Summary Information
Hilmar Robert Baukhage Papers
1906-1962
- Baukhage, Hilmar Robert, 1889-
U.S. Mss 95AF; Tape 453A; Disc 80A
1.6 c.f. (4 archives boxes), 5 tape recordings, and 26 disc recordings
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Papers of a writer, newspaperman, and Washington news commentator for NBC and ABC, primarily consisting of scripts, journals, speeches, and recordings. Scripts and discs relate almost exclusively to Baukhage's regularly-scheduled ABC radio program Baukhage Talking. Among the news events covered in the scripts are World War II, the 1944 political conventions, President Roosevelt's death, Truman's inauguration, the Nuremberg trials, the Cold War, and the Berlin crisis. Among the recordings are broadcasts about Roosevelt's funeral, the Japanese surrender, a speech by Andrei Gromyko before the Security Council in 1947, and Thomas E. Dewey's concession to Truman in 1948. The journals are comprised of notes on interviews during the 1940's with Washington, D.C., personages such as James F. Byrnes, John Foster Dulles, Harry Hopkins, Cordell Hull, Louis Johnson, George C. Marshall, Wayne L. Morse, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Robert A. Taft. Also present is an autobiographical manuscript and a history of Stars and Stripes. The remainder of the collection is comprised of speeches, fragmentary correspondence, and miscellaneous early writings.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-us0095af ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
H. R. Baukhage, radio commentator, writer, newspaperman and lecturer, was born January 7, 1889 in LaSalle, Illinois. He received his Ph.B. in literature from the University of Chicago in 1911. He then went to Europe and studied at the Universities of Bonn, 1911; Kiel, 1912; Jena, 1912; Frieburg, 1913; and at the Sorbonne, 1913.
Baukhage began his newspaper career on the Chautauqua Daily in 1908, then worked with the Paris bureau of the London Pall Mall Gazette in 1913. In 1914 he worked for the Washington bureau of the Associated Press. By 1916 Baukhage had become the assistant managing editor of Leslies, but in 1918 he enlisted as a private in the Coast Artillery Corps of the U. S. Army, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in Field Artillery and served with the American Expeditionary Forces. He covered the Paris Peace Conference for the Stars and Stripes after the armistice.
From 1919 to 1932 he was with the Consolidated Press, then moved to the United States News. In 1937, Mr. Baukhage joined the North American Newspaper Alliance and remained with them until 1940 when he became the Washington correspondent for the Western Newspaper Union, where he remained until 1945.
Baukhage was news commentator on the Farm and Home Hour for NBC from 1932 through 1942. He broadcast the outbreak of World War II from Berlin for NBC in 1939, and was the first person to give a news broadcast from the White House—the broadcast that Pearl Harbor had been attacked. He was a Washington commentator with the Blue Network, ABC, from 1942 to 1951, and for the next three years was a news commentator with the Mutual Broadcasting System. He served as the associate editor of the Army, Navy, Air Force Register in 1955, and in 1963 was writing for U. S. News and World Report.
Mr. Baukhage was the recipient of the National Headliners Club Award for 1945 for the best domestic broadcast of the year, and received the Public Service award from the University of Chicago Alumni Association in 1946. He belongs to the Overseas Writers organization, Radio Correspondents (president, 1941-1942), the Radio News Analysts Association, the National Press Club and the Cosmos Club of Washington, D. C. With C. L. Baldridge, he is the author of I Was There, 1919. He married Marjorie Collins on Nov. 8, 1922. Baukhage now lives in Washington, D. C.
Scope and Content Note
The Papers of H. R. Baukhage cover primarily the years, 1941 to 1962. The majority of the collection is concerned with scripts of his broadcasts from 1944 to 1954; his journals, 1942 to 1953; and many of his speeches
for the years 1941 through 1962. There are a few items of correspondence, some letters to his wife when he was in Egypt, and others dealing with his autobiography. The correspondence covers the years from 1941 to 1961, but there are numerous gaps through those years. The collection contains two drafts from manuscripts: one concerned with his autobiography, Baukhage Talking, and the other with the Stars and Stripes publication.
The scripts for broadcasts are concerned with the second World War; Berlin, Germany; the Nuremberg Trials; the 1944 Democratic and Republican conventions in Chicago; numerous holidays; President Roosevelt's death and burial; Truman's inauguration; the Soviet Union; and many of Baukhage's regular programs.
The personal journals of Mr. Baukhage consist of diary formats, interviews, and general impressions of people, places and situations. Some of the material contained in his journals consists of recollections of meetings with foreign diplomats and State Department officials; World War I; observations of President Roosevelt and the New Deal; World War II; the political scene; Germany and Russia; and general sketches of the state of the country.
The remainder of the text collection consists of script and journal fragments; a folder of stories, articles and poetry (1906-1915), presumably written by Baukhage; and one folder of miscellaneous material.
In addition to the papers, the collection contains five tape recordings pertaining to a series of programs titled, “Report in Depth, F.D.R., the Man”, recorded in 1959. The collection also includes twenty-six disc recordings, chiefly broadcasts by Baukhage. The discs cover the years 1940 through 1951. Among the recordings are one of President Roosevelt's death and burial; broadcasts of the Nuremberg trials following World War II; news conferences, one of which was with Thomas E. Dewey after his defeat by President Truman; coverage of military maneuvers in the Caribbean; a speech by Andrei Gromyko before the Security Council in 1947; interviews with Secretary of Defense Stephen Early; and broadcasts of the Japanese surrender.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Presented by H. R. Baukhage, Washington, D.C., March 8, 1967 and November 2, 1967.
Processed by Cheri Brill, January 22, 1969.
Contents List
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U.S. Mss 95AF
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Series: Paper Records
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Box
1
Folder
1
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Autobiography, drafts of manuscript
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Broadcasts - Scripts
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Box
1
Folder
2
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1944
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Box
1
Folder
3
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1945-1946
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Box
1
Folder
4
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Nuremberg Trials, 1945-1946
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Box
1
Folder
5
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Hyde Park, 1946-1947
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Box
1
Folder
6
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1947
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Box
1
Folder
7
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1948
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Box
1
Folder
8
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1949
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Box
2
Folder
1
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1950
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Box
2
Folder
2
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1951-1954; 1957
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Box
2
Folder
3
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n.d.
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Box
2
Folder
4
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Correspondence, 1941; 1944; 1946; 1948; 1950; 1952-1953; 1961, n.d.
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Box
2
Folder
5
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Fragments (Broadcasts, speeches, journals), n.d.
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Journals
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Box
2
Folder
6
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World War I, 1915, n.d.
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Box
2
Folder
7
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1942-1945
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Box
3
Folder
1
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1946-1947
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Box
3
Folder
2
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1948-1953
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Box
3
Folder
3
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Miscellaneous, 1945, 1949-1950, 1952-1953, 1959, 1962, n.d.
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Speeches
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Box
3
Folder
4
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1941-1944
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Box
3
Folder
5
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1945-1947
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Box
3
Folder
6
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1949-1951; 1953-1955
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Box
4
Folder
1
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1956-1958
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Box
4
Folder
2
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1959-1960; 1962
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Box
4
Folder
3
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n.d.
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Box
4
Folder
4
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“The Stars and Stripes Story” , (1960)
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Box
4
Folder
5
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Stories, articles, poetry (by Baukhage?) (unpublished?), 1906-1907; 1912-1913, n.d.
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Series: Sound Recordings
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Tape 453A
No.
1-5
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“Report in Depth, F.D.R., the Man,” 1959
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Disc 80A
No.
1
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Baukhage talking - broadcast Nov. 16, 1940?
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No.
2
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1945, April 15 - The Hyde Park Service for President Roosevelt
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No.
3
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1945, Aug. 14 - Baukhage broadcast from White House, Japanese surrender
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No.
4
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1945, Nov. 21 - Nuremberg Trials
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No.
5
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1946, June 5 - Baukhage broadcast
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No.
6
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1946, June 6 - “Notes for D-Day” - Joseph Auslander, Baukhage broadcast
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No.
7
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1947, Jan, 31 - Roosevelt Anniversary Broadcast from Hyde Park
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No.
8
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1947, Sept. 25 - Security Council Meeting - Speech by Andrei Gromyko
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No.
9
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1947, Nov. 16 - Decade of Destiny Broadcast
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No.
10
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1948, Nov. 3 - Baukhage broadcast, Gov. Dewey's newscast after defeat
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No.
11
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1948, Nov. 5 - Baukhage broadcast, Truman ceremonies
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No.
12-13
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1949, Feb. 25 - Caribbean Maneuvers
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No.
14
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1949, March 1 - Baukhage broadcast, war games
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No.
15-16
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1949, March 30 - WAPA Baukhage program - San Juan, Puerto Rico - maneuvers coverage
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No.
17
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1949, April 14 - Franklin D. Roosevelt Burial - Baukhage broadcast
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No.
18
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1949, June 15 - Interview with Undersecretary Early - Pentagon
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No.
19
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1950, Feb. 27 - Department of Defense with Early, Secretary of Defense
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No.
20
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1950, March 7 - Caribbean maneuvers
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No.
21
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1950, April 15 - Ceremony of Presentation of Baby Elephants to America by the Children of India
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No.
22
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1951, Oct. 16 - “Personal Report” - Mary Jean McNamara, Business Unit I - Joseph S. Baldwin, Fred V. McNair and Clyde M. Larmer
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No.
23
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n.d. - Part I, Maneuvers in the Caribbean
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No.
24
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n.d. - Part II, Maneuvers in the Caribbean, Interview with Gen. Ray Robinson
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No.
25
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, n.d. - Baukhage interviewing Baukhage
: Poor condition
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No.
26
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Voices of Freedom - 1901-1950, narrated by Robert McCormick, NBC.
: Actual voices of William Jennings Bryan, William Howard Taft, Thomas Alva Edison, Admiral Robert E. Peary, Theodo re Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Amelia Earhart, Will Rogers, F.D.R., Harry S. Truman
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