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Ralph W. Barnes papers, 1917-1983

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Barnes, Ralph W.
Title
Ralph W. Barnes papers
Dates
1917-1983 (inclusive)
(bulk)
Quantity
13 linear feet, (3 boxes, 22 oversize boxes)
Collection Number
WUA016
Summary
This collection contains materials that relate to Ralph W. Barnes' fourteen year career as a foreign correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune. Barnes reported in Europe from 1926 to 1940, and was stationed in Benito Mussolini's Italy, Joseph Stalin's Russia, and Adolf Hitler's Germany. The collection includes items related to Barnes' career as well as his personal life. Correspondence, journals, and scrapbooks created by his wife, Esther Barnes are also included. The majority of Barnes' published stories are documented in scrapbooks created by his father, E.T. Barnes. A notable item in this collection is a letter from Joseph Stalin to Barnes, written in 1933.
Repository
Willamette University Archives and Special Collections
Archives and Special Collections
Mark O. Hatfield Library
900 State Street
Salem, OR
97301
Telephone: 5033706866
Fax: 5033706141
archives@willamette.edu
Access Restrictions

This collection is open to researchers.

Languages
English
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Historical Note

Ralph Waldo Barnes was born on June 14, 1899 in Salem, Oregon to Edward Talbot Barnes and Mabel Nancy Baker Barnes. Barnes attended local public schools and graduated from Salem High School in 1917. The summer after graduation, Barnes took military training at St. John's Military Academy in Delafield, Wisconsin. He returned to Salem in the fall of 1918 to begin studies at Willamette University, but his studies were interrupted when his military reserve unit was called for training at Fort McArthur in Waco, Texas. He returned to Willamette and graduated in 1922 with a degree in history. After receiving a Master's degree in Economics from Harvard University, Barnes returned to Salem to marry his longtime sweetheart, Esther Parounagian, who had graduated from Willamette in 1923.

In 1924 Barnes and Esther moved to New York City where he found a job working for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. A brief stretch with the Evening World allowed Barnes to leverage himself into a position with the New York Herald Tribune, which he held from 1924 until his death in 1940.

His first assignment as a foreign correspondent took him to Paris, France in 1926. In 1930 Barnes was given a promotion and transferred to Rome, Italy where he reported under the rule of Benito Mussolini. In May of 1930, Esther gave birth to a daughter named Joan in Italy. Almost a year later, Barnes was transferred to Russia during the height of Joseph Stalin's government. He was assigned to the Moscow bureau where he reported from 1931 to 1935. Barnes was an avid reader and heavily supplemented his news reporting with background research. During his first month in Moscow, he wrote to his father "My Britannica is not here yet; hope to have it within a couple of weeks; for, without it, I feel like a nearsighted man who has lost his spectacles." In the fall of 1931, a second daughter, Suzanne, was born while Esther and Joan were in Paris.

Barnes was conscious of his unique position in Russia: "Here I'm one of a few observers of what is undoubtedly the most important experiment of this century; and perhaps for several centuries; either for good or bad." He carried this perspective to each of his subsequent posts throughout Europe.

Barnes left Moscow to take over the Berlin, Germany bureau in 1935 and spent four years under the rule of Adolph Hitler. In March of 1939, just before the start of the Second World War, he was offered a position as head of the London bureau in England. In 1940 Barnes returned to Berlin to report on the war. On June 21, 1940 he was expelled from Berlin for a story that government censors found abrasive. Due to escalating tensions in Europe, a few weeks earlier on June 2, Esther, Joan, and Suzanne returned to New York from Dublin, Ireland via the ship the U.S.S. Roosevelt.

Barnes continued traveling as a journalist, despite the expulsion, going from Berlin to Budapest, Hungary and then on to Bucharest, Romania and eventually Egypt. In Egypt, Barnes became an official war correspondent and was stationed with the British Army. When Italy invaded Greece, Barnes and the other correspondents accompanied the British forces to Greece on a warship. On November 17, 1940 Barnes was given permission to accompany the Royal Air Force (RAF) on a night raid. Weather conditions drove the plane off course, causing it to crash into a mountain range in Yugoslavia, killing all on board. Barnes was the first war correspondent to be killed in World War II. He was buried with military honors in Yugoslavia. Leland Stowe, a longtime friend and colleague of Barnes, wrote an obituary in which he quoted a war correspondent also assigned to the RAF, "Ralph always wanted to know everything about everything. He had to see for himself. He always asked more questions than the rest of us put together. Out in the desert he got interested in the stars, so he bought several books on astronomy as soon as he got back to Cairo. Of course, he was a veteran and we were lots of us younger than he, but he could never get over his enthusiasm." Three years after his death, a Liberty ship was christened the S.S. Ralph Barnes in his honor.

Esther raised her two daughters in Salem and married Chester Downs in 1946. Esther died in 1985 and is buried in Salem, Oregon.

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Content Description

The Ralph W. Barnes collection is arranged into four series: Series I. Ralph Barnes, 1918-1943; Series II. Esther Barnes, 1924-1940; Series III. E. T. Barnes, 1927-1940; and Series IV. Photographs, 1917-1943.

The collection contains letters, newspaper clippings, photographs, bound scrapbooks, passports, journals. There are also typed transcripts of Ralph and Esther Barnes' letters.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Library acts as "fair use" reproduction agent.

For further information, see the section on copyright in the Regulations and Procedures of the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library.

Copyright Information: Before material from collections at Willamette University Archives and Special Collections may be quoted in print, or otherwise reproduced, in whole or in part, in any publication, permission must be obtained from (1) the owner of the physical property, and (2) the holder of the copyright. It is the particular responsibility of the researcher to obtain both sets of permission. Persons wishing to quote from materials in any collections held by University Archives and Special Collections should consult the University Archivist. Reproduction of any item must contain a complete citation to the original.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Ralph W. Barnes papers, Archives and Special Collections, Mark O. Hatfield Library, Willamette University.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

These records are arranged into four series based upon creator. Each series is ordered by the type of material and is in chronological order.

Location of Collection

Mark O. Hatfield Library

Custodial History

Gift of Suzanne Barnes Morrison and Joan Barnes Kelly, January 17, 2008.

Related Materials

Robert C. Notson papers

Bibliography

Mahoney, Barbara S. 2002. Dispatches and dictators: Ralph Barnes for the Herald Tribune. 1st ed. Corvallis: Oregon State University Press.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Capitol Mall expansion (Salem, Or.)
  • Journalism
  • Kristallnacht, 1938
  • World War, 1914-1918--United States
  • World War, 1939-1945--Aerial operations, British
  • World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--Europe
  • World War, 1939-1945--United States

Personal Names

  • Barnes, Esther, 1901-1985
  • Duranty, Walter, 1884-1957
  • Franco, Francisco, 1892-1975
  • Hitler, Adolf, 1889-1945
  • Lenin, Vladimir Il'ich, 1870-1924
  • Lindbergh, Charles A. (Charles Augustus), 1902-1974
  • Mussolini, Benito, 1883-1945
  • Notson, Robert Carver, 1902-1999
  • Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945
  • Stalin, Joseph, 1878-1953

Corporate Names

  • Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Firm)
  • New York Herald Tribune (Firm)
  • New York Times Company
  • Willamette University

Geographical Names

  • Oregon
  • Red Square (Moscow, Russia)
  • Soviet Union--Economic policy--1928-1932
  • Soviet Union--Economic policy--1933-1937

Finding aid processed by Amanda Strauss.
2009

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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