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.
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.
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1901 (June 26) |
Born, William Stuart Symington, Jr., Amherst, Massachusetts |
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1918-1919 |
Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army |
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1923 |
B.A., Yale University |
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1924 (March 1) |
Married Evelyn Wadsworth (who died in 1972) |
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1925-1927 |
President, Eastern Clay Products |
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1927-1930 |
Executive Assistant to the President, Symington Company |
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1930-1935 |
President, Colonial Radio Corporation |
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1935-1937 |
President, Rustless Iron and Steel Corporation |
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1938-1945 |
President, Emerson Electric Company |
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1945-1946 |
Chairman, Surplus Property Board |
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1946-1947 |
Assistant Secretary of War for Air |
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1947-1950 |
Secretary of the Air Force |
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1950-1951 |
Chairman, National Security Resources Board |
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1951-1952 |
Chairman, Reconstruction Finance Corporation |
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1953-1976 |
U.S. Senator from Missouri |
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1960 |
Unsuccessful Candidate for President |
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1978 (June 14) |
Married Ann Hemingway Watson |
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1988 (December 14) |
Died, New Canaan, Connecticut |
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.
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Container Nos. |
Series |
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1-14 |
CORRESPONDENCE FILE, 1946-1950 Correspondence, charts, military statistics, reports, speeches, and other items. Arranged alphabetically by folder title. |
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.