The Jackson Papers are an assemblage of correspondence, photographs, clippings, fiction and non-fiction writings, samples of public relations work, and other original documents, together with an extended personal and professional autobiography. The papers are arranged as ENGAGEMENT CALENDARS and a CAREER NARRATIVE. The ENGAGEMENT CALENDARS are arranged chronologically; the CAREER NARRATIVE is arranged by file number.
The ENGAGEMENT CALENDARS cover the period 1968 to 1985. Although they do not document Jackson's active career, they have been retained because they contain diary-like notations about the nature of retirement in the late twentieth century.
The CAREER NARRATIVE section is substantially as it was received from the donor -- numbered files that correspond to chronological periods or topics in Jackson's career. Each folder consists of the relevant portion of Jackson's memoir, together with original material he selected to illustrate that phase of his life.
The narrative was prepared in 1986 to accompany the donation of the papers to the Wisconsin Historical Society's Mass Communications History Center, although it includes some pages apparently prepared earlier for other purposes. (These pages are identified within the typed autobiographical pages by a different numbering scheme and by the presence of clipped corners.)
The original documents in the CAREER NARRATIVE section represent consciously selected items rather than complete, organic files. While a portion of the documents in each file are contemporary with the period they were selected to illustrate, a substantial number consist of reminiscent references in later, personal correspondence. The files are arranged by number as they were by the donor, except that several files that Jackson failed to number have been incorporated by the Archives; these additions are indicated in the contents list by the inclusion of a decimal in the numbering sequence.
While the absence of complete, organic files limits the value of this collection for the study of corporate communications, the papers do include many examples of Jackson's work, including newspapers and magazines produced for Hoover, Western Electric, and the National Passenger Traffic Association, as well as a packet of material developed for the Treasury Department to increase war bond sales. A complete run of Firepower, which he developed for the military during World War II is available in the government documents section of the Wisconsin Historical Society Library, while Steelways, which he edited for twenty years, is available in the University of Wisconsin Engineering Library.
The papers contain numerous professional articles and speeches delivered by Jackson and two binders of articles and other background material about the field of corporate communications apparently collected by Jackson to facilitate these talks. There is also correspondence, notes, and drafts relating to “Day of Corporate Change,” an unpublished book on corporate communications.
The papers also complement documentation about Jackson's professional career in the John W. Hill Papers held by the Historical Society. The Jackson Papers are most useful in this regard for the commentary they provide about individuals employed by H&K, by their background about Steelways and public relations audits, and by the supplementary reports and correspondence on Jackson's tour of Southeast Asia to study the impact of emerging nationalism on Caltex investments. Also included are numerous Steelways progress reports and examples of publications Jackson produced for AISI and its community relations program.
Direct Lines is documented by files on several clients that Jackson represented or attempted to represent. The narrative about these episodes contains some interesting comments about the reasons for Jackson's lack of business success during this period of his career.
Apart from its application to communications studies, the Jackson Papers are of interest to research in other areas. His two years of teaching at the American University in Cairo are well documented by letters to his family, numerous articles, and a memoir about his experiences. Jackson also included files on several individuals who affected his professional development such as Kenneth F. Cook of Standard Oil and Robert Newcomb of the National Council of Industrial Editors as well as friends such as Douglas Coulter and classmates from Lafayette College. The effect of being raised by a single parent when that condition was relatively rare is reflected on at length in the memoir, as are the circumstances surrounding the death of his first wife from cancer. Taken as a whole, the collection and its somewhat self-conscious third-person memoir should be of interest to researchers interested in the study of autobiography.
