University of Chicago Library Guide to the William Benton Papers 1839-1973 © 2019 University of Chicago Library Table of Contents Acknowledgments 4 Descriptive Summary 4 Information on Use 5 Access 5 Restrictions on Use 5 Citation 5 Biographical Note 5 Scope Note 14 Related Resources 23 Subject Headings 23 INVENTORY 24 Series I: General Files 24 Subseries 1: Personal Life 24 Sub-subseries 1: Family and Personal, 1839-1942 24 Sub-subseries 2: Family and Personal, 1941-1947 33 Sub-subseries 3: Family and Personal, 1948-1957 36 Sub-subseries 4: Family and Personal, 1958-1973 44 Sub-subseries 5: Travel Files 57 Subseries 2: General Correspondence 68 Sub-subseries 1: 1930-1940 68 Sub-subseries 2: 1941-1947 72 Sub-subseries 3: 1948-1957 82 Sub-subseries 4: 1958-1973 105 Subseries 3: Business Career 172 Sub-subseries 1: General 172 Sub-subseries 2: Benton & Bowles 174 Sub-subseries 3: Muzak 179 Sub-subseries 4: Encyclopaedia Britannica 184 Subseries 4: Public Life 199 Sub-subseries 1: Public relations and project ideas, 1958-1973 199 Sub-subseries 2: America First, 1939-1942 203 Sub-subseries 3: Committee for Economic Development 205 Sub-subseries 4: Politics 211 Sub-subseries 5: Campaigns 248 Sub-subseries 6: Senate 260 Sub-subseries 7: McCarthy 276 Subseries 5: Foreign Affairs 280 Sub-subseries 1: General 280 Sub-subseries 2: State Department 285 Sub-subseries 3: UNESCO 294 Subseries 6: Education and Philanthropy 308 Sub-subseries 1: University of Chicago 308 Sub-subseries 2: Benton Foundation 311 Series II: Speech Files 332 Series III: Autograph Correspondence with Notable Figures 581 Series IV: Memorabilia 583 Series V: Recordings - (Acetates) 590 Subseries 1: Record albums, music 590 Subseries 2: Record albums, political and business 591 Subseries 3: Record albums, University of Chicago Radio Office, World Theatre592 series Subseries 4: Record Albums, unidentified 593 Subseries 5: Record albums, music 593 Subseries 6: Record albums, University of Chicago Radio Office, Human Adventure594 series Subseries 7: Record albums, political and business 595 Series VI: Scrapbooks 596 Series VII: Addenda 603 Subseries 1: Personal 603 Subseries 2: Correspondence 605 Subseries 3: Speeches and Writing 606 Subseries 4: Career 608 Subseries 5: Audiovisual 613 Subseries 6: Oversize 617 Descriptive Summary Identifier ICU.SPCL.BENTONW Title Benton, William. Papers Date 1839-1973 Size 384 linear feet (613 boxes) Repository Special Collections Research Center University of Chicago Library 1100 East 57th Street Chicago, Illinois 60637 U.S.A. Abstract William Benton (1900-1973) was an advertising executive, publisher, university administrator, U.S. senator and diplomat. Contains personal and professional correspondence, reports, legal documents, account books, diaries, manuscripts, speeches, research notes, transcripts of radio and television broadcasts, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, photographs, awards, and mementos. Papers highlight Benton's business and investment successes as well as his contributions to education and public affairs. Includes material relating to Encyclopaedia Britannica (1941-1973); Encyclopaedia Britannica Films (1939-1973); America First Committee; the Committee for Economic Development (1942-1973); Muzak (1941-1973); Benton & Bowles (1925-1973); the U.S. State Department (1941-1973); UNESCO (1946-1973); the McCarthy era; the establishment of Voice of America; the University of Chicago Board of Trustees; the Benton Foundation (1958-1973) commitments to Brandeis University, the University of Bridgeport, the University of Connecticut, the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies, and the American Shakespeare Festival; and Connecticut and national politics (1948-1973). Acknowledgments In December 1981, Benton's four children, Charles Benton, Louise Benton Wagner, Helen Benton Boley, and John Hemingway Benton, presented their father's papers to the University of Chicago Library. Complemented by an additional gift of letters and memorabilia from the family in December 1982, the William Benton Papers constituted the single largest body of manuscripts ever accepted by the Library at that time. The task of organizing and describing the Papers was undertaken by two historians, Lamar Riley and James Grubb, both of them doctoral candidates in the University's Department of History. Their work was made possible by a grant from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., which understood the magnitude of the enterprise at hand and the importance of preserving the Papers and making them available for the broadest possible 4 scholarly use. A typed copy of their original finding aid can be found in the accession files for this collection; please consult with Special Collections staff. Information on Use Access The collection is open for research. Restrictions on Use Series V and Series VII do not include an access copy for most film and audio recordings. Researchers should consult with Special Collections staff before requesting any of these items. Citation When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Benton, William. Papers, [Box #, Folder #], Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library. Biographical Note A dynamic man of broad interests and innovative flair, William Burnett Benton achieved distinction in many fields during his seventy-three years. He was blessed with a nearly unerring talent for the marketplace, but he is remembered especially for broad-ranging contributions in education and public affairs. Born in Minneapolis on April 1, 1900, Benton was the first child of Charles William Benton, a Congregationalist clergyman and University of Minnesota professor, and Elma Hixson Benton, a country school superintendent. Benton and his younger brother, Daniel Hixson, grew up in a close-knit family which prized its activist heritage; their paternal grandparents had been missionaries in Lebanon from the 1840s through the 1870s, and the Hixsons were prominent in Democratic reform politics in Minnesota. Particularly through the forceful example of his mother, Benton early was imbued with humanitarian and public service ideals which his later life exemplified. When Benton was thirteen his father died, and the family's situation changed radically. Young William entered Shattuck Academy in Faribault, Minnesota, on a partial scholarship, spending most vacations helping his mother in an ill-fated Montana homesteading venture undertaken with her father and brother. Though Benton disliked the isolated summers and the military regimen of the academic year, he was buoyed by the prospect of following a long line of Yale- educated Bentons who had been ministers, teachers, and professionals. Each year he stood close to the top of his class, but he always found time for extracurricular activities. In addition to sports, he supplemented his meager funds as Shattuck's sole agent for memory books, class pins, stationery, and a binder he invented for the new school paper. Through his schoolboy enterprise he began to discover entrepreneurial and selling talents which were to alter the direction of his ambitions. 5 In June 1917 Benton confidently took his final exams at Shattuck and the entrance exams for Yale. The college's English and mathematics requirements presented no difficulty, but he was shocked when he failed the French and Latin exams. Suddenly his dreams seemed unattainable, forcing the high school graduate to reevaluate the future. In the meantime Elma Benton, seeking to improve her long-range career possibilities in teaching, had decided to earn a master's degree in education at Columbia University's Teachers College. Her solution to her elder son's predicament was to enroll him at Carleton College, where his aunt, Dr. Mary Benton, was dean of women. To his surprise Benton found all aspects of Carleton life congenial, and he weighed the notion of going against his mother's wishes by finishing his undergraduate work there. The dilemma disappeared when Congress passed a draft law covering ages 18 to 45, for Benton immediately left for Yale, where he was inducted into the Student Army Training Corps. Benton's hopes for military service were dashed only two months later with the signing of the armistice. He stayed at Yale to retake the entrance examinations and in 1918 entered as a sophomore. Although quickly recognized as a prize debater and a frequent contributor to the Yale Record, it was a trying year for Benton academically and socially. He felt his Midwestern background and schooling branded him an outsider, and he resented the handicap as he adjusted to the social and intellectual atmosphere of the eastern institution. In early 1919 Benton began to make decisions which pointed him toward a business career. First came involvement in a college- calendar franchise, by which he impressed classmates with his promoting and selling techniques. Soon thereafter Benton was offered a Rhodes scholarship and had to confront the implications of his marketing aptitude. To his mother's dismay, he rejected it, instead accepting a prestigious summer training position in international trading and finance with National City Bank of New York. That year brought major changes in his family situation as well. Elma Benton finished her degree work and was named headmistress at Hosmer Hall, a private girls' school in St. Louis, where she was to remain until her death in 1942. Dan Benton joined her there after spending the summer in New York City with his brother; but within a