Douglass Welch papers, 1927-1976

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Welch, Douglass
Title
Douglass Welch papers
Dates
1927-1976 (inclusive)
Quantity
4.78 (6 boxes and one oversize vertical file)
Collection Number
0779 (Accession No. 0779-004)
Summary
Papers of a Seattle, Washington journalist and humorist
Repository
University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections
Special Collections
University of Washington Libraries
Box 352900
Seattle, WA
98195-2900
Telephone: 2065431929
Fax: 2065431931
speccoll@uw.edu
Access Restrictions

Open to all users.

Material stored offsite; advance notice required for use.

Languages
English
Sponsor
Funding for encoding this finding aid was partially provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Biographical NoteReturn to Top

Journalist and humorist C. Douglass Welch was born in Boston in 1906 and grew up in Tacoma, Washington, where his father was managing editor of the Tacoma News-Tribune. Welch's first job in journalism was as a cub reporter for the News-Tribune in the summers while he was in high school. He attended the University of Washington and briefly worked for the Cleveland Plain Dealer upon graduating in 1928, but soon returned to Seattle where he worked as a reporter and feature writer first for the Seattle Times and later for the Post-Intelligencer. His column The Squirrel Cage, syndicated by King Features, ran in the Post-Intelligencer and many other newspapers from 1958 until his death in 1968. Two collections of these columns, The Squirrel Cage and Neighbors and Other People, edited by his wife, Ruth Hecht Welch, were published in the 1970s. Welch was twice the recipient of the Hearst Newspapers Award for humorous news reporting.

In addition to his newspaper journalism, Welch wrote a large number of comic stories and pieces which were published in The Saturday Evening Post, Equire and other magazines. Stories featuring the character of newspaper photographer "Happy" Digby were subsequently collected in a book, Mr. Digby Stories, and many of Welch's short pieces were adapted for radio and television. One of Welch's short plays, Let's Move the Furniture, was published in an acting edition in 1928. From 1955-1957, Welch worked with the writer Nard Jones on a biography of Teamsters leader Dave Beck; in 1957 Welch was questioned about the book by Robert Kennedy in connection with a senate committee investigating racketeering. Douglas Welch died in 1968.

Content DescriptionReturn to Top

The Douglass Welch papers consist primarily of correspondence and of typescripts and carbon copies of his " Squirrel Cage" columns and his other journalistic pieces and short stories. There are also materials relating to a never-published biography of Teamsters leader Dave Beck which was co-written by Douglass Welch and Nard Jones. Some scrapbooks, notes, ephemera, clippings, and publications containing Welch's pieces are also present, as well as a small series containing papers of Welch's mother, Marie Douglass Welch.

Use of the CollectionReturn to Top

Restrictions on Use

Literary rights for business letters of Douglass Welch transferred to the University of Washington Libraries. Literary rights in other published and unpublished writings including personal letters from Douglass Welch to Ruth Welch (then Ruth Hecht) retained by Ruth Welch or her heirs.

Preferred Citation

Douglass Welch papers, Special Collections Divison, University of Washington Libraries.

Administrative InformationReturn to Top

Arrangement

The papers are arranged into two series:

  • Personal papers, 1927-1976
  • Marie Douglass Welch papers, 1936, 1964-1966

Acquisition Information

The Welch papers were donated by C. Douglass Welch in 1967 and Ruth Welch in 1981 and 1982.

Processing Note

Accession numbers 0779, 0779-2 and 0779-3 were merged and processed by Janet Polata; processing was completed in 2007.

Separated Materials

Several publications were relocated to the Pacific Northwest Collections in Special Collections Division in 2007.

About twenty-five genealogical publications (books and periodicals) originally belonging to Welch's mother were removed from the accession and donated to the Seattle Genealogical Society and the History, Travel and Maps Department of the Seattle Public Library's Central Library; two were sent to the University of Washington Libraries' Gifts Program.

Detailed Description of the CollectionReturn to Top

 

Personal papers, 1927-1976Return to Top

Container(s) Description Dates
Box/Folder
1/1
Biographical features; list of publications
undated
Outgoing letters
1927-1928, 1940-1965, undated
Box/Folder
1/2-9
To Ruth Hecht
1927 June-1928 September
VF:oversize
79
To Ruth Hecht
1927 August-September
Box/Folder
1/10
To Bill and Marge Edris
1940-circa 1960
1/11
Miscellaneous
1947-1965, undated
Box/Folder
1/12-39
Incoming letters
Arranged chronologically.
Most of the correspondence is from Carl Brandt, Carol Brandt or Alma Levin (later Alma Pritchard), all of Welch's literary agency, Brandt & Brandt, and primarily concerns the acceptance or rejection of Welch's work by various publications, and, later, possible sales of film and television rights to his published stories. Some of this later correspondence is also from Alma Pritchard, who left Brandt & Brandt upon her marriage and moved to California where she worked in film and continued to support and advocate for Welch's work; she ultimately returned to New York and to Brandt & Brandt. Folder 1/29 also contains a snapshot of Alma Pritchard.
1932-1966, undated
1/40-45
General correspondence; Brandt & Brandt files
Correspondence between Welch and his agency from the files of Brandt & Brandt.
1949-1956
Writings
circa 1958-1968, undated
Box/Folder
1/46
" Bank"
undated
1/47-48
Mr. Digby Stories
Includes the stories published in Mr. Digby Stories as well as others featuring "Happy" Digby.
undated
" The Squirrel Cage"
Not in chronological order except some of the columns from 1968, the year of Welch's death, which had been kept separately and are now in folder 1/49.
Box/Folder
1/49-54, 2/1-38, 3/1-12
Typescripts and carbon copies of daily columns
circa 1958-1968
3/13-21
Typescripts and carbon copies of Sunday columns
undated
Collections
undated
Box/Folder
3/22-29
Typescripts of columns used by Ruth Welch in assembling The Squirrel Cage and Neighbors and Other People
undated
3/30-32
Typescript of The Squirrel Cage
undated
4/1
Typescript of Neighbors and Other People
Box/Folder
4/2
Plays; typescripts and carbons
1928, undated
A Cow in the Parlor, a play in one act
undated
Three Plays
O'Dea of the "Times", Let's Move the Furniture, and Woman's Place Is in the Home
undated
You Wouldn't Believe It!
undated
Woman's Place Is in the Home!, a farce in one act
1928 February
Let's Move the Furniture, a farce in one act
undated
Stories and articles; typescripts and carbon copies
undated
Box/Folder
4/3
" The Extremely Sad Case of Elmer Throckbottle, The Last Minute Christmas Shopper"
4/3
" The Hand That Cradles The Rock"
4/3
" Here, Kitty, Kitty"
4/3
" Lost"
4/3
" Research"
4/3
" Complaint"
4/3
" Madame Chairman, Ahem"
4/3
" Enemy"
4/3
" Night Patrol"
4/3
" There Ought to be a Lure"
4/3
" Free Lancer"
4/3
" Inside Job"
Two versions.
4/3
" Calliope"
4/3
" Brothers Under My Skin"
4/3
" Merry Christmas, Father"
One complete and one partial draft.
4/3
" Suet and Low"
4/3
" Treason, No Less"
4/4
" Adventures Into History"
4/4
" Charlie"
4/4
" Study in Red"
4/4
" Cinderella Lays an Egg"
4/4
" Photo Finish"
4/4
" The Old Man in the Shoe"
4/4
" Something He Ate"
4/5
" Quick, the China Cement!"
4/5
" Wassail"
4/5
" Blessed Insomnia"
4/5
" June Bridegroom"
4/5
" Freedom of Press"
4/5
" Protest"
4/5
" Pretty Is as Pretty Does"
4/5
" Coronation Scene"
4/5
" April Fool"
4/5
" After Baby Comes"
4/5
" The Muse, Ground Floor"
4/5
" Home-Coming"
4/5
" Six of a Kind"
4/5
" Kiss Me Again (and Again and Again)"
4/5
" Hey! Hey! Hotcha!"
4/5
" Personal Contact"
4/5
" Fun in the Kitchen"
4/5
" They Seen Their Duty"
4/5
" Report to Washington"
4/5
" The Boiled Onion Racket"
4/5
" Anchors Aweigh"
4/5
" Looking Sideways"
4/6
" Tidings"
4/6
" Table d'Hote"
4/6
" Whither, America?"
4/6
" A Very Attractive Babe"
4/6
" Goldylocks and the Big Bear"
4/6
Three versions of the story published as " Pop Pops Off"
Box/Folder
4/6
" No Trains Today"
4/6
" Pop Holmes Resents"
4/6
" The Deep-Resenting Mr. Holmes"
4/6
" Sea Serpents Amuck"
4/6
" Are Sea-Serpents Slipping?"
4/6
" Woodpeckers"
Partial typescript and handwritten notes
4/6
" Everything Under Control"
4/6
" Music Hath Charm"
4/6
" Cuisine Moderne"
4/6
" Critical Case"
4/6
" So They Want to Know?"
4/7
" Next Show Right Away"
4/7
" The 1935 Bathing Suit Situation"
4/7
" Service"
4/7
" The Kiddies' Christmas"
4/7
" It Can't Happen Here"
4/7
" Trouper"
4/7
" Big Stuff"
4/7
" The Hangover: Its Cause and Cure"
4/7
" Fallen Woman"
Three versions plus marked copy in Brandt & Brandt cover sheets.
4/7
" Ship's Cruise"
Two versions.
4/7
" Age of Invention"
4/7
" Herman"
4/7
" Scientific Picnicking"
4/7
" Prospectus"
4/7
" The Cook's Daughter"
4/7
" Term Examination"
4/7
" Recruit"
4/7
" Hyacinth"
4/8
" Miss Mickey Finn"
4/8
" If We Really Had Justice"
4/8
" Something He Ate"
4/8
" Hell Week"
4/8
" False Alarm"
4/8
" Let's Look at the Record"
4/8
" Mrs. Union Station"
4/8
" What Will They Think of Next?"
4/8
" Staff Meeting"
4/8
" Mr. Galbraith Goes to the Post Office"
4/8
" Build-Up"
4/8
" Travelers' Aid, China Division"
4/8
" Your English"
4/8
" Monday Morning Quarterback"
4/9
" Plots to Please"
4/9
" To Whom It May Concern"
Two versions.
4/9
" Back Seat Driver"
4/9
" Collector"
4/9
" Difficult Witness"
4/9
" Untouchable"
4/9
" Horse of Another Color"
4/9
" Are You Listening?"
4/9
" Lines"
4/9
" Tempest"
4/9
" Fleet"
4/9
" Definitely, Virginia"
4/9
" The Education of Mr. Galbraith"
4/9
" Haven"
4/9
" Incident of the Assessor"
4/9
" Chin Lee Goes Back to China"
4/9
" June Brides"
4/9
" Professor, You've Got Something!"
4/9
" Gypsy"
4/9
" Rah! Rah! Rah! Team!"
4/9
" Non-Conformist"
4/9
" The Barbary Coast"
Two versions.
4/9
" Who Said So?"
4/9
" Incident of the Waste Basket"
4/9
" Bedtime Story, 1938 Style"
4/9
" Art"
4/9
" Smart Girls Don't Know the Score"
4/9
" Brothers of the Skillet"
4/9
" Christmas Carol"
Two versions.
4/9
" The Enemy Halted"
4/9
" Rustic Interlude"
4/9
" There's a Reporter to See You!"
4/10
" The Ape-Men of Sugar Peak"
4/10
" Strictly Educational"
4/10
" Carnegie: A Menace"
4/10
" Painless Pinch"
Two versions.
4/10
" Post-Mortem"
4/10
" Public Enemy"
4/10
" Turn About"
4/10
" Catechism"
4/10
" Murder Will Conservatively Out!"
4/10
" Millenium"
4/10
" Farmer Goes to Market"
4/10
" 'Where Was You Thursday Night?'"
4/10
" The Deep-Resenting Mr. Holmes"
4/10
" The Fathers Suffer So"
Two versions.
4/10
" It's A System"
4/10
" New Era"
4/11
" Horse of Two Colors"
4/11
" Portrait of a Spy"
4/11
" Ladies on the Hill"
4/11
" The Girl Who Flunked"
4/11
" Editorial Renegade"
4/11
" Run For Your Lives"
Two versions.
4/11
" It's a Long Lane"
4/11
" Good Neighbor Policy"
4/11
" House Dick"
4/11
" Grade B Bloodhound"
4/11
" Who Said A Thousand Years?"
4/11
" It Won't Work"
4/11
" The Gangster, Who Won't Talk, Comes Back From His Vacation"
4/11
" Minute Mysteries"
4/11
" Acid Test"
4/11
" Skull-Practice"
4/11
" Ordeal"
4/11
" Moocher"
4/11
" Without Asterisks"
4/11
" Will It Come To This?"
4/12
" Mother of Invention"
4/12
" Camera Shy"
4/12
" Dieting Is A Science"
4/12
" Please Don't Disturb"
4/12
" Dinner Is Ready"
4/12
" We've Been Betrayed"
4/12
Untitled
Comic article in the form of a letter to the Pulitzer Prize Play Committee
4/12
" No Sex!"
4/12
" Epicure"
4/12
" Sauce for the Gander"
4/12
" 'Better Dress4/12'"
4/12
" Dictator"
4/12
" Committee on Foods"
4/12
" Traveler's Aid"
4/12
" The 'F D F W A S'"
4/12
" I Spy"
4/12
" Philip Sneed and the Loud Suit"
4/12
" I Was A Spy!"
4/12
" Too Much Neck"
4/12
" King Cole"
4/13
" Problem Child"
4/13
" Sweet-Talk Me, Jackson!"
Two versions.
4/13
" The Man From Queer Street"
4/13
" The Awakening of Herman Sprunt"
4/14
" Ryther"
4/14
Untitled (for Yankee Magazine)
4/14
" Washington Welcome"
4/14
" Beer"
4/14
" Life in a Goldfish Bowl"
4/14
" Girls Aren't People"
4/15
" An Open Letter to Mr. Goldenson"
4/15
Trains Special
4/15
" Where's The Action?"
4/15
" Who Needs Laughs?"
4/15
" Astrological Outlook for 1933"
4/15
" A Man of Letters"
4/15
" Business Crisis"
4/15
" Abductus Ad Absurdum"
4/15
" 'Calling All Cars'"
4/15
" Ground-Hog Day"
4/15
" The New Peal"
4/15
" Quizz [sic]"
4/15
" Time Marches On!"
4/15
" America, Awake!"
4/15
" Shorts"
4/15
" The Santa Claus Situation"
4/15
" Municipal Reports"
4/15
" Bird in Hand"
4/15
" Picture Ahead!"
4/15
" Punchinello in Politics"
Box/Folder
4/16
Printed pamphlets
Box/Folder
4/16
Any Way You Look at It
Promotional pamphlet containing Welch's impressions of a tour of the Heidelberg Brewery in Tacoma, Washington.
1953
4/16
A Good Day to You All
Promotional pamphlet for the Mellon Bank; contains excerpts from The Squirrel Cage column.
1964?
Subject file; Dave Beck biography
1955-1957, undated
Box/Folder
4/17-18
General Correspondence
1955-1957
4/19
Notes
undated
4/20
Ephemera
1955
4/21
Clippings
1957, undated
Notes
Box/Folder
4/22
Notes regarding Seattle Park Board
Photocopies of notecards kept by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer of items published relating to the Park Service and Park Board, including items reported by Welch.
1954-1965
4/23
Miscellaneous notes
Includes notebooks recording writings and payments, and a notebook listing the recurring characters from The Squirrel Cage with their primary characteristics.
circa 1932-1941, circa 1958-1968
Box/Folder
4/24
Agreements
1940-1944
Scrapbooks
The scrapbooks contain clippings of Welch's work that appeared in various magazines and newspapers.
1928-1954, 1976
Box/Folder
5/1
Douglass Welch features, Seattle Times
1928, undated
box:oversize
6
three scrapbooks
1933-1954, 1976
Box/Folder
5/2
Publications
1959-1966, undated
5/3-4
Clippings
1947-1967, undated
5/5
Business cards
undated
5/6
Drawings
undated

Marie Douglass Welch papers, 1936, 1964-1966Return to Top

Container(s): Box-folder 5/7

Material relating to Welch's mother, Marie Douglass Welch. Includes correspondence, a committee report, genealogy research notes, and other materials.

Container(s) Description Dates
Incoming letters
1964-1966, undated
Report; Aloha Club Art Committee
The Art Committee of the Aloha Club created an art loan program for the purpose of teaching art appreciation in the Tacoma public schools.
circa 1936
Sermons, bulletins and other material from Christ Church Parish, Tacoma, Washington
1965-1966

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Authors and publishers--United States--20th century
  • Humorists, American--20th century--Archives
  • Journalism--Washington (State)--Seattle
  • Journalists--Washington (State)--Seattle--Archives

Personal Names

  • Brandt, Carl (Carl D.)--Correspondence
  • Brandt, Carol, 1904-1984--Correspondence
  • Pritchard, Alma Levin--Correspondence
  • Welch, Douglass--Archives

Corporate Names

  • Brandt & Brandt--Correspondence

Form or Genre Terms

  • Carbon copies
  • Clippings (Books, newspapers, etc.)
  • Correspondence
  • Ephemera
  • Notes
  • Publications
  • Scrapbooks
  • Typescripts

Occupations

  • Journalists

Titles within the Collection

  • Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Personal Papers/Corporate Records (University of Washington)