a guide - The George C. Marshall Foundation

The General and Selected correspondence subseries are
preceded by alphabetically arranged cross-reference sheets.
These sheets, created by Marshall's office staff, provided both
"see" and "see also" references. Researchers should be aware
of three problems regarding these sheets: I) the references are
not inclusive; 2) references are made to some files that were in
General Marshall's office, but that are not here in his personal
papers; 3) references are made between the general and the
selected correspondence. The "dead end" reference sheets,
mentioned in point number two, have been left here, as they
are suggestive of the body of papers, greater than this collection,
which made up General Marshall's office files. They may
also refer to papers in official files of the Office of Chief of
Staff.
a. General Correspondence
The general correspondence is 23 feet in size, including 31/2
linear feet of cross-reference sheets. Five broad types of correspondence
predominate: I) selectees (those drafted into military
service) and their relatives writing about their problems
and concerns; 2) the general public writing to Marshall as
Army Chief of Staff on a wide range of topics; 3) correspondence
with friends, associates, and acquaintances of Marshall;
4) Marshall's private business; and, 5) semi-official correspondence
concerning army matters. As one might surmise
from this description, the research value of this correspondence
varies widely.
b. Selected Correspondence
The 20 linear feet of selected correspondence (so-called
because this correspondence was selected from all of the
incoming mail and from all of the outgoing carbon copies,
and filed in a lock-safe cabinet in the Chief of Staffs inner
office) is easily the richest area of the Papers. In scanning the
container list of this subseries, one finds the names of many of
the leading military and political figures of the Allied Forces
from the World War II period, as well as the names of world
political and diplomatic leaders. Much of the correspondence
was security classified at the time of its creation.
In addition to the cross-reference sheets mentioned above,
this subseries is preceded by a card index to the parts of the
correspondence from the period 1942:::1945. This card file,
which alphabetically lists correspondents'names and gives
subject entries as well, was created by Mona Nason, secretary
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