Scope and Content: The Dorothy Stimson Bullitt papers document the activities, interests, and associations of Dorothy Stimson Bullitt and her family. A significant portion of these materials is correspondence between Dorothy Bullitt and Stimson family members. Dorothy Bullitt’s papers include a considerable amount of non-family correspondence, mostly letters to and from her associates in broadcasting, business, and politics. General correspondence with the Ohata family documents the relationship between Dorothy Bullitt and longtime household servant Fred Ohata and his family. The bulk of these letters date from 1942 and 1943, the period spanning Fred and Alice Ohata’s incarceration in a Portland, Oregon, assembly center and their eventual relocation to the east coast. The letters document Mrs. Bullitt’s help in finding work for Mr. and Mrs. Ohata, which was a crucial step in obtaining permission for their release.

Other major correspondents include: Dee Terry (also named Dee Bullitt and Dee Payson), Ancil Payne, Delphine Haley, Henry Colver (a suitor), King Broadcasting Company, the Metropolitan Building Company (Seattle), Okinawa Plywood, the Stimson Realty Company, Mobilization for Human Needs, the Seattle Civilian War Commission, the University of Washington Board of Regents, the Emergency Relief Commission (Washington), the Washington State Canal Commission, the Television Code Review Board of the National Association of Broadcasters, Olmsted Brothers, and Hearst Radio Inc.

Among Dorothy Bullitt’s personal papers are diaries and appointment books, which are interrelated because Mrs. Bullitt made diary-like entries in several of her appointment books. Books that contained a great deal of full, qualitative, reflective commentary were filed as diaries, and books that mostly contained brief notes and appointments were filed as appointment books. Researchers may want to review both series of material.

The remainder of Dorothy Bullitt’s personal papers and the family members’ papers primarily consist of personal papers and memorabilia. Exceptions to this include some of the subject files in Mrs. Bullitt’s papers, especially the “Politics” file, which includes most of the material documenting Bullitt’s political involvement. Also present are files on the various boards on which Bullitt served.

The bulk of the records documenting Stimson and Bullitt family business interests are found in the Family Businesses series. Some of Dorothy Bullitt’s King Broadcasting Company material can be found here. These records consist of personnel files, subject files, and a small amount of intraorganizational correspondence, and mostly date from the later years of KING. Accession 5269-002 contains more complete documentation of the company as a whole, from its inception in the 1930s to its sale in the early 1990s. The C.D. and Thomas Stimson files in the Family Papers series also contain limited documentation of family business concerns.

A. Scott Bullitt’s files contain information on his political campaigns in Louisville and Seattle; however, his lively political career in Washington State is largely undocumented. Whatever documentation once existed is believed to have been destroyed.

The Civic Involvement series mostly contains Dorothy Bullitt’s papers from organizations in which she participated; however, some of these papers are from other family members. In particular, Harriet Overton Stimson was the family member most involved in the Children’s Orthopedic Hospital, and for the most part these files consist of her materials.

The Delphine Haley series consists of research materials for and drafts of her biography . Of particular interest are tapes and transcripts of interviews with Mrs. Bullitt that Ms. Haley conducted as part of her research. Haley was also responsible for the transcribed copies of incoming letters.

Scope and Content: This accession consists of records of the King Broadcasting Company and contains a wide variety of material, including correspondence, memoranda, Federal Communications Commission applications and testimony, minutes, notes, program schedules, production notes and scripts, annual reports, financial records, personnel policy notes, press releases, clippings, publicity programs, station and personal awards, history notes, scrapbooks, station memorabilia, blueprints, and ephemera. These records are from the corporate and executive offices of King Broadcasting Company, Seattle, Washington. Most of them are directly from the office of Dorothy Stimson Bullitt.