Folder   11	The arts
Box   53 Folder   12	City planning & concourse village
Box   53 Folder   13	FBI & Senate hearings
Box   53 Folder   14	Highway
Box   53 Folder   15	Lafayette park and preservation
Box   53 Folder   16	Miscellaneous
	Campaign 1956
Box   54 Folder   1	Articles & clippings
Box   54 Folder   2	Correspondence & notes
Box   54 Folder   3	Capitalism & America
Box   54 Folder   4	C.A.R.E.
Box   54 Folder   5	Care for Aged
Box   54 Folder   6	Chessman
Box   54 Folder   7	Civil Defense
Box   54 Folder   8	Civil Rights research notes - desegregation riots, sit-ins
Box   54 Folder   9	College essay contest
	Disarmament
Box   54 Folder   10	Correspondence, 1957-1963, & notes
Box   55 Folder   1	Miscellaneous
Box   55 Folder   2	Eisenhower
Box   55 Folder   3	Eisenhower's trip to Africa
Box   55 Folder   4	Elections research notes
Box   55 Folder   5	Far East research notes - Israel & Suez
Box   55 Folder   6	Federal Communications Commission
Box   55 Folder   7	Federal Power Commission
Box   55 Folder   8	Federal Trade Commission
	Filibuster
Box   56 Folder   1	Correspondence & printed material
Box   56 Folder   2	Clippings
Box   56 Folder   3	Fluoridation
Box   56 Folder   4	Foreign Policy Advisory Council
Box   56 Folder   5	Governor's conference & convention
Box   56 Folder   6	Hell's Canyon research notes
Box   56 Folder   7	House Un-American Activities Committee
Box   56 Folder   8	Hungary & the New Guard
Box   56 Folder   9	Immigration
Box   56 Folder   10	Interest rate
Box   56 Folder   11	Interstate commerce
Box   56 Folder   12	Intelligence & information
Box   56 Folder   13	Jackson sub-committee
Box   56 Folder   14	Labor research notes - strikes, unemployment, etc.
Box   57 Folder   1	National Library Week
	Nixon, Richard
Box   57 Folder   1	Notes & printed material
Box   57 Folder   2	Brochures
Box   57 Folder   3	Clippings
Box   57 Folder   4	Oil & gas research file
Box   57 Folder   5	Operation abolition
Box   57 Folder   6	Passport story research notes
Box   57 Folder   7	Post office
Box   57 Folder   8	Policy making
	Program business
Box   58 Folder   1	Correspondence, 1960-1963
Box   58 Folder   2	Undated notes, printed material
Box   58 Folder   3	Promotion
Box   58 Folder   4	Public housing
Box   58 Folder   5	Rivera research file
Box   59 Folder   1	Reading
Box   59 Folder   2	Russian trip research material
Box   59 Folder   3	School aid & education
Box   59 Folder   4	Science & government
Box   59 Folder   5	Soviet challenge, 1961
Box   59 Folder   6	Stevenson research file
Box   59 Folder   7	Tax Bill
Box   59 Folder   8	Tennessee research file
Box   59 Folder   9	Test ban research file
Box   60 Folder   1	Trujillo
Box   60 Folder   2	U.N.E.F.
Box   60 Folder   3	United Nations
Box   60 Folder   4	U.S. Information Agency
Box   60 Folder   5	Wisconsin & Milwaukee - correspondence, 1956-1961; notes
Box   60 Folder   6	Woodside, 1965
Box   60 Folder   7	World Court research notes
Box   60 Folder   8	Youth Corps & Peace Corps, 1962
	Miscellaneous research material
Box   60 Folder   9	1955
Box   60 Folder   10	1956
Box   60 Folder   11	1957
Box   60 Folder   12	1959
Box   60 Folder   13	1960
Box   60 Folder   14	Miscellaneous
Box   61	Subseries: Printed Material	⇧
	Subseries: Scripts	⇧
Box   62	ABC News Reports, 1959-1964
Box   62	KABC Scripts
Box   62	Voice of America
Box   63	1963 November-1964 June
Box   64	1964 July-September
Box   65	1964 October-December
Box   66	, 1965 January-March
Box   67	1965 April-June
Box   68	1965 July-October
Box   69	1965 November-1966 January
Box   70	1966 February-April
Box   71	1966 May-July
Box   72	Subseries: Drafts of Articles	⇧
Box   72	Subseries: Newsday Syndicate Columns, 1966 March-June	⇧
	Subseries: Clearing the Air	⇧
Box   72	Correspondence, 1961-1964
Box   73	Notes and Drafts
Box   73	Promotional Materials
	Subseries: Clippings	⇧
Box   74	1955-1961
Box   75	1962
Box   75	Subseries: Miscellaneous	⇧
Tape 423A	Subseries: Tape Recordings	⇧
No.   1	1956 July 26, News Program re Andrea Doria and Stockholm collision
No.   2	1956 August 16, News Program re Adlai Stevenson nomination
No.   3	1957 May, Address at Whitman College
No.   4	1957 September 4, News Program re Little Rock crisis
No.   5	1958 January 27, Address (“Civil Rights and Foreign Policy”) before the San Francisco Council of Civic Unity
No.   6	1958 May 16, Address at University of Wisconsin Phi Beta Kappa Society
No.   7	1960 December 8, News Program re Arthur Goldberg
No.   8	1962 March 7, News Program re arms race
No.   9	1962 May 15, News Program re McLean-Merriwood conservation battle
No.   10	1963 January 2, News Program re Edward P. Morgan essay contest winner
No.   11	1963 January 25, News Program re Salt Lake City reaction to Morgan's comments
No.   12	1963 November 25, News Program re Kennedy funeral
No.   13	1963 November 25, News Program re “Letter to John-John”
No.   14	1964 June 6, Promotional spot, WSMN
No.   15	1964 June, Address at Sarah Lawrence commencement
No.   16	1964 September 6, Tenth Anniversary Special
No.   17	1964 November 6, Comment on housing and government on Woody Klein's “Let in the Sun,” recorded and criticized by WAGN
No.   18	1964 December 7, KABC news programs (through completion)
No.   19	1965 January 30, Special on Churchill
No.   20	1965 April 23, News Program re Art Buchwald
No.   21	1965 April 23, News Program re Dunbar and Gage Schools, Washington, D.C.
No.   22	1965 April 28, News Program re death on Edward R. Murrow
No.   23	1965 May 7, Address at University of Missouri Journalism Awards
No.   24	1965 June 3, News Program re space flight of McDivitt and White
No.   25	1965 July 10 and 13, News Program re Saigon
No.   26	1965 July 16, News Program re Saigon
No.   27	1965 October 16, Address (“Quick Sharp Look at Foreign Affairs”) before the City Club of Rochester, New York
No.   28	1965 November 19, News Program re Princess Margaret's visit to the U.S.
No.   29	1965 November 25, News Program re Thanksgiving: “Ask for Help”
No.   30	1965 December 10, News Program re AFL-CIO Convention in San Francisco
No.   31	1966 February 15, News Program
No.   32	1966 March 14, News Program re case of Abba F. Schwartz, State Dept.
No.   33	Undated, Special on JFK funeral drums
No.   34	Undated, Presentation with Jack Fairweather on right to work and rightwingism, Wyoming
No.   35	Undated, News Program re Sofia, Bulgaria , (1965 Sept. 2??)
No.   36	Undated, News Program re Belgrade, Yugoslavia , (1965 Sept. 1??)
No.   37	Undated, News Program from Tokyo, “Japan Has Many Problems” , (1965 July 29??)
No.   38	Undated, News Program from Tokyo, “Changing Order of Japan , (1965 July 30??)
U.S. Mss 11AF	Series: Part III, 1973 Additions, 1955-1964	⇧
	Subseries: News and Commentary Scripts
Box   76	1955 January-August
Box   77	1955 September-1956 March
Box   78	1956 April-December
Box   79	1957 January-August
Box   80	1957 September-1958 June
Box   81	1958 July-1959 April
Box   82	1959 May-1960 January
Box   83	1960 February-July
Box   84	1960 August-December
Box   85	1961 January-April
Box   86	1961 May-September
Box   87	1961 October-1962 April
Box   88	1962 May-1963 March
Box   89	1963 April-July
Box   90	1963 August-December
Box   91	1964 January-May
Box   92	1964 June-October
Box   93	1964 November-December
	Subseries: Opening and Closing Scripts	⇧
Box   94	1955 January-1956 December
Box   95	1956 December-1957 December 27
Box   96	1957 December 30-1958 December 26
Box   97	1958 December 28-1959
Box   98	1960
Box   99	1961
Box   100	1963
Box   101	1964