The Walter J. Brown Papers consists of advertisements, articles, artifacts, audio-visual materials, campaign materials, cartoons, clippings, correspondence, a day book, editorials, executive orders, galley proofs, journals, laws and legal documents, a ledger, legislative bills, lists, maps, minutes, petitions, postcards, photographs, publications, reports, scrapbooks, speeches, telegrams, transcripts, and other items.

Materials in this collection cover the period 1879-1995, with the bulk of the papers dating from 1915-1988.

The papers are arranged alphabetically by folder title. Artifacts, photographs and oversize items have been placed in artifacts, photographs and oversize storage. Publications by Tom Watson have been cataloged and put in the book collection.

The Walter J. Brown Papers document his media career in and his government service with the Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion during World War II and with the U.S. Department of State. There is also material relating to his personal life; his interest and involvement in politics; his role in the economic development of Spartanburg, SC; and the writing of his two books on J. J. Brown/Tom Watson and James F. Byrnes.

Of particular interest to researchers are the journals Brown kept between April 1943 and November 1945. They include information on the day-to-day activities the State Department and of OWMR, including economic statistics such as the costs of various products; politics, especially the potential vice presidential candidacy of James F. Byrnes in 1944; and the London and Potsdam Conferences. The latter are supplemented by notes taken at both conferences filed with the journals and journal extracts in folders relating to Byrnes. There are also two sets of transcripts, denoted as "A" and "B," that were probably created in the 1970's or early 1980's. These are less word-for-word transcriptions of the journals than re-workings of them, probably for use in James F. Byrnes of South Carolina: A Remembrance. Transcript "B" tends to be a little more detailed than transcript "A."

The materials concerning his books J. J. Brown and Thomas E. Watson-Georgia Politics 1912-1928 and James F. Byrnes of South Carolina: A Remembrance include both research material and, in the case of James F. Byrnes, material resulting from their work together and their long friendship. There is a good deal of correspondence between Brown and Byrnes in the collection and numerous files relating to Byrnes' career. The State Department-related files include those for the London and Potsdam Conferences, which have the journal extracts alluded to above. Material relating to his father J. J. Brown includes the 1923 Report of Special Committee Investigating the Dept. of Ag. and J. J. Brown, while that for U.S. Congressman and Senator Tom Watson includes material on his publishing company (including a day book); copies of The Jeffersonian for 1915 and 1917 on the Leo Frank case, anti-Catholicism, and opposition to American entry into World War I; and the report of his 1916 trial on obscenity charges. There is also correspondence concerning the his research and to the publication of the two books, galleys (circa 1992) for the Byrnes book, a 1986 manuscript for the Brown/Watson book, a 1982 manuscript that contains both books, and computer discs for the 1986 versions of both books.

Related to Brown's interest in Watson was his interest in Brown's home, Hickory Hill and by extension the town of Thomson, Georgia. There is correspondence concerning the possibility of Brown renting Hickory Hill and his successful 1947 purchase of the property. Additional correspondence deals with the running of the Hickory Hill dairy and farms, while other material concerns its eventual designation as a historic site.

He was also worked for, and was interested in, the career of Alabama politician J. Thomas Heflin. Brown helped arrange Heflin's lecture tours, although almost all of the correspondence in the collection is to and from Heflin's secretary, J. L. Thornton. The papers contain posters and other advertisements for Heflin's lecture tours. Brown also reported on J. Thomas Heflin's 1930 Senate campaign and in addition to his stories there are copies of campaign advertisements and issues of a local newspaper, the Abbeville (Alabama) Independent. A small amount of research material on Heflin can be found in the collection as well.

There is extensive documentation of Brown's interest and involvement in politics in the papers. In addition to political correspondence files and others relating to elections. political figures, and presidential inaugurations, there are materials relating to political party conventions Brown attended, especially the Democratic National Conventions of 1944, 1948, 1956, 1976, and 1988 and the Republican National Conventions of 1976 and 1988. There is little that documents the election of 1960, however. Brown also acted as a public relations consultant to Burnet Maybank's 1941 Senatorial campaign; Strom Thurmond's 1948 Presidential campaign and his 1950 and 1954 Senatorial campaigns; and Donald Russell's 1958 gubernatorial campaign. All of these campaigns are fully documented in the collection.

Brown was involved in opposing the relocation I-85 around Spartanburg in the 1980's because he was convinced it would have a detrimental economic impact on the city. The collection reflects his efforts to prevent the relocation, containing correspondence with U.S. Congressman Carroll Campbell (4th District), U.S. Senators Ernest Hollings and Strom Thurmond, the State Department of Transportation, the Federal Highway Administration, and others. Other materials relating to this topic include engineering reports, maps, and photographs.

A few files document his participation in the Spartanburg Area Chamber of Commerce and other economic development efforts. There are also a small number of items relating to Spartan Communications and WSPA, including some material that may have been used to help write his on-air editorials as well as files concerning his term as president of the South Carolina Broadcasting Association. A number of letters in the collection refer to the long legal fight to build a broadcasting tower on Hogback Mountain for WSPA.

Brown visited to various countries in Asia, the Caribbean Europe, and North and South America and the papers contain brochures, correspondence, itineraries, maps, and other items relating to his travel. Also included are editorials on some of the places he visited. Those relating to his visit to the Soviet Union in 1969 became the article A Visit Behind the Iron Curtain, which is also in the collection.

The collection contains a number of scrapbooks, which have a card file index. They include articles by Brown and his "Around Washington" and "Sense and Nonsense Along the Potomac" columns, as well as covering such topics as anti-Catholicism, especially in regard to public schools; James F. Byrnes; civil rights and segregation; Georgia politics; J. Thomas Heflin; Burnet R. Maybank; national politics, especially the 1948 presidential campaign; OWMR and the war effort; Donald Russell's 1958 gubernatorial campaign; prominent South Carolinians in Washington, D.C., including Leonore Fuller, Byrnes' sister; South Carolina politics; and Strom Thurmond's 1954 write-in campaign for the Senate. One of the scrapbooks appears to have also served as a ledger book for Tom Watson's Jeffersonian Publishing Company.

The photographs in the papers are chiefly of Brown, his family and the Watson family, James F. Byrnes, Hickory Hill, I-85 between Atlanta, GA and Spartanburg, SC and those taken during the Potsdam Conference. There are also photographs of Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon as well as historic photographs and postcards of Thomson, GA. Other audio-visual materials include sound recordings of political advertisements, political commentary, and of eulogies given at the funeral of James F. Byrnes. Finally, there a number of artifacts such as German coins, convention delegate badges and press credentials, a patch, a plaque, political buttons, tokens, and small pieces of rubble from Berchtesgaden, Germany in the collection.

Other correspondents or other authors represented in the collection include Turner Catledge, executive editor of the New York Times; lawyers Robert Figg and C. C. Wyche; journalist Porter McKeever; businessman Roger Peace; and Richard B. Russell, Jr., U.S. Senator from Georgia. There is also correspondence with members of the Brown family, especially with his father, John Judson Brown and his brother Sylvester V. Brown.

The bulk of the material relating to Spartan Communications and other media-related enterprises is at the South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina. The Walter J. Brown Media Archives is at the University of Georgia.