Edwin E. Dowell papers, 1934-1986

The Edwin E. Dowell papers, 1934-1986, contain clippings, photographs, correspondence, and publications relating to Dowell’s notable career as a journalist and public relations director. Kennecott Copper Corporation materials include newspaper clippings about the Curtiss-Wright takeover attempt, the Peabody Coal Company divestiture, and the closure of the company’s Utah plant, which for 50 years was the state’s largest employer. There is also an outside study and report done on the company’s corporate image and poor internal communications problems.

Scrapbooks record Dowell’s career through clippings, photographs, and mementos. His time spent with the United Press as a Pacific War Zone correspondent includes the last picture ever taken of Will Rogers before his fatal crash near Point Barrow, Alaska. While bureau manager for the British United Press in Canada, Dowell covered the royal visit of the King and Queen of England to Canada in June 1939.

The clippings, photographs, and memorabilia Dowell kept during his time in the Army provide interesting documentation of D-Day in southern France and the liberation of Dachau concentration camp by the U.S. Army’s 3rd Infantry Division. Also included is a set of official death photos of the Nuremberg trial Nazi war criminals. Three volumes document the history of the U.S. Army’s newspaper, Stars and Stripes. They are: A Short History of the Stars and Stripes: Germany Edition; Stripes: The First Five Years of the GI’s Newspaper; and a bound run of the papers dated October 1, 1945 through January 21, 1946.

Other scrapbook items include clippings on Standard Oil Company’s Antwerp, Belgium, Refinery opening in 1953 and the “People-to-People” Strategic Minerals Delegation to South Africa in 1983. There are three published articles written by Dowell: At Our Side in Italy…Fighting Frenchman; It’s Your Government; and The Crisis in Communications. On a personal note are clippings about Dowell’s Brookings Institution Fellowship, his election as Rocky Mountain District Chairman of the Public Relations Society of America, and his receipt of the Legion of Honor, the highest degree and honor of the Order of DeMolay.