The papers of Joseph Wright Alsop (1910-1989) and Stewart Johonnot Oliver Alsop (1914-1974) span the years 1699-1989, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1937-1989. The collection includes correspondence, family papers, office files, speeches and writings, travel files, financial matter, subject files, miscellaneous items, and classified material. The Alsop Papers have been organized into four parts.

Part I

Part I of the Alsop Papers spans the years 1762-1964, with the bulk of the items dating from 1937 to 1964. It consists of correspondence, subject files, speeches, writings, notes and notebooks, memoranda, newspaper clippings, printed matter, photographs, invitations, and Alsop family memorabilia. The files relate mainly or exclusively to Joseph Alsop and are organized in eight series: Early Family Papers; General Correspondence; Special Correspondence; Early Office File; Article, Book, and Speech File; Travel File; Financial File; and Miscellany.

The General Correspondence series covers the years 1934-1964, with material prior to World War II pertaining solely to Joseph Alsop. Some of the prewar correspondence relates to "The Capital Parade" column which he coauthored with Robert Kintner. Other files concern two of his books, and , and two articles for the . Letters from the mid-1940s onward include correspondence sent and received by Stewart Alsop, except communications after 1945 relating to the Alsops' "Matter of Fact" column and articles which are in the Special Correspondence series.

Featured in the General Correspondence are letters to and from the Alsops' network of influential friends and sources of information for Joseph Alsop's columns, including politicians, government leaders, prominent social figures, and European as well as American observers of contemporary politics and diplomacy. Topics include the major events and personalities of the postwar era, focusing, for example, on the roles played by generals Claire Lee Chennault and Joseph W. Stilwell in the China theater and the takeover of mainland China by the Communists; the Korean War, especially issues involving Secretary of Defense Louis Arthur Johnson and American military readiness; McCarthyism and the battle the Alsops waged against it, both in print and before the McCarren Committee; the election of Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and the Alsops' growing disillusionment with the Eisenhower administration, particularly the State Department's Middle East policy and the United States' defense posture in the late 1950s; and on the brothers' optimism following the election of John F. Kennedy as president in 1960.

Also featured in the General Correspondence are the personal lives of the Alsops, especially that of Joseph Alsop. Traced in the series are the developing views of the brothers on political, social, military, and diplomatic issues, together with their opinion of the men and women involved in them. Also noted are the brothers' attitudes toward journalists such as Walter Lippmann, Henry Luce, and Drew Pearson, and their relationship with their parents, their brother, John DeKevon Alsop, and with each other. Correspondence from 1958 pertains to the breakup of their partnership as writers of the "Matter of Fact" column. Other relationships that emerge are those with Eleanor Roosevelt and Alice Roosevelt Longworth.

The Special Correspondence series includes letters, 1946-1956, concerning the "Matter of Fact" column and correspondence, 1946-1953, with editors of the , most particularly with foreign editor Martin Sommers. Letters from readers and publishers deal mainly with reaction to various articles, including comments on the Alsop's opposition to Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Correspondence with the generally concerns suggestions for articles and articles in progress, including discussions of the political, social, and diplomatic scene. Stewart Alsop became national affairs contributing editor as well as Washington editor of the in 1958, and thereafter most of the outgoing correspondence is his.

The Early Office File dates from 1932 to 1941 and contains correspondence, research material, reference notes, and miscellaneous items concerning the publication of Joseph Alsop's and Robert Kintner's column, “The Capital Parade.” Much of the outgoing correspondence is signed by Kintner, who handled administrative details and research, while Alsop did the actual writing.

The Article, Book, and Speech File covers the period 1937-1963 and consists primarily of drafts and printed copies of magazine articles and books, together with related correspondence, notes, notebooks, interviews, memoranda, newspaper clippings, and printed matter. A small speech file pertains mostly to talks by Joseph Alsop at Harvard University. Articles on Richard M. Nixon and Nelson Rockefeller are accompanied by notes, memoranda, correspondence, reference material, and drafts, as are manuscripts for and . Also included are unpublished drafts of "The Revolution in Warfare" and .

The Travel File chiefly concerns trips by Stewart Alsop to Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East between 1947 and 1961. The Financial File relates to Joseph Alsop and covers such topics as the attributes of floor waxers, a 1941 Cadillac, rare Chinese screens, and the building and furnishing of his home on Dumbarton Street in the Georgetown neighborhood in Washington. Prominent in the Miscellany are biographical material, notes, memoranda, interviews with Lyndon B. Johnson and Robert S. McNamara, newspaper clippings, invitations, and photographs of the Alsops.

Part II

Part II of the Alsop Papers spans the years 1699-1970, with the bulk of the files concentrated in 1938-1970 and the General Correspondence limited to 1964-1967. This portion of the collection focuses almost completely on Joseph Alsop, although it also encompasses the business records of his partnership with his brother, Stewart, and includes drafts of newspaper columns and other publications which he coauthored with his brother and with Robert Kintner.

Part II further documents Joseph Alsop's family relationships; his acquaintance with prominent writers, scholars, and politicians; and his work as a journalist between the Munich Pact of 1938, the year after he began his nationally syndicated column, "The Capital Parade," and the 1968 Tet offensive of the Vietnam War. Included are six series of files: Family Papers, General Correspondence, Office Files, Subject File, Speeches and Writings, and a Financial File.

Some of the folders absent from the Office Files of Part I are located in the same series of Part II. Drafts of writings from Joseph Alsop's early work in journalism, most of which are partially represented in the first part, can also be found in different versions with related material in Part II. Family papers dating from the eighteenth century in the initial installment, also appear in Part II, documenting not only the Alsops' colonial ancestry but also Joseph Alsop's family relationships, 1959-1968.

The Office Files series, dating from 1937 to 1941 when Alsop collaborated with Kintner on "The Capital Parade," contains correspondence, notes, government memoranda, and reports of interviews related to their syndicated column. Among the political notables who served as sources or as subjects for the column and whose letters appear in the series are Arthur H. Vandenberg, Burton K. Wheeler, and Wendell L. Willkie. Privileged information from members of Franklin D. Roosevelt's inner circle about domestic and diplomatic policies of the United States before World War II can also be found in the Speeches and Writings File, which contains transcripts of private conversations and drafts of the Alsops' writings.

Among these writings are , published between the Russian and German attacks on Poland in 1939 and the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941, and a series on Roosevelt's advisors, written for the in 1938 under the title "We Shall Make America Over" and republished a year later as .

Included in notes taken during meetings with business and government leaders in addition to Roosevelt are transcripts of interviews with Thomas G. Corcoran, Cordell Hull, Louis Arthur Johnson, Raymond Moley, Edward R. Stettinius, Rexford G. Tugwell, and Sumner Welles. Some of Joseph Alsop's sources, such as George L. Harrison of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, spoke to him with the understanding they would neither be quoted nor cited. Others, such as Adolf Augustus Berle and Henry Morgenthau (1891-1967), wrote memoranda chronicling diplomatic events and proposing alternative courses of action for American foreign policy.

Particularly well represented in Part II are articles Joseph Alsop wrote on Senator Joseph F. Guffey, Charles L. McNary, and Henry Morgenthau (1891-1967). In 1958, the Alsop brothers published a compendium of their columns in , the drafts of which are among their papers. Other files pertain to "Kato Zakro," a magazine piece in which Joseph Alsop discussed recently discovered archeological remains of an ancient Minoan palace at Kato Zakro on Crete. In 1965, Alsop wrote a series of newspaper articles, later published under the title , which offered the prospect of combining satiety with weight loss. Included in the file on the work is an exchange between Alsop and members of the editorial staff after a writer questioned the medical reliability of the diet.

Vietnam is a prominent subject throughout Part II. In the debate between "hawks" versus "doves," terms coined by Stewart Alsop, Joseph Alsop defended America's involvement in the conflict. The Subject File includes notebooks of his frequent visits to Southeast Asia, United States Army reports, documents provided him by South Vietnamese forces, and troop information captured from the North Vietnamese. The General Correspondence notes the disagreements he had with public figures such as John K. Fairbank, John Kenneth Galbraith, Richard Goodwin, Hans J. Morgenthau, Arthur M. Schlesinger (1917-2007), and Robert Shaplen. Correspondents more in sympathy with Alsop's point of view include Ward Just, Colonel Frederick G. Krause, who provided battlefield information from Vietnam, and Richard M. Nixon.

Other material in the Subject File range from memorabilia of Joseph Alsop's service in China during World War II, when he was advisor to General Claire Lee Chennault, to folders detailing the acquisition of furnishings for his Washington home. Travel papers contain expense sheets and itineraries as well as background items accumulated during investigative trips abroad. Also in the Subject File are letters showing the Alsops' criticism of James R. Shepley and Clay Blair for their claims in that J. Robert Oppenheimer and most of the atomic scientists at Los Alamos had been guilty of ineptitude bordering on disloyalty while developing the H bomb. Although Joseph Alsop destroyed most of the records of his service in China during World War II, files labeled “China” include recollections which he used to defend Henry A. Wallace (1888-1965) and John Carter Vincent against accusations that they had abetted the Communists' defeat of the Nationalist forces, and correspondence or references to such prominent individuals as George W. Ball, William Benton, George S. Kaufman, Albert Kohlberg, and Willis Smith also relate to this period.

The General Correspondence in Part II begins in 1964 when the same series ends in Part I. Letters from leaders in journalism, archaeology, and politics provide insights into national and international events of the mid-1960s, the Washington social scene and the (with more to be found on these subjects in financial records containing guest lists, dining accounts, and expense sheets), his news sources and relationship with White House counselors in Lyndon Johnson's administration, and responses of n,otable individuals to his political commentary. His relationship to Robert F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis is reflected in letters discussing political matters and commiserating with the Kennedy family following John F. Kennedy's assassination.

Other correspondents in Part II include Dean Acheson, John Alsop, Raymond Aron, Isaiah Berlin, Carl William Blegen, Charles Bohlen, Chester Bowles, David K. E. Bruce, McGeorge Bundy, William Bundy, Herrlee Glessner Creel, Sterling Dow, Allen W. Dulles, Orville L. Freeman, Thor S. Johnson, Walter Lippmann, John Alex McCone, Bill Moyers, James Reston, Richard Rovere, Robert B. Silvers, William Sullivan, Lewis W. Walt, James Wechsler, Homer A. Thompson, and Corinne Roosevelt Cole.

Part III

Part III of the Alsop Papers spans 1899-1975, with the bulk of the items dating from 1968 to 1975. This portion focuses on the last years of Joseph Alsop's career as a columnist and complements earlier parts of the collection in type and content of material. There are eight series: Family Papers, General Correspondence, Business Correspondence, Subject File, Speeches and Writings, Financial File, Miscellany, and Scrapbooks. Recurring topics include China as a foreign policy issue and the scene of Joseph's war service, the Vietnam War, and public education.

Among files relating to China are letters to historian Barbara Tuchman describing Alsop's experiences in Asia during World War II. Other files concern the Stilwell-Chennault controversy regarding the air war in China in support of Chiang, Kai-shek's Nationalist forces. Although prior to 1972 Alsop had written about deteriorating Sino-Soviet relations and predicted a nuclear clash, his views changed following a visit to the two countries in 1972. The Speeches and Writings series contains copies of the columns he wrote from China and articles published in the and in the spring of 1973, as well as copies of the columns written about China in 1959 in which he described conditions associated with the commune system in the 1950s.

His assessment of the Vietnam War is evident in exchanges in the General Correspondence with Presidents Johnson and Nixon and with Ellsworth Bunker, Henry Kissinger, Charles Whitehouse, and various military officers. The Subject File offers further documentation on the topic, as does the Miscellany, which contains itineraries and arrangements for Alsop's trips to Southeast Asia.

Part III also includes material related to the state of American education, especially in urban areas and among African Americans. Opposed to busing, Alsop supported the More Effective Schools program, a pilot program conducted by the New York city school system. His article, "No More Nonsense About Ghetto Education," published in the in 1967, is included in the Speeches and Writings series along with drafts of other articles on education.

The Family Papers series consists almost entirely of correspondence between Joseph Alsop and his family, including nieces and nephews, his brothers, and a sister. The most voluminous exchange is with his brother John, who managed the family's financial interests, particularly after the death of their father in 1953. The Family Papers also include a history of the deKoven branch of the Alsop family entitled "Reminiscences of Helen Beach."

Although the General Correspondence series in Part III begins in 1941, it is most extensive after 1967, the point at which the General Correspondence in Part II ends. Often the letters are social in content, with many relating to the social gatherings at which Joseph Alsop gleaned information for his columns. Prominent issues include urban unrest, opposition to the war in Vietnam, racial disturbances, busing of school children, the plight of minorities, and drug use among Americans. Recurrent topics as well are the political conventions and elections of 1968 and 1972, defense preparedness and the balance of power between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, missile development, the Middle East, and the energy crisis of 1973. Letters from 1957-1958 generally relate to Alsop's residence in Paris.

The Business Correspondence series traces Alsop's relationships with his publishers from 1945 to 1974. It covers the years of his newspaper syndication with the , including his partnership with his brother Stewart, his move to the in 1964, and his association with the until his retirement. It also includes partnership correspondence with the International Press Alliance which handled syndication of his column abroad. Correspondence between Stewart and Joseph Alsop when the latter was living in Paris provides insight into their working relationship before the dissolution of their partnership in 1958. The Business Correspondence chronicles contract negotiations with newspapers and other publishers.

The Subject File in Part III is primarily a collection of notes, correspondence, and printed matter assembled by the Alsops as source material for their columns and other writings. Although most of the material was generated by Joseph Alsop, files on atomic energy, Joseph McCarthy, and J. Robert Oppenheimer were created during his partnership with his brother. A file on Harvard University reveals his attachment to his alma mater and his support of the Far Eastern Visiting Committee and the Harvard-Kenching Institute. It also documents his opposition to McCarthy in the case involving Harvard professor William Furry. Material related to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology supported the right of universities to make decisions concerning faculty retention without outside interference. A file on education pertains to the question of hereditary versus environmental influences on intellectual achievement as illustrated in a debate over an article by Arthur R. Jensen. Other files focus on archaeology, defense, strategic weapons, the Watergate Affair, political candidates, and members of Congress.

The Speeches and Writings series in Part III includes transcripts of commentary on American affairs by Stewart Alsop for the British Broadcasting Corporation and broadcasts by both Alsops substituting for Raymond Swing and Elmer Davis on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). The transcripts are supplemented by correspondence with ABC, Thomas L. Stix and J. G. Gude, media agents, and listeners. The writings include the article "We Accuse!" for , a pamphlet of the same title, drafts of , and an article on Russia. Other writings by Stewart Alsop include columns for the and and a short story. The remainder of the writings are by Joseph Alsop. China, Vietnam, education, and archaeology are frequent topics. Alsop's interest in changes in artistic taste is indicated in his long article on French furniture and the manuscript of his book, , a history of the phenomenon of taste.

The Financial File, among the most voluminous in the collection, covers the years 1941-1974. Relating generally to Joseph Alsop's association with the , it also includes material concerning the and the as well as miscellaneous files belonging to the brothers' partnership. Joseph Alsop's personal financial files consist of bank records, correspondence with tradespeople, income statements, insurance files, and records of securities and investments.

The Miscellany contains letters of condolence following the death of Stewart Alsop in 1974. Also included are a memorial column by Joseph Alsop and records of his many trips abroad. Scrapbooks filmed by the Library of Congress and returned to the donor consist of columns and magazine articles by the Alsops, 1936-1975.

Correspondents in Part III include John Alsop, Joseph W. Alsop (d. 1953), Susan Mary Alsop, Rex Barley, Sylvan Barnet, Isaiah Berlin, Ellsworth Bunker, Corinne R. Cole, George Cornish, Charles Falconer, Ed Grade, Katherine Graham, Philip Graham, Arthur R. Jensen, Robert Kintner, Margaret E. Lucas, Ruch C. Mommessin, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Helen Rogers Reid, Whitelaw Reid, David Satter, Barbara Tuchman, William Weeks, and Charles Whitehouse.

Part IV

Part IV of the Alsop Papers covers the period 1778-1989, with the bulk of the material dated from Stewart Alsop's death in 1974 to his brother Joseph's death in 1989. Although it contains occasional letters to and from Stewart Alsop in the Family Papers, the remainder of the series is composed entirely of Joseph Alsop's papers. Part IV continues many of the same themes noted in the three previous sections, with many of the same correspondents, but it also documents the development of Joseph Alsop's career as a self-taught art historian following retirement from writing his syndicated political column in 1974. This addition includes family and personal papers outlining his role as counselor and trustee to succeeding generations of the extended Alsop family, his concern for maintaining certain customs and traditions, and the primary object of his attention during this period, his research into the history of art. Correspondence, drafts, and research material accumulated during the ten years spent on the preparation of his book, , constitute the largest set of files in this part of the collection.

The Family Papers of Part IV contain files related to Alsop's collegiate years, his early career as a reporter and columnist with the , and his experiences in World War II, which he referred to as "the single greatest adventure of my life." Beginning with his matriculation at Groton School, during his years at Harvard University, and continued throughout the war years, Alsop regularly exchanged letters with his parents.

Since Alsop filed many of his letters, regardless of content, in the General Correspondence series, this series in Part IV complements files listed in the Subject File and the Speech, Article, and Book File. Letters in the General Correspondence reflect the redirection of Alsop's energies during this period from writing a syndicated newspaper column of political opinion to art history. He continued to correspond with many of the same correspondents in the fields of diplomacy, journalism, and politics identified in previous parts of these papers but expanded his circle of friends and colleagues to include art historians and archaeologists. His correspondence also chronicles the social engagements attended by the national and international public figures who frequented his home. Other topics include clothing, food and wine, housekeeping arrangements, and travel plans.

The Subject File in Part IV documents many subjects also noted in preceding parts of the collection, including the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and Dumbarton Oaks; financial and legal records, real estate documents, health care records, and various order forms and correspondence detailing his transactions with tradespeople; social files containing notes and records of club and society memberships, dinner invitations, and travel arrangements; and papers relating to antique and fine art collecting, which not only attest to Alsop's personal collecting interests, but also bear witness to the disposition of several Alsop family-owned items. Evidence of Alsop's continuing affection for the extended family of John F. Kennedy can be found in the Subject File and in letters addressed to and from Kennedy family members in the General Correspondence.

The Subject File also contains notes and notebooks kept by Alsop during his trip to China in 1972 and material relating to his service with the "Flying Tigers," including a short narrative entitled "Two Days on the Burma Road." Notebooks maintained during Alsop's visits to Vietnam in 1971 and 1972 complement similar material identified in other parts of the collection. A 1979 letter to Joan Baez indicates Alsop's continuing interest in the debate on America's involvement in Vietnam.

Material related to Alsop's literary agents and publishers is in the Subject File. Manuscripts and other records of Alsop's speeches and writings are located in the Speech, Article, and Book File. His articles, both published and unpublished, concern art history, China, foreign policy, and Vietnam. The Speech, Article, and Book File also contains correspondence, drafts, and research material assembled by Alsop for his book on collecting art. Files gathered for an unpublished article on French furniture in 1967 includes correspondence exchanged with French researcher Jean Feray who provided information used for the book published fifteen years later. Alsop's drafts of the book bore different titles, including "The History of Taste," "The Altered Apollo," and "The Rare Art Traditions." Since he disassembled earlier drafts to include in later ones, identification of complete manuscripts, other than the final one, is uncertain. Material gathered for the book to produce a number of articles and lectures, including lectures given in 1975 as part of the Yaseen lecture series at the State University of New York at Purchase and in 1978 as part of the Mellon lecture series at the National Gallery of Art is also filed in the Speech, Article, and Book File.

Alsop drafted portions of his memoirs, , which were published posthumously in 1992, and dictated others. The Speech, Article, and Book File contains both typescript drafts and transcripts of tapes.