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Guide to the Carlos Whiting Papers

This finding aid describes the Carlos Whiting Papers, part of the NPS History Collection. To search this guide for names, places, key words, or phrases enter Ctrl F on your keyboard (command key + F key on a Mac). Request an in-person research appointment or get more information by contacting the archivist.

Collection Overview

Collection Number: HFCA 3535
Accession Numbers: HFCA-01059
Creator: Whiting, Carlos S. (1922-2001)
Title: Carlos Whiting Papers
Dates: 1916, 1932-1970 (bulk dates: 1961-1970)
Extent: 0.4 LF
Language of Materials: English

Digitized copies: This collection has not been digitized. Requests to digitize the reel-to-reel tapes will require funding to contract for that work.

Conditions Governing Access: This collection is open to research use. However, the NPS History Collection does not have equipment to access the reel-to-reel recordings without digitization.
Conditions Governing Use: Most materials in this collection were not produced by the NPS and may not be in the public domain. See https://rightsstatements.org/page/CNE/1.0/?language=en. See also the NPS general copyright & restrictions information.
Provenance: Donated to the NPS by Carlos Whiting through the NPS Office of Information in 1989.
Processing Note: This collection was processed by Nancy J. Russell in March 2026.

Rights Statements for Archival Description: This guide is in the public domain.
Preferred Citation: Carlos Whiting Papers, NPS History Collection (HFCA 3535)
Location of Repository: NPS History Collection, Harpers Ferry Center, PO Box 50, Harpers Ferry, WV 25425

Related Materials:

Biographical Note

Carlos Seward Whiting was born March 16, 1922, in Tracy, Minnesota. As a sickly child he spent long stretches in hospitals and, as a result, had little formal elementary or secondary education. He served in the US Navy during World War II. Despite missing a lot of school as a youth, Whiting earned entrance to the University of Minnesota and completed a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Political Science in just two years, graduating in 1947. He began graduate work at the university, while working as a freelance writer, before moving to Washington, DC, in 1949 to be a speechwriter for Dr. Clarence Cottom, assistant director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Whiting married Wand B. De Mersseman on January 31, 1950, in Washington, DC. That year he also became assistant to the information officer at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). In 1951 he became editor of Our Public Lands, a quarterly BLM publication. Whiting also worked in the Public Affairs Division of the National Park Service (NPS) during the directorship of Conrad L. Wirth (1951-1964), writing speeches and other materials. He noted, “In the 16 years I was with the Department of the Interior as an information officer, I probably wrote a couple of million words in press releases, articles, speeches, etc., for various heads of agencies, the Secretary, and for encyclopedias.” He left the NPS around 1964.

In 1965 Whiting was contracted by Rand McNally and Company to write an “informal autobiography” of Director Wirth. Whiting was to be the writer while Wirth, also under contract with the publisher, would be the author. Whiting suggested to his editors that Wirth’s delays in working with him on the book were at least somewhat politically motivated. Certainly, Wirth’s busy schedule, combined with Whiting’s health issues, were also reasons why the book was never completed. A different book by Wirth, Parks, Politics, and the People, was published by the University of Oklahoma Press in 1980.

Whiting was a founder, vice president, and executive director of the Foundation of America, a nonprofit education organization dedicated to conservation, beautification, and the interpretation of American heritage. In 1971 he was a consultant to the US Department of Education.

Whiting died October 19, 2001, in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Sources:

--. 1951, May 14. “Carlos Whiting of Minneapolis is Editor of ‘Our Public Lands.’” Post-Bulletin (Rochester, Minnesota), p. 4.

--. 2001, October 25. “Carlos Whiting.” The Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City, Utah), p. A15.

Scope and Content Note

Correspondence between Carlos Whiting and editors at Rand McNally and Conrad Wirth regarding Wirth’s failed autobiography project, including contracts, Whiting’s vision for the book, and sample writings. Correspondence between Whiting and Wirth concerns efforts to coordinate on the book, including Wirth’s busy schedule and his concerns about Whiting’s health and ability to complete the project. Background research on Wirth and some of his writings or speeches are present. One reel-to-reel tape and associated notebook are from an interview Whiting did with Wirth on January 21, 1966, primarily about his early life and a few key government officials. Subjects of the other reel-to-reel tapes are unknown, but they could be interviews Wirth did for an update to Robert Shankland’s Steve Mather of the National Parks, which is mentioned with concern in the Rand McNally correspondence. Other topics include the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Mission 66, and early NPS history.

Arrangement

Arranged alphabetically by topic.

Container List

BOX 01
Folder 01: CCC: Account of Its Origins, Growth, and Work, 1938
Folder 02: CCC: Brochures, 1933-1939, undated
Folder 03: CCC: News Clippings, 1961-1964
Folder 04: CCC: The Sky Pilot of Massanutten Mountain, 1954, 1958, undated
Folder 05: CCC: Wirth Report, 1944
Folder 06: Correspondence: Conrad Wirth, 1965-1967
Folder 07: Correspondence: Rand McNally Editors, 1964-1970
Folder 08: Interviews: Conrad Wirth, January 21, 1966
Folders 09-10: Interviews: Unknown, undated
Folder 11: NPS: The Evolution of the National Park System of the United States by Paul Herman Buck [June 1921 thesis], 1946
Folder 12: NPS: General NPS and Mission 66, undated
Folder 13: NPS: Mackinac Island National Park, 1932, undated
Folder 14: NPS: Progress in the Development of the National Parks by Stephen T. Mather, 1916
Folder 15: NPS: 20th Anniversary National Park Supplement to Planning and Civic Comment, 1936
Folder 16: NPS: Youth Conservation Corps, April 1963
Folder 17: Research: Conrad Wirth, 1961-1963, undated

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Last updated: March 23, 2026