Symington, Stuart Papers

Dates: 1946-1950

Secretary of the Air Force, 1947-1950; United States Senator from Missouri, 1953-1976

The papers of Stuart Symington include correspondence, charts, military statistics, reports, speeches, and other items mostly relating to Symington’s service as Secretary of the Air Force.

See also Stuart Symington oral history.

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ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Size: 6 linear feet, 2 linear inches.
Access: Open.
Copyright: The donor gave to the U.S. government the copyrights in this material and in any other material received by the U.S. government and maintained in a depository administered by the National Archives and Records Administration. Documents created by U.S. government officials in the course of their official duties are in the public domain. Copyright interest in other documents presumably belongs to the creators of those documents, or their heirs.
Processed by: Erwin J. Mueller (1977); Sandra Colyer and David Clark (2015).
Updated by: Haley Petersen (2019) as part of the Truman Library Internship Program.
Supervising Archivists: Randy Sowell and David Clark.

 

[ Top of the page | Administrative Information | Biographical Sketch | Collection Description | Series Descriptions | Folder Title List ]

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

1901 (June 26)

 

Born, William Stuart Symington, Jr., Amherst, Massachusetts

1918-1919

 

Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army

1923

 

B.A., Yale University

1924 (March 1)

 

Married Evelyn Wadsworth (who died in 1972)

1925-1927

 

President, Eastern Clay Products

1927-1930

 

Executive Assistant to the President, Symington Company

1930-1935

 

President, Colonial Radio Corporation

1935-1937

 

President, Rustless Iron and Steel Corporation

1938-1945

 

President, Emerson Electric Company

1945-1946

 

Chairman, Surplus Property Board

1946-1947

 

Assistant Secretary of War for Air

1947-1950

 

Secretary of the Air Force

1950-1951

 

Chairman, National Security Resources Board

1951-1952

 

Chairman, Reconstruction Finance Corporation

1953-1976

 

U.S. Senator from Missouri

1960

 

Unsuccessful Candidate for President

1978 (June 14)

 

Married Ann Hemingway Watson

1988 (December 14)

 

Died, New Canaan, Connecticut

[ Top of the page | Administrative Information | Biographical Sketch | Collection Description | Series Descriptions | Folder Title List ]

COLLECTION DESCRIPTION

The papers of Stuart Symington include correspondence, charts, military statistics, reports, speeches, and other items mostly relating to Symington’s service as Secretary of the Air Force. The collection is arranged in a single Correspondence File.

The collection contains correspondence with many prominent people, including Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Louis Johnson, James Forrestal, Kenneth Royall, Eugene Zuckert, Hoyt Vandenberg, Carl Spaatz, and Robert Patterson.

The collection also contains documents relating to military budgets, armed forces strength, relations with Congress, relations with defense contractors, and the reorganization of the military establishment. As the first Secretary of the Air Force, and before that as the Assistant Secretary of War for Air, Symington was an important figure in the development of the U.S. Air Force, a role that is reflected in his papers.

The Truman Library also has an oral history interview with Stuart Symington, as well as the papers of Thomas Finletter, who succeeded Symington as Air Force Secretary in 1950.

[ Top of the page | Administrative Information | Biographical Sketch | Collection Description | Series Descriptions | Folder Title List ]

SERIES DESCRIPTIONS

Container Nos.

 

Series

1-14

  CORRESPONDENCE FILE, 1946-1950
Correspondence, charts, military statistics, reports, speeches, and other items. Arranged alphabetically by folder title.
[ Top of the page | Administrative Information | Biographical Sketch | Collection Description | Series Descriptions | Folder Title List ]

FOLDER TITLE LIST

CORRESPONDENCE FILE, 1946-1950

Box 1

  • A - General
  • Air Engineering Development Center
  • Air Force Aid Society
  • Air Policy Commission
  • Air Power League (National Air Council)
  • Alaska
  • B - General [1 of 2]

Box 2

  • B - General [2 of 2]
  • B - Congressional
  • Barrows, Arthur S.
  • Budget Memoranda
  • C - General [1 of 4]
  • C - General [2 of 4]
  • C - General [3 of 4]

Box 3

  • C - General [4 of 4]
  • C - Congressional [1 of 2]
  • C - Congressional [2 of 2]
  • C - Congressional - General (Statements)
  • Cost Control

Box 4

  • D - General [1 of 3]
  • D - General [2 of 3]
  • D - General [3 of 3]
  • D - Congressional
  • Declassified Documents
  • Democratic National Committee

Box 5

  • E - General
  • E - Eberstadt, Ferdinand
  • Eisenhower, Dwight D.
  • Emanuel, Victor
  • F - General
  • Forrestal, James V.
  • G - General
  • General Correspondence
  • Gardner, Morrison and Rogers
  • H - General
  • Hold - Memo File

Box 6

  • I - General
  • Investigation [1 of 2]
  • Investigation [2 of 2]
  • J - General
  • J - Congressional
  • Johnson, Louis
  • Johnson, Lyndon B.
  • K - General

Box 7

  • K - Congressional
  • Knerr, Hugh
  • L - General
  • L - Congressional
  • Leach, W. Barton
  • Leo, Stephen F.
  • M - General [1 of 2]

Box 8

  • M - General [2 of 2]
  • M - Congressional
  • Mc - General
  • Mc - Congressional
  • Memoranda - Drafts
  • Memoranda - General [1 of 3]
  • Memoranda - General [2 of 3]

Box 9

  • Memoranda - General [3 of 3]
  • Memoranda of Meetings
  • N - General
  • National Air Council
  • National Guard
  • National Military Establishment (Reorganization)
  • Navy Department
  • Navy League
  • O - General

Box 10

  • P - General [1 of 2]
  • P - General [2 of 2]
  • P - Congressional
  • Patterson, Robert P.
  • Personnel
  • Public Relations
  • Q - General
  • R - General [1 of 3]
  • R - General [2 of 3]

Box 11

  • R - General [3 of 3]
  • R - Congressional
  • Renegotiations
  • Research & Development
  • Royall, Kenneth C.
  • S - general [1 of 3]
  • S - general [2 of 3]
  • S - general [3 of 3]
  • S - Congressional
  • Sims, T.A.

Box 12

  • Spaatz, Carl A.
  • Speeches by the Secretary of the Air Force
  • Statements by Stuart Symington
  • Stuart, Harold C.
  • Surplus - Stand-by
  • T - General
  • T - Congressional
  • Travel

Box 13

  • Truman, Harry S.
  • U - General
  • Unification of the Armed Forces
  • U - V - General
  • U - V - Congressional
  • V - General
  • Vandenberg, Hoyt S.
  • W - general [1 of 2]

Box 14

  • W - general [2 of 2]
  • W - Congressional
  • World trip, 1946
  • X Y Z - General
  • Zuckert, Eugene M.
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