Converted to EAD3 : Encoded Archival Description (EAD), Version 3 : Release: 1.1.1 : Release Date: 2019-12-16. Validating against latest version of schema.
Contact information: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm78051284
Collection material in English
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
Part I of the papers of George Vernon Denny, educator, radio personality, and organization executive, were given to the Library of Congress in 1966 by his wife, Jeanne Sarasy Denny. Part II of the papers was given to the Library by her in 1975 and 1976.
Part I of the papers of George Vernon Denny were arranged and described in 1968 by Carolyn H. Sung. Additional material received between 1975 and 1976 was processed as Part II in 1996 by Harry G. Heiss. The finding aid was revised in 2009. The finding aid was updated in 2023 by Maria Farmer as part of a division-wide remediation project by the Inclusive Description Working Group.
Items have been transferred from the Manuscript Division to other custodial divisions of the Library. Audio recordings have been transferred to the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division. Some photographs and scrapbooks have been transferred to the Prints and Photographs Division. All transfers are identified in these divisions as part of the George Vernon Denny Papers.
Copyright in the unpublished writings of George Vernon Denny in these papers and in other collections of papers in the custody of the Library of Congress has been dedicated to the public.
The papers of George Vernon Denny are open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Manuscript Reading Room prior to visiting. Many collections are stored off-site and advance notice is needed to retrieve these items for research use.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, George Vernon Denny Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Part I of the papers of George V. Denny (1899-1959) spans the years 1934-1959, with the bulk of the material dated 1958-1959. It consists chiefly of correspondence, memoranda, speeches, writings, and printed matter and is arranged in four series: General Correspondence ; Subject File ; Speech, Article and Book File ; and Miscellany .
The aspect of Denny's career covered most fully in the papers is his tenure, 1958-1959, as president of International Seminars and Town Meetings, formerly International Seminars, a nongovernmental corporation organized "to promote mutual understanding and unity, people to people." As an educational and public relations organization, International Seminars specialized in Inter-American relations with the aim of improving the climate of public opinion toward United States citizens and enterprises in South America and vice versa. Both the General Correspondence and the Subject File of Part I record the organization, administration, and fund-raising of this corporation as well as Denny's direction of its chief project, the Inter-American Seminar, which was held November through December 1958 in eight major South American cities. Preparation and management of the seminar represent the largest single segment of the Denny Papers. The file includes correspondence, invitations, memoranda, reports, and informational files on both the American participants who represented twenty-one national organizations and the activities of the seminar in each host city. Four recordings by Denny recounting his experiences in South America received with the collection were transferred to the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division.
Another sizable portion of the papers concerns the People-to-People Foundation, 1957-1958, which Denny served as vice president. At a White House conference in 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower espoused the idea of the People-to-People Program as a means of creating understanding and winning friends for the United States. The objective of the program as stated by Eisenhower was "to leap governments--if necessary evade governments--to work out not one method but thousands of methods by which people can gradually learn a little more of each other." To implement this idea the People-to-People Foundation was organized in 1957 under the leadership of former Secretary of Defense Charles Erwin Wilson. The role of the foundation was chiefly that of coordinating the work of various committees, conducting research, proposing programs and projects of public education and public relations, and raising funds for various committees. The papers document these efforts through memoranda, correspondence, and printed matter. In addition to Denny's own letters, there is an exchange of letters between Charles Erwin Wilson, Sherman Adams, and other members of the Eisenhower administration regarding People-to-People.
Part I of Denny's papers contains relatively little material on
In 1931 Denny began his association with Town Hall, then known as the League for Political Education. Assuming leadership of Town Hall in 1937, Denny aimed to make Town Hall "a sort of people's university" with
Also depicted in Part I are Denny's work for the United States Office of War Information and his organization of the Niagara Frontier Convocation. In 1943 Denny visited England as a representative of the army to demonstrate discussion group methods to the British and Canadian armies and to set up "Army Talks." Included in the Office of War Information material is a diary kept during his trip to England plus correspondence, memoranda, proposed and actual discussion group plans, and reports which demonstrate the utility of discussion techniques for military use. Sponsored by a committee of one thousand business and industrial leaders, the Niagara Frontier Convocation was held in December 1951 with the theme "The Outlook for Mankind in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century." Denny outlined the program and selected the participants for this conference, revealing in his papers his own view of the questions facing humanity.
A popular lecturer at schools, universities, and various other forums in the 1940s, Denny's correspondence from 1940 to 1952 reflects this aspect of his career, while his correspondence during 1958-1959 reflects his association with International Seminars. His chief correspondents, primarily from the later period, include Norman P. Auburn, Norman Cousins, Milton Stover Eisenhower, Hubert H. Humphery, Karl E. Mundt, Edward Scofield, and Charles Erwin Wilson.
Part II of the Denny Papers spans the years 1930-1959, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1950-1955. The papers consist of awards, correspondence, financial records, magazine articles, newspaper clippings, office memoranda, photographs, press releases, printed matter, reports, research notes, social invitations, speeches, telegrams, travel records, and writings. The papers are arranged in four series: Correspondence ; Speeches and Writings ; Subject File ; and Oversize .
The papers of Part II are not a simple chronological continuation of the papers of Part I. Instead, Part II contains information that is supplemental or additional to many of the files already in Part I, with the dates of the papers in Part II generally overlapping those found in Part I. Part II contains, for example, further material on Denny's association with International Seminars and Town Meetings and the People-to-People Foundation, as well as additional papers that document his management of Town Hall.
The Correspondence series contains testimonial letters from listeners, broadcast executives, and commercial sponsors of
The Speeches and Writings series of Part II contains typed, printed, or handwritten copies of Denny's speeches and writings as well as related correspondence and research notes. Denny was a professional speaker who was widely recognizable to the American public due to his prominent television and radio broadcasts of
The Subject File comprises the bulk of Part II and contains administrative records of several organizations managed by Denny, including Town Hall, International Seminars and Town Meetings, and the People-to-People Foundation. These files include correspondence, financial records, printed matter, publicity material, and reports. The series also contains considerable material documenting Denny's affiliation with
Denny's personal life is documented in the Subject File by biographical records and material on his residence and community involvement in West Cornwall, Connecticut. The Republican presidential candidacies of Wendell L. Willkie were the topic of several
The Oversize series contains advertisements, posters, and reprints of newspaper articles, all publicity material for
This collection is arranged in eight series in two parts:
Part I:
Part II:
Letters received and copies of letters sent.
Correspondence from 1940 to 1957 is arranged chronologically. Correspondence from 1958 to 1959 is arranged alphabetically.
Correspondence, memoranda, reports, notes, diary, printed matter, newspaper clippings, surveys, radio scripts, and photographs.
Arranged alphabetically by subject.
Notes, drafts, typescripts, and near print and printed copies of Denny's speeches, articles, and radio scripts along with an unpublished short story, an edition of the
Arranged chronologically with a partial inventory of writings filed at the beginning of the series.
Biographical material, financial records, newspaper clippings, and printed matter.
Arranged by type of material.
Incoming and outgoing correspondence, office memoranda, telegrams, and attachments.
Arranged chronologically.
Typed, printed, or handwritten copies of speeches and writings as well as correspondence and research notes.
Arranged alphabetically by title of speech or writing.
Awards, correspondence, financial records, magazine articles, newspaper clippings, photographs, press releases, printed matter, reports, research notes, social invitations, travel records, and other papers.
Arranged alphabetically by topic or type of material and chronologically therein.
Advertisements, posters, and reprints of newspaper articles.
Arranged according to the series, containers, and folders from which the items were removed.