Scope and Content Note
The papers of James Stillman Free (1908-1996) span the years from 1929 to 1996, with the bulk of the material dated 1951-1979. Free served as national capital correspondent for several newspapers, notably the Birmingham News of Birmingham, Alabama, during the Cold War period and civil rights movement. Free's clippings document reporting on civil rights from 1961 through 1979. His story files also illustrate media coverage of the Soviet Bloc and the Cold War.
Free's papers consist of files and scrapbooks of his major stories; "National Whirligig," the newspaper column he coauthored with his wife, Ann Cottrell Free; and notebooks in which he recorded interviews and information. Free's story files are organized alphabetically by subject.
Free also participated in L. Ron Hubbard's Caribbean Motion Picture Expedition in 1932. Hubbard, a university student, organized and chartered the expedition with the intent of filming movies in the exotic locales of the Caribbean. Insufficient capital caused the expedition's insolvency midway through the voyage, during which only one movie was made. Free's files contain photographs of expedition members aboard the schooner Doris Hamlin, the schooner's deck log and daily reports, and correspondence and notes by Free.