Title: Frank E. Mason Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1931-1945

Creator:

• Mason, Frank E., 1893-1979

Call Number: U.S. Mss 42AF

Quantity: 2.8 c.f. (7 archives boxes)

Repository:

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

Archival Locations:

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

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

Abstract:

Papers of a NBC vice-president in charge of information who served as a special assistant to Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox during World War II. Included are correspondence, 1931-1945; telephone logs and appointment books, 1941-1944; speeches; and reports. The correspondence is primarily personal, but during 1939 and 1940 corporate matters become more prominent. Included here are letters and memoranda relating to NBC's development of short wave facilities, international broadcasting, and planning for wartime broadcasting. Some later letters refer to his activities in the Navy Department. Also part of the collection are speeches on newspaper-radio relations, short wave broadcasting, and propaganda; mimeographed copies of Knox's news conferences; and reports, not by Mason, concerning reconversion of industry after the war.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-us0042af

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Frank E. Mason was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on February 8, 1893. In 1915, he received his A.B. degree from the Ohio State University. From 1915 to 1916, he was an assistant editor of The American Boy. In 1918, after some months of service in the First World War, he became an Intelligence Officer for the 9th Infantry of the U. S. Army. Later in 1918, he became an instructor in the Army Intelligence School in Langres, France. In 1919, he was chief censor for the General Headquarters of the General Staff in the German occupied area. He also served, in 1919, as assistant military attache at the American Legation at The Hague and as military attaché at the American Embassy in Berlin.

Mr. Mason was a correspondent for the International News Service in 1920 and 1921, and was manager of the London office of that service in 1921. From 1922 to 1926, he was manager of the Paris office. In 1928, he became business manager of the New York office, and from 1928 to 1931, he was general manager and president of the service. He was a vice-president of the National Broadcasting Company from 1931 to 1945, and also director of the London Times-Mirror and president of London Press, Inc. From April, 1941, to July, 1944, he served as a special assistant to the Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox.

He was a member of Herbert Hoover's World-Wide Food Survey of 38 countries in 1946, and of Hoover's European Commission in 1947. He is currently a public relations counsel in New York City.

The collection includes correspondence, Nov. 13, 1931-Feb. 26, 1945. Most of the letters are concerned with NBC's progress in developing short wave facilities, and with Mr. Mason's activities as special assistant to the Secretary of the Navy during World War II. There are a few letters, in the late 1930's, from Joachim Streseman, son of Germany's “Peace Chancellor,” and two letters from Herbert Hoover, July 8, 1941, and Oct. 26, 1942.

There are also telephone logs of calls, kept while Mason was special assistant to the Secretary of the Navy. Most of these calls are concerning military matters, with some personal ones. In addition, there are daily appointment sheets kept by Mason during this period.

Mr. Mason's speeches cover three main topics: newspaper-radio relations, short wave broadcasting, and propaganda. The short wave and propaganda subjects are related and make up the bulk of the addresses. A typescript of Mason's testimony before a Congressional hearing in 1938 concerns short wave.

Also retained in the collection are mimeographed copies of the news conferences of the Secretary of the Navy. Most of them concern the war in the Pacific against the Japanese, but there is some material on the Normandy Invasion. Reports, not by Mason, concern short wave and reconversion of industry after the war.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Frank E. Mason, New York, N.Y., 1961 and 1962.

	Correspondence
Box   1	1931 Nov. 13 - 1940 May 31
Box   2	1940 June 1 - 1941 Sept. 15
Box   3	1941 Sept. 17 - 1945 Feb. 26
	Telephone Logs
Box   3	1942 May 1-Sept. 30
Box   4	1942 Oct. 1 - 1944 Mar.31
Box   5	1944 April 1-June 30
Box   5	Appointment Sheets, 1942 Dec. 18 - 1944 June 30
Box   5	Addresses, 1933-1944 April 10; n.d.
Box   5	Congressional Testimony, 1938
Box   6	Secretary of the Navy News Conferences, 1942 Jan. 5 - 1944 June 21
	Reports
Box   6	1937 Jan. 29 - 1939 Jan. 10
Box   7	1939-1944 Nov.