Scope and Content Note
The papers of Ina Ginsburg (1916-2014) span the years 1941-2015, with the bulk of the material dating from 1965 to 2014. The papers are in English, French, and German and are organized into the following series: Personal File, Working Files, Interviews and Writings, Closed, Oversize, and Artifact. The papers reflect Ginsburg's life as an arts patron, journalist, and Washington, D.C., socialite and hostess who counted among her friends ambassadors, entertainers, political leaders, business tycoons, Cabinet members, and United States Supreme Court justices.
The Personal File contains correspondence and invitations, biographical material, awards and certificates, memorabilia, photographs, travel files, and files on parties given by Ginsburg. The correspondence and invitations constitute the largest part of the series and are mostly comprised of thank-you notes and invitations to events and parties. However, the correspondence also relates to Ginsburg's involvement with organizations and events in the Working Files and her work in the Interviews and Writings. The travel files contain correspondence, itineraries, and other material related to Ginsburg's trips abroad usually in the company of her friend Esther Coopersmith. Ginsburg planned and led many of the trips abroad with the wives of United States senators. The women were official guests of those countries with the trip to Saudi Arabia in 1998 being the first female delegation ever received by that country. Some of the photographs document the various trips as well as meetings with presidents of the United States and Ginsburg's early acting career.
The Working Files contain material related to Ginsburg's involvement with various organizations, charities, and benefits. Prominent among those groups are the American Film Institute, the Fine Arts Advisory Panel of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Washington National Opera, and charity benefits sponsored by the Kennedy family. Of interest are the correspondence, meeting minutes and material, and membership lists for the Washington National Opera and the Friends of the Kennedy Center from the 1950s and 1960s.
The Interviews and Writings largely reflect Ginsburg's work for Andy Warhol's magazine Interview, but also include other writings by Ginsburg. Her interviews were syndicated worldwide and she was also published in Connoisseur, Dossier, Fame, France,Town & Country, and the Washington Post. Her social connections allowed her wide access to ambassadors, world political leaders, foreign heads of state, United States secretaries of defense, state, and treasury, directors of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, United States senators, the chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, entertainment personalities, socialites, and others. It was during Ginsburg's interview in 1983 with Robert S. McNamara, former secretary of defense under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, that he admitted it was obvious by mid-1965, if not as early as 1963, that there was no military solution to the war in Vietnam. McNamara then refused to discuss Vietnam any further. The Closed series contains her memoirs.