The Guardian records are divided into four series. The first series consists of minutes and agenda material for meetings of the Coordinating Committee, the staff organization that determined the management and editorial policy during the second phase of the newspaper's existence. The second series consists of a small number of subject files primarily dating from the second phase of the Guardian's history. The third series consists of a reference library created and used during the paper's early history. The fourth series consists of visual materials. In the comments that follow, the early years of the paper are referred to as the National Guardian era, while the later period is consistently referred to as the Guardian era.
Taken together, the records provide incomplete coverage of the weekly's 44-year history. As a consequence, the paper itself, which is available on microfilm in the Wisconsin Historical Society Library, provides the best overall historical documentation. The separately catalogued papers of James Aronson also held by the Historical Society contain additional information on his eighteen years with the paper.
The first series, the COORDINATING COMMITTEE FILES, dates from the reorganization of the paper as a worker cooperative in 1967 until its dissolution. However, coverage becomes extensive only after the late 1970s. The committee files are comprised of meeting agenda, minutes, and occasional notes; and chronologically-arranged internal memoranda, policy papers, correspondence, and other material that supported the committee discussions. The minutes and agenda come from files maintained by Editor Jack A. Smith, 1966-1982, and, after his resignation, from files separately donated by Anna DeCormis, a member of the staff. Although the records documenting the history of the paper are limited, the Coordinating Committee documented the issues it discussed via long policy papers and memoranda which provide good overall coverage of the editorial, ideological, and personal issues that marked the Guardian's history.
A small group of SUBJECT FILES includes some basic documents on the newspaper's legal status such as by-laws and articles of incorporation pertaining to both phases of its history, but the Guardian's later years are the predominant subject. Among the topics treated are ideological study groups and the tours to China and Cuba sponsored by the paper. The subject files also contain information on its support for foreign correspondent Wilfred Burchett, which continued until 1979. Burchett's correspondence consists of exchanges with Smith, Silber, and Irving Beinin about his reporting and ongoing financial problems. There is also some editorial correspondence with Anna Louis Strong, another longtime foreign correspondent. There are no true financial records in the collection, although some circulation reports and financial information may be found in the subject files and the policy papers. The file on Marilyn Clement, a professional fundraiser, documents an unsuccessful attempt to improve the Guardian's financial position. These files contain several folders of brief correspondence of Irving Silber, 1972-1977, exchanged with Cedric Belfrage, Carl and Anne Braden, and others.
The VISUAL MATERIALS consist of photographs, negatives, transparencies, and a videorecording. The visual materials primarily document the work of individual staff members and staff events that took place during the later years of the paper's existence. Among the prominent individuals pictured are Arthur Kinoy, Norma Becker, Ossie Davis, William Kuntsler, and Pete Seeger. The images from the paper's early history (1951-1967) consist of contact sheets of civil rights and anti-Vietnam War demonstrations and other events covered by the National Guardian's own photographers. There are also transparencies used for two anniversary events. The videorecording is of James Aronson and Cedric Belfrage discussing how they attempted the idea of a “independent left newspaper” post-World War II.
Most of the Guardian's news photography (33 linear feet) was donated to the Tamiment Library. Those images are thought to be wire service images, but they may include some photographs taken by the newspaper's own photographers.
With a few exceptions, the NATIONAL GUARDIAN LIBRARY FILES are the only material in the collection that documents the paper's early history. Better, but incomplete information on this period may be found in the papers of editor James Aronson, which are also held by the Historical Society, and in Something to Guard: the Stormy Life of the National Guardian, the history written by Aronson and Belfrage in 1978. The library files are divided under domestic and foreign headings. The domestic files were heavily weeded to remove secondary political information that is widely available in printed sources such as the New York Times, New York Herald Tribune, Federated Press, Newsweek, Daily Worker, or in archival collections held by the American Friends Service Committee, the National Archives, the United Nations Archives, and various labor union archives, as well as the Wisconsin Historical Society. Remaining are clippings and press releases from more obscure sources and occasional editorial correspondence and manuscript articles. The files document well a host of domestic organizations and topics that the National Guardian reported on such as the civil rights of African Americans; the House Un-American Activities Committee; and numerous individual civil liberties, loyalty oath, and sedition cases. There are also press releases for unions whose archives could not be readily located; these were primarily CIO unions such as the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union, the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers, and the National Union of Marine Cooks and Stewards. Also represented are the New York-based American Labor Party and numerous state committees of the Progressive Party.
The FOREIGN FILES were weeded less heavily. Remaining here are official releases from foreign governments, news stories distributed by international news services (many of which are in highly deteriorated condition), as well as additional editorial correspondence and news stories. Releases from the Washington D.C. embassies of Poland and the Soviet Union are numerous. Original news stories submitted by the National Guardian's foreign correspondents, some of which were probably not published, are among the most valuable parts of the Guardian records. These articles document news events in China; Germany; Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Eastern Europe; Japan; Korea; Vietnam; and the Soviet Union. The foreign files are complemented by additional correspondence and news stories in the James Aronson papers also held by the Wisconsin Historical Society.
