Hellie, Richard Papers

This collection is made up primarily of newspaper and magazine articles from four scrapbooks compiled by Richard Hellie and relating to Harry S. Truman and his political activities.

Size: Less than one-half of one linear foot (approximately 400 pages).
Access: Open.
Copyright: No donation of copyright was received with this collection.
Processed by: Deborah Keating (2010).

Richard Hellie was born in May 1937, in Des Moines, Iowa, and died on April 24, 2009, in Chicago, Illinois. Hellie was a University of Chicago professor and a prominent scholar of medieval and early modern Russian history. He received an A.B. in 1958, an A.M. in 1960 and a Ph.D. in 1965, all from the University of Chicago. He taught at Rutgers University from 1965 to 1966 and then returned to the University of Chicago where he taught for the next forty years. He was the author of Slavery in Russia, 1450-1725 and Enserfment and Military Change in Muscovy. Hellie’s interest in history began in his youth, as evidenced by the four scrapbooks that he compiled about Harry S. Truman when he was approximately sixteen years old.

This collection is made up of the contents of four scrapbooks compiled by Richard Hellie when he was approximately sixteen years of age. The articles in the scrapbooks were collected from various newspapers and magazines and cover the last year of President Harry S. Truman’s administration and the first years of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s administration.

Although the collection is made up almost entirely of newspaper clippings, it also includes some magazine articles and several pieces of correspondence between Richard Hellie and former President Truman. The articles consist of editorials as well as wire-service reports and cover such events as the 1952 Presidential campaign, the Inauguration of President Eisenhower, relations between Truman and the Eisenhower administration, and the personal activities of Truman as a former President.