Washington State University Libraries Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections

Summary Information

Repository

Washington State University Libraries, Manuscripts, Archives and Special Collections

Creator

Murrow, Edward R.

Title

Preliminary Guide to the Edward R. Murrow Media

ID

MS 2019.26

Date [inclusive]

1940-1975

Extent

1 Linear feet of shelf space, 1 Box

Location

(MASC STAFF USE) 2-10-01-6

Language

Collection materials are in

Abstract

Audio and video recordings, some professionally created by Edward R. Murrow and his employers over the course of his career, and some personally created by Murrow in his home life.

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Biography/History

Edward [Egbert] Roscoe Murrow was born on April 25, 1908, near Greensboro, North Carolina. He was the youngest of three boys born to Roscoe and Ethel Murrow. The family moved to Blanchard, Washington when Murrow was five. Subsequently, Murrow attended Washington State College in Pullman, Washington, graduating in 1930. In 1934 he married Janet Brewster. Their son, Charles Casey, was born November 6, 1945, in West London.

Murrow was hired by CBS in 1935 and worked for them until 1961. During those years he worked as war correspondent in London, 1939 to 1945, vice president, director of public affairs, 1945 to 1947, and news analyst and host for the television programs Person to Person, See It Now, and Small World during the 1950s. He was on the CBS board of directors from 1949 to 1955. In 1961, Edward R. Murrow was appointed director of the United States Information Agency (USIA), serving until 1964. He died on April 27, 1965.

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Scope and Content

The collection consists of four 16mm films and five reel-to-reel audio tapes. Several are commercially created by Edward R. Murrow or his employers over the course of his career, but several are personal materials. All of the professional materials are believed to be copies. The item description is usually the title from the exterior of its housing, information about format and extent, and then a description which has been created in MASC from listening/watching the actual recording.

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Arrangement

Materials are simply arranged by size, in order to house and preserve them safely and efficiently.

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Administrative Information

Publication Information

Washington State University Libraries Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections  © 2020

http://www.libraries.wsu.edu/masc/

Terrell Library

P.O. Box 645610

Pullman, WA, 99164-5610 USA

509-335-6691

mascref@wsu.edu

Restrictions on Access

This collection is open and available for research use.

Restrictions on Use

Copyright restrictions apply. Rights to the professionally produced materials have not been investigated, but are presumably copyright the company which created them, and WSU Libraries cannot grant usage rights. Unpublished materials created by Murrow and his family are copyright the family, and the MASC can grant permissions for use of those.

Accruals

In October 2020, Casey Murrow indicated that he had additional materials that he would be sending. Once those are received, the collection will be finalized.

Acquisition Information

Charles Casey Murrow, E.R. Murrow’s son, loaned the initial materials to the Murrow College of Communications at Washington State University in fall of 2018, at which point the MASC created digital copies of the materials. On August 28, 2019, Casey Murrow donated them to the Washington State University Libraries. (MS.2019.26).

Processing Information

This initial portion of this collection was processed by University Archivist Mark O’English in September 2020.

Alternative Form Available

All the materials have been digitized, and the digital copies are retained in MASC’s archival storage directories.

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Related Materials

Related Material

Edward R. Murrow Papers, 1927-1973 - Microfilm copies of papers held at Tufts University (PN4874.M89 E32x)

Edward R. Murrow Papers 1928-1932 (Cage 673)

Edward R. Murrow Papers 1935-1962 (Cage 4590)

This Is Edward R. Murrow, 1965/1976 (16mm 2917; VHS 11872)

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Names and Subjects

Family Name(s)

• Murrow Family

Genre(s)

• Oral histories

Personal Name(s)

Subject(s) :

• Murrow, Edward R. -- Archives.

Creator(s) :

• Murrow, Charles Casey

Subject(s)

• Journalism
• Sound Recordings
• Moving Images

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Detailed Description of Collection

			box	item
London Sounds – Battle of Britain. 5” reel-to-reel audio tape, 12 minutes. E.R. Murrow in London, reporting on the sounds heard on the city streets during the Blitz. Professional, obviously intended for radio broadcast. There is some slowing/speeding distortion of audio about 7 minutes in. 1940 October 6			1	1
Color print of “Casey” for E.R. Murrow. 7” silent color 16mm film reel, 11 minutes. A water rafting trip. In 2020, Casey Murrow describes his recall of the participants as him, his father, one of his father’s friends from WSC, another boy Casey’s age, and he can recall nothing further. He describes the trip as down the Rogue River, noting that: “the boats were double-ended plywood rowboats which were heavily braced. With gear and passengers, they were heavy and hard to row. The rowers were guides who ran the river as a business. They also cooked and kept the whole show together. Maybe it was 6 or 7 nights.” 1958 July			1	2
Mrs. Murrow - Reel #1. 7” reel-to-reel audio tape, 14:30 minutes. Murrow family at Christmas: Dart and Lois Brewster saying Merry X-Mas; E.R. Murrow trying to get Casey to record a message back to the aunt and uncle. Sings Silent Night. Mrs. Robert Lester describing Janet’s presents. Casey talks about a bicycle accident, and then talks about his day(s), as Ed records it and plays it back. Good condition audio, although the volume varies up and down during various Casey ‘day’s. It sounds like they recorded over something else, and so the start is a ‘blurp’ of music, and then dead air and it doesn’t really begin until about the 40 second mark. circa 1950			1	3
Mrs. Murrow - Reel #2. 7” reel-to-reel audio tape, 31:45 minutes. Starts out with Casey singing, then E.R. eventually comes in and asks Casey questions. The first two items on the contents list on the back of the box seem to be incorrect, but the rest, starting with “storm,” is. Starting with “Sunday morning,” it is Janet Murrow interviewing Casey as a surprise for Ed. Good quality audio, but dead space in early portions, notably about 25 seconds between Casey’s first song and then the body of the recording. There is a very loud and dramatic background noise at about 30:00 which stays in the background thereafter. The final minute is just E.R. Murrow doing audio level tests. circa 1950			1	4
Grandpa - telling stories. 7” reel-to-reel audio tape, 32:15 minutes. Edward and Janet Murrow interviewing “grandpa,” Janet Murrow’s father, Charles Huntington Brewster, who had been a car dealer and before that a test-driver for Knox Automobile in Springfield, Massachusetts. Single track sound. The audio has Murrow testing his sound levels, and the real body of this starts about 65 seconds in. The audio is a bit “mushy” on this one, and the sound level varies wildly. In 2020, Casey Murrow notes that he had been supposed to do the interview, but had not been able to so his parents stepped in. Undated			1	5
Options 7515 II. 10” reel-to-reel audio tape, 59:30 minutes. Professional broadcast; an NPR broadcast retrospective of Murrow’s career, including a good chunk of Murrow’s Buchenwald broadcast, and his editorial on McCarthy. 1975 April 21			1	6
Person to Person. 12” color 16 mm. film, with sound, 29:45 minutes. Apparently the full telecast of that day’s Person to Person, which primarily features Marilyn Monroe. 1955 April 8			1	7
An Hour With Ed Murrow. Two 12” color 16 mm. film reels, with sound, 59:00 minutes total. This appears to be the broadcast tribute film “An Hour with Ed Murrow, Twenty Years of Broadcast Journalism,” shown three days after his death. 1965 April 30			1	8-9