Scope and Content Note
The papers of Nancy Dickerson (1927-1997) span the years 1927-2006, with the bulk of the material dating from 1954 to 1995. The papers document Dickerson's pioneering role in television broadcast news as well as her position as a Washington hostess holding events for high-profile politicians and journalists in the nation's capital. The papers are in English and are organized in two parts composed of nine series: Part I: Personal File, Part I: Professional File, Part I: Scrapbooks, Part I: Restricted, Part II: Personal File, Part II: Professional File, Part II: Scrapbooks, Part II: Restricted , and Part II: Oversize.
Part I
The Personal File includes correspondence with family and friends, biographical material, household financial records, material concerning the Dickerson home "Merrywood," the McLean, Virginia, estate that had been the childhood home of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and items from parties attended and especially from those given. Dickerson was a well-known Washington hostess and friends with the Washington elite. Prominent family members include her first husband, businessman C. Wyatt Dickerson, her second husband, former Assistant Secretary of State and Wall Street executive John C. Whitehead, and her son, political journalist John Dickerson. Of special interest are her letters home to her family in Wisconsin detailing her early days in Washington working on Capitol Hill and her start in journalism.
The Professional File documents Dickerson's career in broadcast journalism. The series includes correspondence, financial material from her production company, news clippings, speeches and writings, scripts and related materials from television broadcasts, and a subject file. Dickerson was friends with many of the most prominent political figures in Washington, D.C., and benefitted professionally from these associations. Subject files for many of these individuals contain correspondence, news clippings, and related material, including for the Kennedy family and Lyndon B. Johnson and family. The Johnson material also includes an oral history from 1972 concerning Dickerson's experiences with Johnson. The file for television broadcasts dates from the 1970s and 1980s when Dickerson ran her own production companies, Dickerson and Company and Television Corporation of America. The files contain correspondence, scripts, publicity material, and related items for the television news documentaries she produced as well as her syndicated program Inside Washington with Nancy Dickerson and her Fox Television News commentaries. The speeches and writings file includes drafts and related material for her book, Among Those Present, as well as correspondence, financial and other related material, and speech notes from her many speaking engagements during the 1970s and 1980s. She rarely used a fully written speech, instead speaking from notes and news clippings.
Most, but not all, of the scrapbooks in the Scrapbooks series were compiled by her son, John Dickerson. They provide a useful collection of selected letters, news clippings, and memorabilia arranged primarily by year.
The Restricted series contains address books and diaries from the 1990s and family papers.
Part II
The Personal File includes correspondence, family papers, biographical material, appointment calendars, photographs, party planning materials, financial records, and clippings. The series documents Dickerson’s personal relationships with family and friends, various parties and other events she hosted, and trips taken with her second husband, John C. Whitehead. The Personal File in Part II particularly focuses on Dickerson’s life after moving to New York City in 1989, though some Washington, D.C., social events are also documented. Prominent correspondents include Barbara Bush, Fleur Cowles, Robert Drew, Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman, Lady Bird Johnson, and Mary Rose McGeady.
The Professional File includes correspondence, scripts, speeches and writings, awards, photographs, clippings and other publicity materials, and notebooks pertaining to Dickerson’s work as a journalist. The series primarily documents Dickerson’s career after leaving NBC News in 1970. Two documentaries she produced with Television Corporation of America, 784 Days That Changed America: From Watergate to Resignation and Being with John F. Kennedy, are well represented. The Professional File also contains scripts and correspondence from Dickerson’s television commentaries with Fox Television News as well as notes and background materials for various speaking engagements. Much of the correspondence in this series consists of letters from viewers and some responses by Dickerson to these letters.
The Scrapbooks series documents both Dickerson’s personal life and her professional career. The scrapbooks are maintained as received. Dickerson assembled many if not most of these scrapbooks, in contrast to the scrapbooks in Part I that were compiled largely by her son, John Dickerson. They include photographs, clippings, correspondence, and miscellany.
The Restricted series contains family papers, address books, and travel journals.
The Oversize series contains photographs, awards, publicity materials from Being with John F. Kennedy, a Nicaraguan election poster, results from a study about the Watergate Affair, and a seating chart from an event.