Neil MacNeil’s Collection
156 MacNeil, Neil, Collection, ca. 1940-2008
The Dirksen Congressional Center, Pekin, Illinois, houses the MacNeil Collection. The reporter’s daughter, Deirdre, donated the collection in August 2012 following its use by Richard A. Baker, Historian Emeritus of the U.S. Senate, who consulted the collection in order to complete a manuscript on the history of the Senate begun by MacNeil.
MacNeil’s reports, filed with his senior editors, comprise the heart of his collection. They are typed and detailed and cover a vast array of topics. These reports document the interplay between MacNeil, the reporter, and his editors. Further, they include off-the-record information as context for published stories. Together the reports portray the time period in a personal, colorful, and informed way.
Although the first report authored by MacNeil was dated April 3, 1958, his collection includes earlier reports from other Time reporters, likely retrieved from the magazine’s archives as background research for MacNeil’s own reports.
“Neil MacNeil Reporting on Everett McKinley Dirksen” transcribes every report in his collection that mentioned Everett Dirksen by name.
Explanatory Notes
MacNeil’s reports took two forms. Many were prepared in draft form using a typewriter often with handwritten corrections and annotations. Others appeared in final form with the text in ALL CAPS. In relatively few cases, both versions exist for a single report.
To improve readability, and yet preserve MacNeil’s style, the editor adopted the following conventions:
- Although MacNeil’s final reports were filed in ALL CAPs, this transcript employs standard rules of capitalization.
- Minor errors of spelling and punctuation have been corrected. Major errors are noted by [sic].
- The reporter varied his spelling of certain terms. For example, he spelled Vietnam as both a single and as two words, i.e., Viet Nam. The transcript adopted a consistent approach—in this case converting all references to “Vietnam.”
As rich and thorough as the Reports series is, there are gaps, indicating that MacNeil did not save all his filings. There are relatively few documents between 1962 and 1964, and there are no reports on the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964.
“Neil MacNeil Reporting on Everett McKinley Dirksen” is organized chronologically. The header for each entry lists the date, the author’s name (usually MacNeil), the person to whom the report was sent, and the title notation. In the vast majority of cases, several reports or drafts on a single topic apparently were prepared—a Roman numeral designated the version. There are many omissions in those cases where MacNeil prepared multiple drafts.
The Neil MacNeil collection is divided into the following series which are described in more detail in the accompanying guide: (1) Clippings, (2) Notes, (3) Reports, (4) Subjects, and (5) Miscellaneous.
Clippings, 13 linear feet
MacNeil appears to have been an inveterate keeper of news clippings. Occasionally these clippings were organized by subject but rarely so and never consistently. Because of their deteriorating condition and their adverse impact on surrounding materials, the clippings were removed and separated into an unsorted series.
For researchers who are interested in MacNeil’s reading habits, it would be safe to assume that he read the following publications closely and clipped from them extensively on all subjects political and congressional: New York Times, Washington Post, Roll Call, Congressional Record, Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, with occasional clippings from other sources.
This series will not be processed further.
Notes, 6.5 linear feet
Typically, MacNeil recorded research notes on notecards, again poorly organized by subject or simply not organized at all. In cases where the subject categorization made sense, it is preserved. But the vast majority of his notes were in no order. Use of them is further complicated in that MacNeil’s handwriting borders on illegible.
Reports
MacNeil’s reports, filed with his senior editors, comprise the heart of his collection. They are typed and detailed and cover a vast array of topics. These reports document the interplay between MacNeil, the reporter, and his editors. Further, they include off-the-record information as context for published stories. Together, the reports portray the time period in a personal, colorful, and informed way. The reporting is particularly strong for the start and end of individual Congresses, the various State of the Union addresses, the relationship between presidents and Congress, lobbying, the Watergate scandal, Senate consideration of the Panama Canal treaties and the SALT II treaty, the President Jimmy Carter’s proposal to sell military aircraft to three Middle East nations, the Iranian hostage crisis, Senator Ted Kennedy’s career and presidential hopes (see October 1979), various proposals for congressional reform, President Ronald Reagan’s budget and tax reduction proposals (Reagonomics) and the Democratic response (1981-82), Social Security reform efforts (1982), the congressional response to the attack on U.S. Marines in Lebanon (1983), and the state of ethics in America and in government (1987).
In cases pre-dating MacNeil’s reporting for Time, which began in 1958, occasional reports by MacNeil’s colleagues are included. MacNeil requested these reports as reference material for subsequent stories he authored.
Approximately three linear feet of MacNeil’s reports have been withdrawn from research because of their fragile condition. Preservation photocopies replace them in the series.
Organized chronologically, a list of the subjects his reporting covered is part of this guide and follows. Although this series is substantial, there are apparent gaps, suggesting that not all of MacNeil’s reports survived in his collection. There is no reporting related to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, for example.
Subjects, 6 linear feet
The Subject series is organized alphabetically.
MacNeil compiled research information in this series for use in his reporting. Unfortunately, his original organization had several flaws: (1) he used subject headings inconsistently; (2) his subject descriptors sometimes failed to convey the nature of the materials; (3) often a single subject file contained completely unrelated information; and (4) the series contained an abundance of news clippings.
To make the information available in useable form, the processing staff removed the clippings, created a more reliable subject organization, and separated MacNeil’s handwritten notes in a separate subject series, “Notes.”
The Subject series includes a Personal file featuring correspondence, book proposals and edits, and some business and family records.
A folder list for the Subjects series is part of this guide and follows; the individual contents have not been further processed.
Miscellaneous, 3 linear feet
This series consists mainly of books and publications about Congress.
Notes | Folder List
Any organizational scheme based on subject headings is imperfect, and that certainly holds true in MacNeil’s papers. Similar notes exist under different subject headings. For example, MacNeil’s notes about Senate leadership are found in the chronological series, under the names of individual senators, under “Senate,” and, of course, under “Senate leadership.”
Chronological series, 1780-2000+. Notes about congressional events in that time period organized by decade.
