The Esther Van Wagoner Tufty Papers consist of PERSONAL PAPERS, CAREER PAPERS, AUDIO RECORDINGS and VISUAL MATERIALS. When originally donated, the collection was much larger than it was when processed, because during the 1990s the Tufty family asked for the return of the scrapbooks, approximately 2/3 of the original bulk. No notes were taken about the content of the scrapbooks, but it is likely they included printed examples of her writings and clippings about her career. The research value and comprehensive nature of the collection was much diminished as a result. The remaining examples of Tufty's newspaper writings consist of loose clippings and scattered copies of the mimeograph releases sent to the papers that carried her column. Both types of documentation are far from complete, although the collection does contain fairly comprehensive coverage of the early years of the “Michigan in Washington,” a period not covered by the mimeographed releases that Mrs. Tufty donated to the Bentley Library which cover the period. The clippings not in scrapbooks, which were received in brittle condition and poorly dated, reveal that the Michigan papers sometimes printed only the local part of the column. In photocopying the clippings for preservation, the most complete version possible was preserved. The clippings and releases offer only fragmentary coverage of the latter part of Mrs. Tufty's career; the collection at the Bentley covers the years through 1953.
Taken together, the collection best covers the middle years of Tufty's career, approximately 1942-1963, with no records of her career as managing editor of the Evanston News-Index during the 1920s and 1930s and only limited records concerning the establishment of the Tufty News Bureau. Files from the middle period document relations with various papers that carried her column and with Dear Publications and Radio, Inc. for whom she became the Washington, D.C. partner. The correspondence with NBC executives concerning the development of the Ask Washington and Home programs is particularly interesting in this regard. Panning the Press, which was a sort of reverse press conference broadcast by WWDC, is the program best represented by sound recordings.
Information about World War II when she was the first woman to be accredited as a war correspondent includes correspondence focusing on the year 1942 and a typed diary about her experiences in wartime London. There are also stories she wrote for the BBC and her wartime radio program, Headlines from Washington, broadcast by the Atlantic Coast Network. That program, for which there are some scripts, was an insider's look at the capital during World War II. While the program emphasized the woman's point of view and often featured women guests such as Frances Perkins and Katharine Lenroot, Tufty also interviewed male news makers such as Tom Clark, Martin Codel, Martin Dies, James A. Farley, Abe Fortas, Robert M. La Follette Jr., and Gifford Pinchot. Tufty's post-war radio news program Tufty Topics broadcast from WWDC over the Associated Broadcasting Corporation, another short-lived radio network, featured debates on news of interest to a female audience. Although most guests were not well known, there are documented appearances by Elizabeth Carpenter, Helen Gahagen Douglas, and Virginia Durr. The collection includes two sound recordings of this program.
The PERSONAL PAPERS provide the best overall coverage of Tufty's career; with an incomplete draft of her autobiography written in an anecdotal rather than a factual style. This series also includes clippings that illustrate well the manner in which Tufty herself was often the news story, her coverage of the Thomas Dewey Presidential campaign in 1944, for example, and high level memorabilia documenting her social life and connections in Washington, D.C.
The CAREER PAPERS include correspondence, arranged chronologically, and subject files, arranged alphabetically.
The AUDIO RECORDINGS include auditions, interviews, recordings of her programs Panning the Press and Tufty Topics and autobiographical reminiscences.
The VISUAL MATERIALS consist of photographs, negatives, transparencies, and moving image materials. The photographs include formal portraits and publicity photographs of a more candid nature of her as a working journalist, broadcaster, and member of various professional organizations. Some photographs show her with Presidents and First Ladies (Truman, Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, and Reagan) and with other celebrities. There is also photographic coverage of her foreign reporting, especially from Korea and Vietnam in 1966, and the 1941 visit to the capital (at her invitation as president of the Women's National Press Club) of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Also included is a film (and a duplicate videorecording) of Mrs. Tufty visiting James Tufty in Japan in 1955.
Prints for all negatives are available.
