Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum

The papers of Eben A. Ayers mostly relate to his career of government service in the White House, and particularly his work as Assistant Press Secretary to Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman from 1945 to 1950. They include correspondence, newspaper clippings, printed material, transcripts of press conferences, scrapbooks, and a diary that Ayers kept from 1941 to 1953, along with other items. The collection also contains some material documenting Ayers's career as a journalist and other aspects of his life.

See also Eben A. Ayers Files and Oral History.

Size: About 14 linear feet, 5 linear inches (approximately 26,400 pages).
Access: Open, with the exception of a few documents that are closed in accordance with provisions of the donor's deed of gift.
Copyright: Eben A. Ayers donated his literary property rights in any of his unpublished writings in this collection to the United States government. Documents created by U.S. government officials in the course of their official duties are in the public domain. Copyright interest in other writings in this collection is assumed to remain with the authors of the documents or their heirs.
Processed by: Harry Clark, Jr., C. Warren Ohrvall, and Erwin J. Mueller (1968-1976); Randy Sowell, Sharie Simon, and Janice Davis (2000); Lucia Flaim and David Clark (2008).

The Eben A. Ayers Papers relate for the most part to Ayers's career of government service in the White House during the administrations of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman. Particularly well documented is his service as Assistant Press Secretary to the President from 1945 to 1950 and as Special Assistant in the White House Office from 1950 to 1953. In addition, the collection contains information about Ayers's career as a journalist and other aspects of his life. The papers include correspondence, newspaper clippings, printed material, transcripts of press conferences, press releases, appointment schedules, scrapbooks, and a diary that Ayers kept from 1941 to 1953, along with other items.

The Ayers Papers are divided into eleven series and subseries. The first series, Appointment Lists of President and Mrs. Harry S. Truman, contains President Truman's daily appointment schedules from 1945 to 1953, with guest lists, memoranda concerning upcoming appointments and activities, and other items. This series provides especially detailed information about President Truman's daily activities up to December, 1950, when Ayers left his post as Assistant Press Secretary following the death of Press Secretary Charles G. Ross. The series contains less information about the President's activities after December, 1950, and relatively little information about Mrs. Truman's appointments and activities. The appointment schedules in this series are mostly copies of documents that are also in the President's Secretary's Files, Harry S. Truman Papers.

The next series, Korean War Chronology, contains monthly State Department reports summarizing the major military, diplomatic, and political events that occurred on each day of the Korean conflict from March, 1951 through May, 1952 (except that the reports for January and March of 1952 are missing from the series.) Another set of the same State Department reports, complete for the period from June, 1950 to May, 1952, is located in the Korean War File, Harry S. Truman Papers.

The Subject File, the largest series in the collection, contains summaries and chronologies of major events and issues of the Truman Presidency. These were apparently prepared by Ayers, who was assigned to organize an historical record of the Truman administration while he was serving as Special Assistant in the White House Office from 1950 to 1953. Accompanying the summaries and chronologies for each topic are press releases, mostly consisting of presidential speeches, messages, statements, and executive orders pertinent to that topic, along with related newspaper clippings, printed material, and other items. Among the Truman-era topics documented here are the atomic bomb decision and various aspects of U.S. foreign policy. Many of the historical summaries and press releases in this series are duplicated in the President's Secretary's Files, Harry S. Truman Papers. The series also includes some information about Truman's activities before and after his Presidency, and about press coverage of other Presidents. Also included is some documentation of Ayers's work in the White House, such as his correspondence with Jonathan Daniels, Truman's ex-Press Secretary and biographer, and a manual used by the White House staff in preparing responses to routine correspondence.

The next two series, Press and Radio Conferences-Eben A. Ayers [Transcripts] and Press and Radio Conferences-Charles G. Ross and Eben A. Ayers [Transcripts], contain transcripts of White House press conferences held by the Press Secretary or Assistant Press Secretary. At these conferences, which were usually held on weekday mornings, Ross or Ayers provided reporters with information about the President's daily schedule and other news items, and answered their questions. The transcripts indicate that the conferences were conducted very informally, with a certain amount of laughter and joking around. The first of these series contains transcripts of press conferences presided over by Ayers from February, 1945 to December, 1950; at these conferences, Ayers was substituting for the Press Secretary when he was ill or absent for some other reason. The second series contains transcripts of Ross's press conferences as well as those conducted by Ayers, from May, 1945 to December, 1950. On special occasions, other officials were brought in to speak to the reporters. For example, Dr. Wallace H. Graham, the White House physician, was questioned about the health of the President's mother on May 21, 1947, and Secret Service Chief U. E. Baughman answered questions about the attempted assassination of the President on November 1, 1950. Some transcripts appear in both series, and the transcripts of Ross's press conferences are duplicated in an equivalent series in the Charles G. Ross Papers.

The next series, Diary, contains a typewritten diary that Ayers kept from December, 1941 to October, 1953. The diary begins the same month that Ayers became White House liaison for the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, and continues through his subsequent service as Assistant Press Secretary and Special Assistant in the White House Office. Ayers made diary entries on almost a daily basis, detailing the news of the day, events at the White House, and his contacts with the President. The diary reflects both Ayers's shrewdness as an observer and his sometimes prickly relations with White House correspondents and officials. Ayers occasionally inserted newspaper clippings and other items into the diary for explanatory purposes. One folder at the end of the series contains an index to Ayers's meetings with President Truman in 1951 and 1952, and copies of the diary entries describing those meetings, many of which dealt with the disposition of the President's papers and his plans for the Truman Library.

The Presidential File contains printed material, memoranda, and other items pertaining to President Truman, his administration, the history of the White House, and the Presidency as an institution. Ayers collected most of this material while serving in the White House, apparently as part of his assignment to compile historical information about the Truman administration.

The Personal File consists of two subseries. The Alphabetical Subseries contains Ayers's correspondence with friends and associates, almost all of it dating from his years in the Truman White House (1945-1953). The correspondence is both personal and official in nature, and includes communications between Ayers and such persons as Nelson Rockefeller (his one-time superior as Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs); Mary Ethel Noland (the President's cousin, regarding her collection of Truman genealogical information); and Mrs. Charles Ross (regarding the death of her husband.) The Subject Subseries contains correspondence, newspaper clippings, printed material, and other items documenting various activities of Ayers during the course of his career. This subseries includes a considerable amount of information about Ayers's work as a correspondent and bureau chief with the Associated Press during the 1920s and 1930s; his role in covering the Sacco and Vanzetti case and other major stories during that period; and the circumstances surrounding his forced retirement as Boston bureau chief in 1936. Also included in this series is documentation of Ayers's work as Special Assistant in the White House Office during the last years of the Truman Presidency, when his duties included investigating and refuting published charges of impropriety in the President's past. In response to such allegations in the press, Ayers undertook a trip to Kansas City in 1951 to look into the settling of Truman's debts from his haberdashery partnership with Eddie Jacobson, and contacted Truman's former partner in the oil business, David H. Morgan.

The General File contains documentation of various aspects of Ayers's life, and includes printed material about Truman and the Truman Library; information concerning Ayers's papers and a copy of the oral history interview he conducted with the Truman Library; some correspondence with Truman and other notable persons; and miscellaneous items such as an invitation to the executions of Sacco and Vanzetti. The Scrapbooks File contains seven bound scrapbooks filled with newspaper clippings, correspondence, memorabilia, programs, invitations, photographs, and other items documenting events in Ayers's life and career from 1908 to 1953. Included in the first scrapbook are newspaper articles written by Ayers and military orders pertaining to his service in World War I. Subsequent scrapbooks deal for the most part with Ayers's government service during the Roosevelt and Truman administrations.

More information about Eben A. Ayers and White House press relations during the Truman administration can be found in the Truman Library's oral history interview with Ayers (Oral History Interview No. 180); in the Eben A. Ayers Files, which are part of the Staff Member and Office Files of the Harry S. Truman Papers; and in the Charles G. Ross Papers. A large portion of the diary in the Ayers Papers has been published in a book edited by Robert H. Ferrell, Truman in the White House: The Diary of Eben A. Ayers (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1991).

APPOINTMENT LISTS OF PRESIDENT AND MRS. HARRY S. TRUMAN, 1945-1953

• September-October, 1945
• November-December, 1945
• January-April, 1946
• May-August, 1946
• September-December, 1946
• January-April, 1947
• May-August, 1947

• September-October, 1947
• November-December, 1947
• January-April, 1948
• May-August, 1948
• September-December, 1948
• January-March, 1949
• April-May, 1949
• June-July, 1949
• August-September, 1949

• October-December, 1949
• January-April, 1950
• May-June, 1950
• July-September, 1950
• October-December, 1950
• January-April, 1951
• May-December, 1951
• January-June, 1952
• July-December, 1952
• January, 1953

KOREAN WAR CHRONOLOGY, 1951-1952

• March, 1951
• April, 1951
• May, 1951
• June, 1951
• July, 1951
• August, 1951
• September, 1951
• October, 1951
• November, 1951
• December, 1951
• February, 1952
• April, 1952
• May, 1952

SUBJECT FILE, 1898-1971 (Bulk Date Span, 1945-1953)

• Address-September 6, 1945 Message [of Harry S. Truman to Congress]
• Addresses-Miscellaneous
• Army, U.S.-Press Releases, Atomic Bomb and Atomic Energy, 1945-46
  [1 of 3]
  [2 of 3]
  [3 of 3]
• Army, U.S.-Press Releases, Background Information on the Atomic Bomb
• Atomic Bomb
  [1 of 4]
  [2 of 4]
  [3 of 4]
  [4 of 4]

• Atomic Energy Commission
• Attlee, Clement
• Barkley, Alben W. ("That Reminds Me" Series)
• Bidault Conferences-1945
• Blair House Shooting-November 1, 1950
• Censorship
• Censorship Planning, A Basis for
• China
• Churchill and Stalin-Messages to
• Civil Aeronautics Board
• Civil Defense
• Civil Rights--Fair Employment Practice (FEPC)
• Combined Boards
• Congress
• Corruption, Ethics, Etc.
• Daniels, Jonathan--Memos and Press Conference Transcripts
• De Gaulle, General Charles
• Demobilization-1945-1946
• Disarmament

• Economic Stabilization-1945-1952
  [1 of 2]
  [2 of 2]
• Eisenhower, Dwight D.
  [1 of 2]
  [2 of 2]
• Flood Control
• Foreign Policy
  [1 of 2]
  [2 of 2]

• Foreign Policy-April 1945-March 1947
• Foreign Policy-Bipartisan Policy
• Foreign Policy-European Recovery Program (Marshall Plan)
• Foreign Policy-Greek-Turkish Aid Program (Truman Doctrine)
• Foreign Policy-Mutual Aid and Defense Program (NATO and Mutual Security)
  [1 of 2]
  [2 of 2]
• Foreign Policy-Russian Relations
• Foreign Policy-Technical Assistance Program (Point IV)
• German Surrender-May 8, 1945 (Italian Surrender, 1943)
• Germany
• Greece
• Health and Medical Care Program
• Hoover, Herbert
• Hopkins-Davies-Moscow [and London] Mission, 1945
• Immigration

• Inauguration-January 20, 1949
• Intelligence Service
• Iraq
• Japanese Surrender-August 14, 1945
• Johnson, Louis-Secretary of Defense, Dismissal, Etc.
• Korea-MacArthur, Wake Island
• Korean War
  [1 of 3]
  [2 of 3]
  [3 of 3]
• Labor
• Lend-Lease
• [Loyalty-Security and Communists in Government, 1946-54]
  [1 of 3]
  [2 of 3]

[3 of 3]
• MacArthur, General Douglas
• Marine Corps, U.S.
• Memoranda-White House (President's Staff)
• Memos to the President-General
• Milligan, Maurice
• Molotov Conferences-1945
• Natural Gas Bill (Veto, Etc.)
• New Era in World Affairs, A-Selected Speeches and Statements Of President Truman, January 20 to August 29, 1949
• Nixon, Richard M. (news clippings)
• Office Matters, Regulations, Etc.
• Official Memoranda, April, 1945 [information concerning Truman's first days in office]
  [1 of 2]
  [2 of 2]
• Official Memoranda, May-August, 1945 [appointment lists, press Releases, etc.]
• Official Programs [1949 Inauguration and Dedication of the Statue of Simon Bolivar, Bolivar, Missouri, July 5, 1948]

• Palestine
• Pearl Harbor Investigations
  [1 of 3]
  [2 of 3]
  [3 of 3]
• Philippines
• Poland, Government of-1945
• Politics
  [1 of 2]
  [2 of 2]
• Potsdam Conference, July 1945

• Presidential Succession
• Press
  [1 of 3]
  [2 of 3]
  [3 of 3]
• Railroad Strike Speeches
• Reconstruction Finance Corp.
• Reference Aids
• Refugees, War
• Reorganization, Government
• Reparations-[Edwin Pauley], 1945
• Roosevelt, Mrs. Eleanor [Mrs. F.D.R.]
• Rosenman, S. I. (European mission), 1945
• St. Lawrence Seaway

• Security Information
• Selective Service
• Smith, Harold D. (former Budget Director)
• Social Security
• Soviet-United States Messages (1948)
• Spain
• Staff Room Guides [White House correspondence manual]
• Stevenson, Adlai E.-Miscellaneous
• Supreme Court
• Surplus Property
• Syrian-French [conflict], 1945
• Taft-Hartley Act-1947 (Labor-Management Relations Act)
• Taxes
• Taylor, Myron C.
• Tidelands Oil Veto-May 29, 1952
• Trade-Foreign, Reciprocal, Etc.
• Truman, Bess Wallace (Mrs.)
• Truman, Harry S.-Biographical Sketch in Spanish
• Truman Library and Papers
  [1 of 2]
  [2 of 2]

• Truman, Miss Margaret
• Trusteeships-International Trusteeships
• Unification-Army and Navy
• United Nations
• Universal Training
• Vice Presidency-1944
• Vinson, Fred M.
• War Crimes Trials-1945
• War Information, Office of
• Washington, D.C.-Recorder of Deeds
• "Witch-Hunting and Hysteria in the United States, A Study of"
• Wyatt, Wilson
• Yalta Conference-January-February, 1945

PRESS AND RADIO CONFERENCES-EBEN A. AYERS [TRANSCRIPTS], 1945-1950

• February 26, 1945-October 23, 1946
  [1 of 2]
  [2 of 2]
• October 29, 1946-December 19, 1947
  [1 of 2]
  [2 of 2]
• January 7, 1948-December 7, 1950
  [1 of 2]
  [2 of 2]

PRESS AND RADIO CONFERENCES--CHARLES G. ROSS AND EBEN A. AYERS [TRANSCRIPTS], 1945-1950

• May, 1945
• June, 1945
• July, 1945
• August, 1945
• September, 1945
• October, 1945
• November, 1945
• December, 1945
• January, 1946
• February, 1946
• March, 1946
• April, 1946
• May, 1946
• June, 1946
• July, 1946
• August, 1946
• September, 1946
• October, 1946
• November, 1946
• December, 1946

• January, 1947
• February, 1947
• March, 1947
• April, 1947
• May, 1947
• June, 1947
• July, 1947
• August, 1947
• September, 1947
• October, 1947
• November, 1947
• December, 1947
• January, 1948
• February, 1948
• March, 1948
• April, 1948
• May, 1948
• June, 1948
• July, 1948

• August, 1948
• September, 1948
• October, 1948
• November, 1948
• December, 1948
• January, 1949
• February, 1949
• March, 1949
• April, 1949
• May, 1949
• June, 1949
• July, 1949
• August, 1949
• September, 1949
• October, 1949
• November, 1949
• December, 1949
• January, 1950
• February, 1950
• March, 1950
• April, 1950
• May, 1950
• June, 1950
• July, 1950
• August, 1950
• September, 1950
• October, 1950
• November, 1950
• December, 1950

DIARY, 1941-1953

• December 8, 1941-April 30, 1942
• May 1, 1942-September 30, 1942
• October 1, 1942-December 31, 1942
• January 1, 1943-April 30, 1943
• May 1, 1943-July 31, 1943
• August 1, 1943-December 31, 1943

• January 1, 1944-April 30, 1944
• May 1, 1944-August 31, 1944
• September 1, 1944-December 31, 1944
• January 1, 1945-June 30, 1945
• July 1, 1945-December 31, 1945
• January 1, 1946-August 31, 1946
• September 1946-December 31, 1946

• January 1, 1947-June 30, 1947
• July 1, 1947-December 31, 1947
• January 1, 1948-May 31, 1948
• June 1, 1948-December 31, 1948
• January 1, 1949-May 31, 1949
• June 1, 1949-December 31, 1949
• January 1, 1950-July 31, 1950

• August 1, 1950-December 31, 1950
• January 1, 1951-December 31, 1951
• January 1, 1952-November 30, 1952
• December 1, 1952-October 30, 1953
• Talks with President Truman, 1951-52

PRESIDENTIAL FILE, 1929-1970

• Allen, George E.
• Biography-Harry S. Truman
• Blair House
• Byrnes, James F.
• Cabinet, Presidential
• Gifts, Presidential
• Independence, Missouri Home
• Key West Trips [logbooks]
• Mr. President by William Hillman
  [1 of 3, newspaper clippings]
  [2 of 3, newspaper clippings]
  [3 of 3, printed copy]

• President-Personal Data on Harry S. Truman Reflecting Personality and Philosophy
  [1 of 2]
  [2 of 2]
• Presidential Letters-(Roosevelt, Truman)
• Presidential Papers-Listing of
• Presidential Staff
  [1 of 2]
  [2 of 2]
• Presidential Trips, 1945-47
  [1 of 2]
  [2 of 2]

• Presidential Trips. 1948-49
  [1 of 2]
  [2 of 2]
• Presidential Trips, 1950-52
• President's Cruise to the West Indies, February-March, 1948
• Reinsch, J. Leonard-Press Conference Transcripts
• Roosevelt, Franklin D.
• Rosenman, Samuel I.
• Ross, Charles G.
• Salary-Presidential
• Travel-Air and Train
• Truman-Press and Press Relations
• Vaughan, Harry H.
• White House-Automobiles
• White House-Balcony
• White House-Bath Tubs
• White House-Bibles
• White House-Chandeliers
• White House-Chinaware

• White House-Data
  [1 of 2]
  [2 of 2]
• White House-Elevator
• White House-Executive Office
• White House-General
• White House-Housekeeping
• White House-Indexes to Files
• White House-Lincoln Bed
• White House-Mail
• White House-Paintings
• White House-Presidential Yachts
• White House-Protocol
• White House-Renovation
• White House-Secret Service
• White House-Shangri La
• White House-Staff Replies to Public Letters of Inquiry
• White House-Swimming Pool
• White House-Trees

PERSONAL FILE: Alphabetical File, 1937-1960 (Bulk Date Span, 1945-1953) 1929-1970:

• A
• B
• C
• D
• E
• F
• G
• H
• I-J
• K
• L
• M
• N
• O
• P-Q
• R
• S
• T
• U-V
• W
• X-Y-Z

PERSONAL FILE: Subject File, 1904-1970:

• Associated Press Bureau
  [1 of 3]
  [2 of 3]
  [3 of 3]
• Associated Press Bureau-Publications
  [1 of 2]
  [2 of 2]
• Ayers, Eben A.-Trip to Kansas City, June 19-30, 1951 [Truman-Jacobson investigation]
  [1 of 2]
  [2 of 2]

• Ayers, Eben A., Correspondence with Harry S. Truman
  [1 of 2]
  [2 of 2]
• Daily Reminder, 1947
• General Correspondence [printed material, etc.]
  [1 of 2]
  [2 of 2]
• General Index to Notes by Eben A. Ayers
• Handwritten Notes [for oral history interview]
• Jamieson, Francis A.
• Land, Frank
• Newspaper Publicity
• Sacco-Vanzetti Case
  [1 of 2]

[2 of 2]
• Truman, Harry S.-Correspondence with David H. Morgan
• Truman, Harry S.-Notes and Letters
• United States Army Service-Eben A. Ayers

GENERAL FILE, 1908-1987

• Ayers Letterbook File
• Cross Reference Sheets
• [Deed of Gift]
• Miscellaneous Material
• Notes--Presidential and Historical Data
• [Oral History] Interview-Eben A. Ayers
  [1 of 2, Volume I]

[2 of 2, Volume II]
• Papers of Eben A. Ayers-Correspondence Regarding [oral history interview, etc.]
• Plymouth Colony-History of
• Queen Alexandra's Christmas Gift Book--Photographs From My Camera

SCRAPBOOKS FILE, 1908-1953

• Scrapbook: 1908-1939
  [1 of 4]
  [2 of 4]
  [3 of 4]
  [4 of 4]

• Scrapbook: 1941-1945
  [1 of 3]
  [2 of 3]
  [3 of 3]
• Scrapbook: 1946
  [1 of 2]
  [2 of 2]
• Scrapbook: 1947
  [1 of 3]

[2 of 3]
[3 of 3]
• Scrapbook: 1948
  [1 of 5]
  [2 of 5]
  [3 of 5]
  [4 of 5]
  [5 of 5]

• Scrapbook: 1949
  [1 of 3]
  [2 of 3]
  [3 of 3]
• Scrapbook: 1950-1953
  [1 of 2]
  [2 of 2]

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