Hennock, Frieda B. Papers

Member, Federal Communications Commission, 1948-1955

The papers of Frieda Hennock consist of correspondence, memoranda, reports, publications, statements, and other materials related to decisions that came before the Federal Communications Commission during her service as a Commissioner.

Size: 9 linear feet, 7 linear inches.
Access: Open.
Copyright: The donor’s copyright interest in this collection was given to the United States of America. Documents created by U.S. government officials in the course of their duties are also in the public domain. Copyright interest in other documents in the collection presumably belongs to the creators of those documents, or their heirs.
Processed by: Willie L. Harriford, Jr. and Erwin J. Mueller (1964); Tammy Williams (2025).

Frieda B. Hennock was born in Kovel in the Russian Empire (Ukraine) on December 27, 1904. She and her family came to the United States in 1910, and she became a United States citizen in 1916. She graduated from Morris High School in Bronx, New York. In 1924, Hennock earned her Bachelor of Laws degree from Brooklyn Law School. In 1926, she passed the bar exam and worked as an attorney in New York until 1946. On July 6, 1948, she became the first woman appointed and confirmed as a member of the Federal Communications Commission. She served in her position until 1955. After she left the Federal Communications Commission, she returned to the practice of law. On March 30, 1956, she married William Simons. She died on June 20, 1960.

The Frieda B. Hennock Papers consist of correspondence, memoranda, reports, publications, statements, and other materials related to decisions that came before the Federal Communications Commission during her term as a Commissioner.

The first series is the General Correspondence File. This series contains letters, memoranda, newspaper clippings, press releases, telegrams, and other materials regarding the possibility of setting up and reserving TV broadcast channels and stations for educational purposes. Many of the correspondents include universities, state and local education departments, parent-teacher organizations, radio stations, and newspapers. Correspondents also include organizations such as the American Legion, the American Association of University Women, the National Appliance and Radio-TV Dealers Association, and other civic and business groups. Two prominent people included among the correspondents in this series are Walter Annenberg and Senator William Benton.

The second series is the UHF (Ultra High Frequency) Decision File. This series contains correspondence, telegrams, photographs, newspaper clippings, press releases, reports, and other materials related to the allocation of UHF bandwidth to various broadcasting companies. With the expansion of television broadcasting capabilities after World War II, the VHF (Very High Frequency) bandwidth was crowded, and the Federal Communications Commission had to decide if broadcasters would be permitted to use UHF bandwidth and how that bandwidth would be allocated. This series mostly contains correspondence with radio and television stations regarding the decisions of the Federal Communications Commission, as well as support for, or opposition to, Frieda Hennock’s testimony before the United States Senate Subcommittee on Communications, chaired by Senator Charles E. Potter, in 1954.

The third series is the Public Opinion Mail File. This series contains correspondence and newspaper clippings regarding thoughts on educational television. The series mostly contains material from citizens, associations, or organizations (not businesses), and does not contain copies of replies from Frieda Hennock or her office. An editorial by John Crosby published in the New York Herald-Tribune in November of 1950 prompted much of this correspondence.

The fourth series is the Sworn Statements File. This series contains correspondence, sworn statements, charts, reports, memoranda, newspaper clippings, and other materials from universities, school districts, libraries, city councils, and broadcasting companies. These statements are in response to Federal Communications Commission Docket Numbers 8736, 8975, 9175, and 8976, which relate to the allocation of UHF (Ultra High Frequency) channels for educational or non-commercial purposes. Many of these statements were submitted by the Joint Committee on Educational Television on behalf of others.

The fifth series is the Comments and Briefs File. This series contains correspondence, briefs, memoranda, publications, newspaper clippings, and other materials. Many of these materials are from schools and school districts, universities, libraries, and other institutions that were not in a state of readiness to create or operate an educational television station, but had an interest in the process and wanted to have space on the airwaves to do so. They support the official sworn statements given by others in support of Federal Communications Commission Docket Numbers 8736, 8975, 9175, and 8976.

The sixth series is the Subject File. This series contains lists, memoranda, newspaper clippings, press releases, reports, orders, and other materials. The bulk of this series consists of reports by the Federal Communications Commission regarding various issues in which Commissioner Frieda Hennock filed a dissenting or separate opinion, including allocation of UHF (Ultra High Frequency) channels and the use of color television.