Series I: Correspondence, 1938-1973
This series contains correspondence, between Matthews and numerous political, intellectual, and artistic figures of the twentieth-century world, that documents Matthews' journalism and the relationships he forged with many of these individuals through his work. The bulk of the correspondence, which also includes interview transcripts and notes, is related to Matthews' reporting and editorials on Latin America, and particularly Cuba, for the New York Times in the 1950s and 1960s. This includes most notably Matthews' notes from his famous interview with Fidel Castro in the Sierra Maestra in 1957, an interview with Fulgencio Batista, and correspondence with Ernest Hemingway. Other correspondence related to Matthews' coverage of Latin America includes communications with various Latin American presidents, such as Romulo Betancourt of Venezuela, Francois Duvalier of Haiti, and Juscelino Kubitschek of Brazil.
The majority of correspondence in this series is arranged alphabetically by author, but several folders are arranged chronologically by year. These folders contain numerous letters to Matthews regarding Cuba, and his reporting and writings on Cuba and Latin America. Included here are letters from Ruby Hart Phillips, a Times correspondent in Cuba. The last folder in this series contains photocopies of correspondence with notable individuals, including Eleanor Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Anthony Eden, and Nelson Rockefeller.
Box 1 Folder 1
Acheson, Dean, 1953-1959
Box 1 Folder 2
Baker, Carlos, 1966-1967
Box 1 Folder 3
Batista, Fulgencio, 1957
Box 1 Folder 4
Betancourt, Romulo, 1955-1957
Box 1 Folder 5
Bowers, Claude, 1951-1952
Box 1 Folder 6
Castro, Fidel, 1955-1962
Box 1 Folder 7
Churchill, Winston, 1948-1954
Box 1 Folder 8
Croce, Benedetto, 1943-1946
Box 1 Folder 9
Duvalier, Francois, 1957
Box 1 Folder 10
Eaton, Cyrus, 1969
Box 1 Folder 11
Frankel, Max, 1966
Box 1 Folder 12
Guevara, Ernesto, 1961
Box 1 Folder 13
Hemingway, Ernest, 1938-1964
Box 1 Folder 14
Keller, Fred, 1938-1954
Box 1 Folder 15
Kubitschek, Juscelino, 1965
Box 1 Folder 16
Lippman, Walter, 1959-1961
Box 1 Folder 17
MacLeish, Archibald, 1966
Box 1 Folder 18
Marín, Luis Muñoz, 1957-1964
Box 1 Folder 19
Miró Cardona, José, 1958
Box 1 Folder 20
Peter, Prince of Greece, 1947
Box 1 Folder 21
Quintanilla, Luis, 1938
Box 1 Folder 22
Reston, James, 1960
Box 1 Folder 23
Sulzberger, Arthur Hays, 1937-1939
Box 1 Folder 24
Thomas, Norman M., 1957-1964
Box 1 Folder 25 to 28
1951-1958, (4 Folders)
Box 2 Folder 1 to 2
1959-1973, (2 Folders)
Box 2 Folder 3
Photocopies, 1943-1958
Series II: Cuba, 1948-1978
This large series consists of material related to the Cuban Revolution and its aftermath, both in Cuba and the United States. These documents chart Matthews' life after his reports on the Revolution, particularly his celebrated 1957 New York Times article announcing the survival and progress of Fidel Castro and his guerrillas whom the dictatorship claimed had been defeated. This part of the Matthews Papers represents a considerable collection of material from Cuban revolutionaries and the revolutionary government, including statements and publications. The American reaction to the Cuban Revolution is present here in responses to Matthews' writing for the New York Times. This series also contains manuscripts and notes for Matthews' several books on the Cuban revolution.
The correspondence in the series, much of which is related to the Cuban Revolution and Matthews' journalism on this subject, includes letters from Matthews and his wife, Nancie Matthews, regarding developments in Cuba in 1959; letters between Matthews and historian Theodore Draper, some of which were reprinted in Draper's book, Castro's Revolution: Myths and Realities (1962); letters from Ernest and Martha Hemingway; communications from the New York Times; and congratulatory and critical letters from Matthews' readers. Also here are personal items, including travel documents, and a number of photographs of Fidel Castro and Matthews in Cuba in the 1950s and 1960s, some of which were published.
The largest part of the Cuba series holds assorted research materials collected and used by Matthews for his reporting and his manuscripts. These include an atlas published by the Cuban revolutionary government, books, clippings from a variety of periodicals in the United States, Cuba, and Latin America, including clippings regarding Matthews himself. Publications and statements issued between 1955 and 1968 by the United States and Cuban governments and their agencies, the July 26 Movement and other rebel groups, and other individuals and groups. This part of the series provides a wealth of historical documents regarding Cuba, relations between Cuba and the United States, and the response in American society to the Cuban Revolution and Matthews' reporting in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Matthews' various writings on Cuba and the revolution make up the final portion of this series, and include articles written for periodicals, addresses, and manuscripts, notes, and reviews for Matthews' books: The Cuban Story (1961), Fidel Castro (1969), and Revolution in Cuba (1975). Also contained here are materials, written about Matthews by the United States and Cuban press, which indicate the diversity and severity of reactions to Matthews' coverage of the Cuban Revolution. Included are notes from conversations with the Federal Bureau of Investigation regarding an alleged plot to assassinate Matthews.
Correspondence, 1953-1978
Box 2 Folder 4
Draper, Theodore, 1962-1964
Box 2 Folder 5
General, 1956-1968
Box 2 Folder 6
Hemingway, Ernest and Martha, 1960-1969
Box 2 Folder 7
Knudson, J.W., 1976-1978
Box 2 Folder 8
Matthews, Nancie and Herbert, 1959
Box 2 Folder 9
New York Times, 1953-1961
Personal, 1950s-1960s
Box 2 Folder F.10
Documents and Press Passes, 1950s-1960s
Box 2 Folder F.11 to 12
Photographs, 1950s-1960s, (2 Folders)
Box 45
Photographs, 1950s-1960s
Research Material, 1952-1970
Box 3
Atlas, 1970
Books (See also Box 19 and Box 44)
Box 4
Cuba and Castro Teresa Casuso, 1961
Box 4
Cuba and the United States Russell H. Fitzgibbon, 1935
Box 4
Fidel Castro Luis Conte Agüero, 1959
Box 4
La Generation del Centenario en el Moncada, Marta Rojas, 1964
Box 4
La Revolution Cubana Gregorio Selser, 1960
Box 4
Moncada; Premier Combat de Fidel Castro Robert Merle, 1965
Box 4
Revolucion en la Revolucion? Régis Debray, 1967
Box 4
Révolution dans la Révolution? Régis Debray, 1967
Box 4
Utiles Despues de Muertos Carlos Manuel Pellecer, 1966
Clippings
Printed Material, 1955-1968
Statements
Box 9 Folder 2
Castro, Fidel, 1948-1963, undated, 1948-1963, undated
Box 13V Shared MS 1
Castro, Fidel-- Interview--rough Notes, 1957 February
Writings
Box 9 Folder 9
Addresses, 1959-1964
Box 9 Folder 10
Assassination Plot--Journal--1964
Box 9 Folder 11
Chubb Fellow, 1960
The Cuban Story
Fidel Castro
Box 11 Folder 6
Notes, 1952-1972 (1 of 4 Folders), 1952-1972
Box 12 Folder 1 to 3
Notes, 1952-1972 (3 of 4 Folders), 1952-1972
Box 12 Folder 4 to 5
Papers and Articles, 1954-1967, (2 Folders)
Revolution in Cuba
Box 12 Folder 6
Correspondence, 1971-1975
Revolution in Cuba
Series III: Matthews Family, 1918-2000s
This series contains Herbert L. Matthews' correspondence with his family and the personal papers of several relatives. Matthews' correspondence to his brother John L. Matthews constitutes the bulk of the correspondence and conveys Herbert Matthews' perspectives and opinions on many American and world events from the mid-1940s to his retirement after 1967 and into the 1970s. John L. Matthews' papers on World War I, his writings, and family photographs provide information about the life of Herbert Matthews' brother.
Also notable is Nancie Matthews' journal of life with her husband and their children in fascist Italy between 1940 and their expulsion in 1942. This is a rich source of information regarding the life of American journalists and their families in Europe in these first years of World War II. Other folders in this series contain material about Herbert's oldest brother, Hilliard H. Matthews, and his service in World War I, and the service and death of Robert Alan Matthews, Herbert's nephew, in World War II.
Box 15 Folder 5
Hilliard H. Matthews, 1918-1919
John L. Matthews--Correspondence
Box 15 Folder 6 to 9
1944-1975 (4 of 6 Folders), 1944-1975
Box 16 Folder 1 to 2
1944-1975 (2 of 6 Folders), 1944-1975
Box 16 Folder 3 to 4
1976, undated, 1976, undated, (2 Folders)
Box 16 Folder 5
1969-2002
Box 16 Folder 6
Photographs, 1940s-2000s
Box 16 Folder 7
World War I, 1967-2001
Box 16 Folder F.8
Writings, 1940s-1970s
Box 16 Folder 9
John L. Matthews, Jr.--Correspondence, 1962-1975
Nancie Matthews
Box 16 Folder 10
Journal, 1940-1942
Box 16 Folder 11
"Matthews Journey,", 1957
Box 16 Folder 12
R.A. Matthews, 1940s-2000s
Series IV: New York Times, 1935-1960s
This series documents more than three decades of correspondence and editorial writing by Matthews for the New York Times, his employer from 1922 to 1967. The series is arranged chronologically by assignment to a particular nation or region, beginning with the Italian invasion of Abyssinia in 1935 and 1936, then Spain and the Spanish Civil War, Italy, India, Europe and World War II, postwar Europe, Latin America, and ending with Matthews' editorials on Vietnam, China, and Latin America. Generally these folders include notes, ephemera, periodicals and other printed material used for research, and Matthews' original dispatches to the New York Times, not all of which were published.
Material on the Italian invasion of Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) includes a collection of official maps issued and used by the Italian military, Matthews' personal bag, and a press armband issued by the Italian government. Material on the Spanish Civil War contains numerous photographs and publications issued by the Abraham Lincoln Brigades, and critics and sympathizers of the Republicans. Materials related to Matthews' subsequent reporting in Italy from 1939 to 1942, and in Italy during and after the Allied invasion in 1943, include Matthews' interviews with philosopher Benedetto Croce and newspapers published by partisans and other anti-fascist forces. In reporting about World War II in Europe, Matthews noted the widespread destruction of art and the Allies' attempts to mitigate the damaging of Europe's cultural legacy; a folder retains his notes and writings on this subject. Notes from the 1960s record the content of conversations between Matthews and John F. Kennedy and officials in his administration, as well as conversations with Johnson administration officials, regarding U.S foreign policy, particularly towards Latin America and Cuba. Finally, this series contains scrapbooks of Times' editorials authored by Matthews between 1949 and 1967; created and donated by the New York Times.
Italy--Abyssinian War, 1935-1936
Spain, 1936-1960s
Box 17 Folder 8
Correspondence, 1937-1963
Dispatches
Box 21 Folder 7
Ephemera, 1937-1939
Box 21 Folder 8
Herbert L. Matthews--Subject, 1938
Box 21 Folder 9
Notes, 1940s-1960s
Box 21 Folder 10
Printed Material, 1937-1959
Box 22 Folder 1 to 2
Photographs, 1936-1939, (2 Folders)
Box 22 Folder 3
Writings, 1937-1956
Italy, 1939-1965
Box 22 Folder 4
Correspondence, 1944-1946
Dispatches
Box 25 Folder 5
Ephemera and Documents, 1939-1944
Notes
Box 25 Folder 6 to 7
1939-1965, (2 Folders)
Box 25 Folder f.8
Notebooks, undated
Box 25 Folder 9
Croce, Benedetto, 1943-1944
Box 25 Folder 10
Prince Umberto, 1944
Box 25 Folder 11 to 12
Periodicals, 1943-1946 (2 of 5 Folders), 1943-1946
Box 26 Folder 1 to 3
Periodicals, 1942-1943 (3 of 5 Folders), 1942-1943
Box 26 Folder 4
Photographs, 1930s-1940s
India, 1942-1943
Box 26 Folder 5 to 9
Dispatches, July, 1942-July, 1943 (5 of 6 Folders), 1942-July, 1943
Box 27 Folder 1
Dispatches, July, 1942-July, 1943 (1 of 6 Folders), 1942-July, 1943
Box 27 Folder 2 to 4
Periodicals, 1942-1943, (3 Folders)
Europe--World War II
Box 27 Folder 5
Art--Destruction of, 1943-1945
Box 27 Folder 6 to 7
Dispatches, 1943-1944 (2 of 4 Folders), 1943-1944
Box 28 Folder 1 to 2
Dispatches, 1943-1944 (2 of 4 Folders), 1943-1944
Box 28 Folder 3
Ephemera, 1944
Box 28 Folder 4
Notes, 1944
Box 28 Folder 5
Periodicals, 1943-1944
Europe--Postwar
Box 28 Folder 6
Notes, 1948-1966
Box 28 Folder 7
Periodicals, 1949-1953
Latin America, 1950s-1960s
Box 29 Folder 2
Correspondence, 1951-1952
Box 29 Folder 3
Notes, 1960s
Box 29 Folder 4
Photographs, 1950s-1960s
Box 29 Folder 5
Writings, 1950s-1960s
Scrapbooks
Series V: Personal, 1909-1970s
This brief series contains a disparate array of documents, papers and photographs about Matthews' life within and beyond his career as a journalist. This section includes materials related to Matthews' life-long interest in Italian history, culture, and thought, begun while a student at Columbia University, such as files on Columbia professor Dino Bigongiari and Matthews' support for the university's Casa Italiana in the 1960s. This section also holds various personal documents such as passports and journalist identification cards from Matthews' entire career as a journalist. Photographs, including photographs of Matthews in World War I, and a folder of material regarding the work of Spanish artist Luis Quintanilla, who served the Republican government in the Spanish Civil War, also are included here.
Box 29 Folder 7
Awards, 1950s
Box 29 Folder 8
Bigongiari, Dino and Gladys, 1940s-1960s
Box 29 Folder 9
Casa Italiana--Columbia University, 1960s
Box 29 Folder 10
Documents--Passports and Press Passes, 1920s-1960s
Box 29 Folder 11
Horoscope, 1945, undated, 1945, undated
Box 36 Folder 1
Photographs, 1918-1970s
Box 36 Folder 2
Quintanilla, Luis, 1930s-1940s
Box 36 Folder 3
Soldier of Fortune--Book--Inscribed, 1909
Series VI: Writings, 1930s-1972
This large series records the multitude of books, articles, and addresses written by Herbert L. Matthews, and some material written about Matthews, not otherwise found in previous sections of the Matthews papers. Included are manuscripts, and often correspondence and notes for, and reviews of, his books: Two War and More to Come (1938), Fruits of Fascism (1943), Education of a Correspondent (1946), Assignment to Austerity (1950), The Yoke and the Arrows (1957), A World in Revolution (1971), and Half of Spain Died (1973). Also notable here is an unpublished manuscript written by Matthews in the 1970s, "Valediction"; and the transcript of an episode of the television show, "The Big Story," recounting Matthews' celebrated reports of March, 1955, concerning student politics under the Peronist dictatorship in Argentina.
Box 36 Folder 4
Addresses, 1952
Box 36 Folder 5 to 7
Articles and Drafts, 1930s-1970s, (3 Folders)
Books--Manuscripts, 1938-1970s
Box 37 Folder 1 to 6
Assignment to Austerity
, 1950, (6 Folders)
Box 37 Folder 7
The Education of a Correspondent, 1946 (1 of 4 Folders), 1946
Box 38 Folder 1 to 3
The Education of a Correspondent, 1946 (3 of 4 Folders), 1946
Fruits of Fascism
, 1943
Box 38 Folder 4 to 5
Notes, 1939-1942 (2 of 3 Folders), 1939-1942
Box 39 Folder 1
Notes, 1939-1942
Box 39 Folder f.2
Reviews, 1943-1944
Box 39 Folder 3 to 6
Half of Spain Died, 1973 (4 of 7 Folders), 1973
Box 40 Folder 1 to 3
Half of Spain Died, 1973 (4 of 7 Folders), 1973
Box 40 Folder 5
"The Matthews Story,", 1950s
Box 40 Folder 6 to 7
A Newspaperman, 1970s (2 of 4 Folders), 1970s
Box 41 Folder 1 to 2
A Newspaperman, 1970s (2 of 4 Folders), 1970s
Box 41 Folder 3
Two Wars and More to Come
, 1938
Box 41 Folder 4
Untitled--Spanish Civil War, undated
Box 41 Folder 5 to 6
"Valediction,", 1970s, (2 Folders)
Box 41 Folder 7
A World in Revolution, 1971 (1 of 14 Folders), 1971
Box 42 Folder 1 to 7
A World in Revolution, 1971 (7 of 14 Folders), 1971
Box 43 Folder 1 to 6
A World in Revolution, 1971 (6 of 14 Folders), 1971
Box 43 Folder 7
Correspondence, 1967-1972
Box 43 Folder f.8
Reviews, 1971, undated, 1971, undated
Box 44 Folder 1 to 2
The Yoke and the Arrows
, 1957, (2 Folders)
Box 44 Folder 3
Volume--Annotated--and Critique, 1957, undated, 1957, undated
Box 44 Folder 4
Herbert L. Matthews--Subject, 1930s-1960s
Box 44 Folder 5
Reviews, Book--Drafts, 1970s
Research Materials--Cuba and Spain
Cuba
Box 44
Cuba: A Survey of World Cultures, Clifford R. Barnett and Wyatt MacGaffey, 1962
Box 44
Cuba Sideshow R. Hart Phillips, 1935
Box 19
Castro's Revolution Theodore Draper, 1962
Spain
Box 19
"The Church and Franco Spain," William Ebenstein, 1960
Box 19
Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918-1945-- Spain, 1950
Box 19
International Brigades Vincent Brome, 1965
Box 19
Prelude to a War: The International Repercussions of the Spanish Civil War, P.A.M. van der Esch,, 1951
Box 19
"Report of the Sub-Committee on the Spanish Question," United Nations,, 1946