The Russell Barnes papers span the years 1920-1978. The bulk of the material concerns the period 1941-1953, the years Barnes spent as foreign correspondent for the Detroit News and the three-year interval during which he served in the Office of War Information.
The collection consists primarily of scrapbooks of his news stories, OWT leaflets, collected propaganda, and letters which he sent to his wife Constance, and, less frequently, to his children, Jeannot (Lucie Jeanne) and Jamie (John James Ingalls) while overseas and in New York. The most detailed description of his professional activities can be found in the letters he wrote during the months at the OWI in New York. He discusses the OWI personnel, its reorganization and the conflict with the OSS. The letters from the OWI Cairo and Algiers contain lively discussions of local customs and the rigors of life there, but are constrained by war-time censorship and thus shed less light than might be expected on his role as PWB director. The letters written while he covered the U.N. sometimes reflect the tense atmosphere there and the pressure brought to bear upon newsmen to take a stand on the issues they report. Barnes also discusses the power struggle in the Detroit Foreign Policy Association.
Russell Curtis Barnes was born in Huntington, Indiana on August 31, 1897, the son of James F. and Lucy A. (Stewart) Barnes. There he attended high school and worked for the Huntington Press before entering the University of Michigan. During his years at the University, Barnes was active in a variety of student activities including working for the Michigan Daily, the Gargoyle, and the Wolverine and writing the book and lyrics for two Michigan Union Opera productions. In addition, he acted as campus correspondent for the Detroit News. In 1920 he received his A.B. degree in economics.
Immediately after graduation Barnes began full-time work at the Detroit News. During the years 1920-1925 he reported from the Detroit, Lansing and Washington news bureaus. In 1925 he was assigned to Paris as foreign correspondent. While there he met Constance Ingalls and they were married in 1927.
Barnes returned to the U.S. in 1931, again assigned to cover stories in Detroit, Lansing and Washington. During this time he also became a radio commentator on Detroit News Station WWJ. In 1937 he organized the Detroit Committee on Foreign Relations and became its first secretary.
Barnes was made London correspondent in 1941 and reported on the effects of the war there for the Detroit News, WWJ, and for the North American Newspaper Alliance. However, he was recalled for assignments in the U.S. before the end of the year.
In 1942 Barnes received a leave of absence from the Detroit News to join the Office of War Information in New York. Here he compiled war news stories and made overseas broadcasts for the Voice Of America. By February of 1943 he was appointed Special Assistant to the American Minister to Egypt and General Representative of the Overseas Operations Branch of the OWI. In this capacity Barnes acted as one of the two press officers allowed to attend the Cairo and Teheran conferences of Allied leaders. In 1944 he became chief of the OWI, Mediterranean Theater and director of the Psychological Warfare Bureau, Allied Forces Headquarters. He commanded over 4,000 men in the preparation and dissemination of propaganda in preparation for the Allied invasion in August 1944. In addition, he was responsible for the overall distribution of news in print and on radio in Italy, North Africa and the Middle East. After his resignation from the post in 1945 he received the War Department's Exceptional Civilian Service Emblem.
Rejoining the Detroit News as foreign correspondent, Barnes sent back stories from numerous foreign countries and covered the Paris Peace Conference and other meetings of national leaders before returning to New York as United Nations correspondent. In 1953 he returned to Detroit to become the newspaper's foreign news analyst until his retirement in 1970. During that time and since his retirement Barnes has been active as a lecturer on politics and foreign affairs at Oakland Community College and for a variety of community organizations.
