Scope and Content Note
The papers of Mary Dorothy McGrory (1918-2004) span the years 1928-2004 with the bulk of the material dating 1956-2002. McGrory reported and commented on many of the prominent issues of American politics for five decades, including the Army-McCarthy hearings, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal, and the Iraq War. The papers are arranged into ten series: Personal Correspondence, VIP Correspondence, General Correspondence, Subject File, Speeches and Writings File, Notebooks and Notes, Miscellany, Scrapbooks, Restricted File, and Oversize.
The Personal Correspondence, 1934-2004, documents McGrory's personal and professional activities. The Personal Correspondence is arranged into three groups: family, friends and colleagues, and get-well letters. Almost all of this series is comprised of incoming letters. The family correspondence relates to family and local news, although sometimes national matters are discussed such as the 1948 presidential campaign in Sarah M. McGrory's correspondence with McGrory. The correspondence from friends and colleagues documents McGrory's personal and professional interests. Many of the letters from colleagues contain complimentary comments about McGrory's columns, although occasionally they disagree with McGrory's point of view. The get-well letters, consisting of cards and letters from friends and the public, convey wishes for McGrory's recovery from a stroke she suffered in March 2003. A few letters in the Personal Correspondence series contain outgoing final responses from McGrory. The bulk of McGrory's responses to correspondence, whether personal, VIP, or general, is located in the draft responses of the General Correspondence series. McGrory's draft responses were written on long sheets of continuous paper that are filed together. Personal correspondents include Art Buchwald, Blair Clark, Maureen Dowd, Phil Gailey, Anthony Lewis, Gould Lincoln, Gordon Manning, Ralph McGill, Newbold Noyes, Thomas Winship, and Edwin M. Yoder. A few letters to McGrory are addressed as “Dear Molle,” a nickname used by family and friends.
The VIP Correspondence, 1948-2004, comprised chiefly of incoming letters from members of Congress, presidents, government officials, and other prominent individuals, pertains primarily to McGrory's work as columnist for the Washington Star and the Washington Post. Many of the VIP letters contain compliments or complaints about McGrory's column. In many of the letters, the correspondents speak off the record and provide insight about political and foreign policy issues. Correspondents include Samuel R. Berger, Max Cleland, Bill Clinton, Andrew Mark Cuomo, Mario Matthew Cuomo, George Darden, Sam J. Ervin, Gerald R. Ford, Barney Frank, Newt Gingrich, Barry M. Goldwater, Donald E. Graham, Sol M. Linowitz, Abigail Q. McCarthy, Eugene J. McCarthy, David G. McCullough, George S. McGovern, Martin T. Meehan, Daniel P. Moynihan, Robert Redford, Elliot L. Richardson, Tim Russert, Peter F. Secchia, Sargent Shriver, Stephen J. Solarz, and Bob Woodward. Some letters from members of Congress and other government officials are also filed in the Subject File series.
The majority of the General Correspondence, 1943-2004, is made up of incoming letters from readers of McGrory's column. Many letters were a one-time impassioned response to McGrory's commentary, although the correspondence also includes letters from readers who corresponded with McGrory through the years. Topics represented are the Army-McCarthy controversy, presidential campaigns, the Middle East, the Persian Gulf, social security, the Iran Contra Affair, Clarence Thomas's nomination to the Supreme Court, the Bill Clinton-Monica S. Lewinsky affair, the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and the Iraq War. McGrory answered the majority of her mail, and her responses are filed in the draft responses of the General Correspondence series. Sometimes McGrory answered quickly; at other times the response took longer. Therefore, a reply to an incoming letter may be filed in the draft responses a month or two after the incoming letter was received. Filed with a few of the incoming letters are attachments of McGrory's final responses. The General Correspondence also includes congratulatory correspondence about awards, requests for information, and invitations for speaking engagements. Some letters from readers are also filed with the Subject File series.
The Subject File, 1928-2004, documents McGrory's longevity as a Washington, D.C., columnist with material ranging from her first big story for the Washington Star, the Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954, to the foreign policy of the United States toward Iraq in 2003. The Subject File makes up almost one half of the collection and contains an extensive array of material including correspondence, memoranda, notes, press releases, speeches and statements, newspaper clippings, and other background material. A significant number of the files chronicle McGrory's coverage of presidential campaigns from 1956 to 2000, including notes and some draft articles for the early campaigns. There are many files pertaining to politicians and government officials, including George Bush, George W. Bush, Edward Moore Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, Richard M. Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Clarence Thomas. Other topics prominently featured are arms control, children, the Iran-Contra Affair, Ireland, Nicaragua, the Persian Gulf, the press, terrorism, and Vietnam. Files on the press include correspondence from journalists, print and television, and contain material about the strike at the Washington Star in 1958 and the demise of the newspaper in 1981. The Subject File also contains letters from politicians, government officials, and others commenting about McGrory's columns, and they sometimes sent her information about an issue of importance to them. The files document McGrory's avid reading of newspapers and news magazines. They include numerous clippings and columns that she saved and some contain a note or an item marked for emphasis. Also in the Subject File are drafts and newsprint copies of some of McGrory's own newspaper columns.
The Speeches and Writings File, 1933-2004, chronicles McGrory's career as a book reviewer for the Boston Herald Traveler, a feature writer and columnist for the Washington Star, and a columnist for the Washington Post. The bulk of the chronological file is comprised of photocopied newspaper clippings, although there are some typewritten drafts in some of the early files. There are lists preceding the chronological files identifying columns for the years 1954-1972. Included in the series are other writings by McGrory, a booklet about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, a chapter for a book about Adlai E. Stevenson, and her reflections about the deaths of her father, Edward McGrory, and her dog, Zippy. Also represented in the Speeches and Writings File are writings by others about McGrory. One article in particular about McGrory garnered much attention from the public. After McGrory's illness, her cousin, Brian McGrory, wrote that she was one of the best columnists he had known and that she had probably written her last column. He received many letters and e-mails expressing concern about McGrory's health and how much McGrory's columns were missed. He sent the letters and e-mails to Mary McGrory, and they are filed with Brian McGrory's article. Additional Mary McGrory's writings are also located in the Subject File and Scrapbooks series.
The Notebooks and Notes series, 1956-2004, documents McGrory's coverage of the Washington political scene from 1956 to 2003. McGrory wrote many of these notes while on campaign trips or attending congressional hearings, press conferences, and other functions. A few of the later notebooks contain draft articles for her newspaper column. One item worthy of special mention is McGrory's notebook about the September 11 terrorist attacks. Her notes convey the uncertainty of that day and how she viewed the events in New York and Washington, D.C. Many of McGrory's notes are a mixture of Gregg shorthand and cursive script. Also included in this series are notebooks of McGrory's personal assistant Tina Toll.
The Miscellany series, 1931-2004, relates to McGrory's family, personal interests, and professional accomplishments. The largest amount of material in the Miscellany series relates to McGrory's Pulitzer Prize award in 1975 for her coverage of the Watergate scandal. McGrory was the first woman to receive the prize for commentary. Much of the Pulitzer material consists of congratulatory correspondence from friends, colleagues, congressman, senators, government officials, and the general public. The diary notes in the series document McGrory's first day as a picture cropper at Houghton Mifflin Company and her concern about the possible entry of the United States into World War II in 1939. Also documented in the Miscellany files are McGrory's volunteer work with St. Ann's Infant and Maternity Home in Hyattsville, Maryland, her activities at Macomb House, the condominium where she lived, and papers relating to her personal travel, mainly to Italy.
The Scrapbooks series, 1942-1974, consists chiefly of newspaper columns, book reviews, and articles written by McGrory, but some of the albums also include a few newspaper clippings of interest to her.