Harry S. Truman Papers Staff Member and Office Files: White House Press Release Files

This set of White House Press Releases was compiled in White House staff aid George Elsey's office, beginning in about 1949. The press releases and other materials in this file were intended to be edited for publication in a projected series of volumes of the public papers of the Truman presidency. Although the Government eventually published Truman's public papers, the Government's editors did not use this file of press releases.

Size: 4 linear feet, 5 linear inches.
Access: Open.
Copyright: President Truman donated his copyright interest in any of his writings in his papers to the people of the United States. In addition, documents prepared by United States Government employees in the course of their official duties are also in the public domain.
Processed by: Mary Sue Luff, Raymond Geselbracht, Erwin Mueller, Randy Sowell, and Anita Smith (1993); Cynthia Edwards and David Clark (2000); David Clark and Jan Davis (2014).

The press releases and other materials in the White House Press Release Files were compiled in George Elsey's office, beginning in 1949, and were intended to be edited for publication in a projected series of volumes of the public papers of the Truman presidency. On September 9, 1949 President Truman approved Elsey's recommendation that a series of volumes of his presidency's public papers be prepared. The series was to be patterned on Samuel I. Rosenman's edition of the public papers of Roosevelt's presidency. Elsey himself was to be the series editor. Elsey asked Jack Romagna, The White House Official Reporter, to send to his office transcripts of Truman's press conferences and copies of his speeches as actually delivered. The materials in this collection which are primarily press releases, are presumably those that Romagna sent to Elsey, and later, after his departure from the White House staff in December 1951, to Eben Ayers, to whom Elsey gave the presidential papers project. This compilation of press releases and a few other documents was never used for its intended purpose. Although the Government eventually published Truman's public papers in a series of volumes that appeared between 1961 and 1966, the editors compiled their own set of press releases and other documents for inclusion or listing in these volumes.

The White House issued press releases for most of the President's formal and informal remarks; of his Executive Orders and Proclamations; of his messages and reports to Congress; of selected items of administration correspondence, much of it concerning resignations and appointments; of selected reports produced within the administration; of other presidential documents; and, occasionally, of statements made by other members of the administration than the President.