Marriner S. Eccles papers
Collection
Identifier: MS 0178
Scope and Contents
The Marriner S. Eccles papers (1910-1985) chronicles the years when Eccles made his greatest contributions as a national and international fiscal and monetary expert, businessman, and public figure.
There are four distinct periods in the life of Marriner S. Eccles. The first period, his formative years, dates from his birth in 1890 to the death of his father, David Eccles, in 1912. The second period is from 1912 until 1934 when, following in the footsteps of his father, he became the most successful entrepreneur in Utah. During this time he assumed control of several western companies and created the First Security Corporation, the largest bank system in the Intermountain area. Neither of these periods is well documented by his papers, but each is covered by two books: Beckoning Frontiers, his autobiography completed with the assistance of Sidney Hyman in 1951, and his later biography, Marriner S. Eccles: Private Entrepreneur and Public Servant, written by Hyman and published just prior to Eccles' death in 1977.
Background Information
The most significant section of the collection, the Washington Years, boxes 2-112, provides insight into Eccles' activities during the third period in his life, 1934-1951. During these years he served for a brief period in 1934 at the United States Treasury Department in Washington, D. C., and then as both governor and chairman of the nation's bank regulatory agency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. His papers from the Federal Reserve section of his collection, his library, and the accompanying ephemera substantiate the importance of his role in Washington during the New Deal period, World War II, the postwar recovery, and the beginning of the Cold War.
The last period of his life, 1951-1977, is documented under the heading Businessman and Public Figure, boxes 113-240. This section of his papers reflects his role as an international businessman and an outspoken critic of many of the country's economic, social, and foreign policies.
The Federal Reserve papers were originally organized in loose-leaf binders by Va Lois Egbert, secretary to Eccles for almost three decades. Her apparent intention was to place material in order of its apparent subject importance. Correspondence to and from the White House were thus placed first in the collection in chronological order. Several years before the Marriott Library received the material, Eccles permitted Dean May, then a graduate student and now a member of the history faculty at the University of Utah, to microfilm the material in the binders. After the library received the collection and some initial processing had taken place, the decision was made to remove the material from the binders and place it in folders in document boxes. Although some reordering of the material was done, much of the original arrangement has been retained. The original order may be seen by viewing both the microfilm reels and the photocopies of May's "Guide to Marriner S. Eccles Washington Papers," found in box 234.
Box 1, containing Eccles' biographical material, begins the Federal Reserve section. It is followed by six boxes of correspondence between Eccles and Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman and their staffs. Federal Reserve Board reorganization materials, 1934-1950, including reports from the Hoover Commission and the Commission on the Organization of the Executive Branch, are found in box 8. Many of the experiences Eccles had with the Treasury Department, 1934-1951, are documented in boxes 9-12. The letters, memoranda, and reports in this section reveal some of the friction between the Federal Reserve Board and the Treasury which resulted in the Accord of 1951. See boxes 61-62. Materials found in boxes 13-16 describe the drafting and passage of the Banking Act of 1935. Removing control from the Federal Reserve Banks across the country and placing it in the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, this act changed the name and structure of the Board and centralized the power of the Federal Reserve System. Eccles believed the act, for which he was chiefly responsible, was his major accomplishment in Washington. Boxes 17-23 contain additional material about the Banking Act of 1935 and the effect it had on bank-holding companies, including Transamerica, the holding company for Bank of America. Reports published in 1948 speculated that the Giannini family, who controlled Bank of America, may have been responsible for Eccles' demotion as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. During the depression, the chief concern was how to raise sufficient revenues from a still-depressed economy; by the 1940s, the major issue was how best to generate sufficient revenues for national defense and still protect the economy from the inflationary pressures resulting from enormous war-time spending. Reports, memoranda, studies, and other items pertaining to taxation policies, 1934-1951, prepared mostly by Board staff members, are included in boxes 24-26.
One of Eccles' major accomplishments during the early 1930s was to successfully establish the Federal Housing Authority (FHA). Boxes 27-29 feature material on housing related issues, 1934-1951, but contain little material about the creation of the FHA.
Economic stabilization during and following World War II was a matter of grave concern to Eccles. He felt that the Truman administration had not taken the measures necessary to combat postwar inflation. Boxes 30-38 contain material about strategies for dealing with the postwar world. Included is some material from the Bretton Woods Conference Eccles attended in 1944.
The next part of the collection, boxes 39-56, represents many issues of importance. Some of the materials include correspondence and addresses, confidential correspondence, the Eccles-Byrd controversy, gold and capital issues, and other miscellaneous correspondence. Correspondence with members of Congress is found in boxes 56-57; information about prospective members of the Federal Reserve Board is located in boxes 58-60; material about the 1951 Accord, when the Board finally asserted its independence from the Treasury, is found in boxes 61-62; Eccles' testimonies, some of which are duplicated in his scrapbooks, are found in boxes 63-71; and Lauchlin Currie memoranda, 1934-1939, are in boxes 72-73. Currie, for whom Eccles had great respect, was long associated with the Board in a staff position. Speeches for the years 1925-1951, some of which is duplicated in Eccles' scrapbooks, are found in boxes 74-86. An abundance of miscellaneous material is contained in boxes 87-112.
Businessman and Public Figure Papers
The second section of the papers, boxes 113-240, covers the fourth period of Eccles' life, from 1951 when he left Washington, D.C., until his death in December 1977. During that period he divided his time between Salt Lake City, where he resumed control of the First Security banking system, and San Francisco, where Utah Construction was headquartered. Eccles was chairman of the board of Utah Construction, a company with world-wide interests in mining and construction. The Stewart Library at Weber State College has Utah Construction records, 1906-1961. His papers do not directly document his role as a businessman, but rather are reflective of his role as a public figure speaking out often against the foreign policy of the US government. He was particularly opposed to its policies in Southeast Asia, where Utah Construction had many interests. Eccles also took a strong stand against over-poplation and was a supporter of groups such as Zero Population and Planned Parenthood.
Personal correspondence and public speeches arranged chronologically from 1951 to May 1972, when Eccles gave his last public address, are located in boxes 113-133. During the early 1950s he usually spoke on monetary and fiscal topics. By 1957 he had begun to question US Cold War policies and believed the United States should recognize Red China. By 1959 over-population was an issue which Eccles addressed often. His next area of interest and the one about which he spoke most vociferously was the involvement of the United States in Vietnam. Speeches on this topic are accompanied by related correspondence. Box 133, folder 1, provides an index to Eccles' speeches, statements, and testimonies.
Eccles' interest in politics continued, and he corresponded frequently with political figures; boxes 134-147 contain material which cover these topics. Boxes 134-135 feature material from Eccles' unsuccessful campaign for the Utah Republican senatorial nomination against incumbent Arthur Watkins in 1952. United States foreign policy, vis-a-vis China, is the topic of material in boxes 146-147, although correspondence with members of Congress is held in boxes 193-196.
The issue of population control, during the 1950s through the 1970s, is the subject matter of boxes 148-159. Included are addresses by Eccles and others, correspondence, reports, and a sampling of published items from various organizations concerned with the problem of over-population.
Eccles was one of the first members of the business community to protest US involvement in Vietnam. Boxes 160-167 contain articles, speeches, newsclippings, reports, publications, and correspondence of Eccles and others who inveighed against America's Asian policy.
The American Assembly, the Commission on Money and Credit, the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, the Atlantic Council, and the Hall of Fame are all organizations with which Eccles was associated in the last two decades of his life. Material reflecting his involvement is found in boxes 168-179.
The largest correspondence section of the collection is located in boxes 180-211. General correspondence is arranged alphabetically in boxes 180-192. Boxes 193-196 hold correspondence with members of Congress; box 197 with Federal Reserve Board members and bank officers; box 198 with universities; boxes 199-203 related to his autobiography and biography. Boxes 204-208 contain invitations; boxes 209-210, Christmas greetings, 1934-1974; and, in box 211, are condolences to Mrs. Sallie Eccles upon the death of her husband.
Most of the materials dealing with corporate interests are found in boxes 212-220. Included are limited correspondence and annual reports from Pet Milk Company, Utah International (formerly Utah Construction), Amalgamated Sugar, and the First Security Corporation. In view of the extent of Eccles' participation in these companies, there is little substantive material.
The final general heading for this section is Miscellanea. Included are manuscripts of Eccles' biography and autobiography and manuscripts of other works related to his career. Journal articles written by and about Eccles are in boxes 228-230. In some cases these duplicate the Eccles scrapbooks retained in the Eccles Room, as well as material found in boxes 90-91.
Papers about Eccles from other repositories-the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, the Harry S. Truman Library, the Library of Congress, the University of Virginia Library, and the National Archives-are found in boxes 231-233.
The final part of this section, boxes 234-240, includes the microfilm by Dean May of the Washington files, cassette and reel-to-reel tape recordings, daybooks from 1966-1977, and materials that have become available since the collection was initially processed.
A second component of the collection is the Eccles library, which consists of approximately 1000 books pertaining to his interests, career, the New Deal, and the 1940s. Government documents relating to the time he spent in Washington, D.C., as well as a number of indexed, bound volumes prepared by Va Lois Egbert, complete the library.
The Eccles Library contains volumes on banking and finance, economic treatises, the Roosevelt years, and a large number of books from the American Assembly series. The library is based on Eccles' original, private collection, which was augmented before the collection was received by the Manuscripts Division. The book collection provides background material for researchers interested not only in Eccles' career, but also the economic and political events occuring during the 1930s and 1940s.
The government documents section of the Eccles Library contains bound copies of the Federal Open Market Committee Minutes, 1936-1975; Federal Reserve Bulletin, 1966-present; annual reports from the Federal Reserve Board and other government agencies; soft-cover reports from the 1940s dealing with post-war recovery; and Proceedings from the Bretton Woods Conference, 1944.
Of the bound volumes of scrapbooks containing newsclippings, magazine articles, testimonies, cartoons, and other items organized by Miss Egbert, the most useful may be the set of newsclippings. The articles begin in 1922, but only ten are dated prior to 1933. These clippings originated from Utah, Washington, D. C., New York, and points between. They provide extensive coverage of Eccles' career from 1933 forward-the period covered by his papers. To ensure their long-term preservation, these clippings were photocopied and placed in archival folders and boxes.
Other scrapbooks include printed copies of Eccles' addresses, 1925-1975; testimonies, 1933-1951; cartoons, 1935-1951; invitations, 1934-1951; magazine articles by and about Eccles; day books, 1937-1951; and miscellaneous memoranda and letters and other assorted material.
Summary
The Marriner S. Eccles collection provides substantial research material about the Federal Reserve System during the third and fourth decades of the twentieth century. It also provides insight into some of the public issues of the 1960s and 1970s with which Eccles was concerned-over-population and US foreign policy, particularly as it applied to Asia. The collection offers little information about his role in the development of banking in the Intermountain West, or his many other business interests, other than minimal correspondence and annual reports from companies with which he was associated. Some of the correspondence with members of Congress, public figures, friends, and acquaintances reveals his views about issues and events in his life. Because there is almost no family correspondence, it is through his general correspondence that part of Eccles' personal life emerges.
Marriner Stoddard Eccles, intelligent, complex, and ambitious, seemed determined to make his mark in the world, and probably succeeded beyond all his expectations. Although his views were often unpopular, time usually proved them to be correct. Unfortunately, these papers do not convey the full measure of the man, but they are an invaluable source of information about the monetary and fiscal systems of the United States during the 1930s and 1940s, and document the significant financial role Eccles played during these turbulent decades.
There are four distinct periods in the life of Marriner S. Eccles. The first period, his formative years, dates from his birth in 1890 to the death of his father, David Eccles, in 1912. The second period is from 1912 until 1934 when, following in the footsteps of his father, he became the most successful entrepreneur in Utah. During this time he assumed control of several western companies and created the First Security Corporation, the largest bank system in the Intermountain area. Neither of these periods is well documented by his papers, but each is covered by two books: Beckoning Frontiers, his autobiography completed with the assistance of Sidney Hyman in 1951, and his later biography, Marriner S. Eccles: Private Entrepreneur and Public Servant, written by Hyman and published just prior to Eccles' death in 1977.
Background Information
The most significant section of the collection, the Washington Years, boxes 2-112, provides insight into Eccles' activities during the third period in his life, 1934-1951. During these years he served for a brief period in 1934 at the United States Treasury Department in Washington, D. C., and then as both governor and chairman of the nation's bank regulatory agency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. His papers from the Federal Reserve section of his collection, his library, and the accompanying ephemera substantiate the importance of his role in Washington during the New Deal period, World War II, the postwar recovery, and the beginning of the Cold War.
The last period of his life, 1951-1977, is documented under the heading Businessman and Public Figure, boxes 113-240. This section of his papers reflects his role as an international businessman and an outspoken critic of many of the country's economic, social, and foreign policies.
The Federal Reserve papers were originally organized in loose-leaf binders by Va Lois Egbert, secretary to Eccles for almost three decades. Her apparent intention was to place material in order of its apparent subject importance. Correspondence to and from the White House were thus placed first in the collection in chronological order. Several years before the Marriott Library received the material, Eccles permitted Dean May, then a graduate student and now a member of the history faculty at the University of Utah, to microfilm the material in the binders. After the library received the collection and some initial processing had taken place, the decision was made to remove the material from the binders and place it in folders in document boxes. Although some reordering of the material was done, much of the original arrangement has been retained. The original order may be seen by viewing both the microfilm reels and the photocopies of May's "Guide to Marriner S. Eccles Washington Papers," found in box 234.
Box 1, containing Eccles' biographical material, begins the Federal Reserve section. It is followed by six boxes of correspondence between Eccles and Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman and their staffs. Federal Reserve Board reorganization materials, 1934-1950, including reports from the Hoover Commission and the Commission on the Organization of the Executive Branch, are found in box 8. Many of the experiences Eccles had with the Treasury Department, 1934-1951, are documented in boxes 9-12. The letters, memoranda, and reports in this section reveal some of the friction between the Federal Reserve Board and the Treasury which resulted in the Accord of 1951. See boxes 61-62. Materials found in boxes 13-16 describe the drafting and passage of the Banking Act of 1935. Removing control from the Federal Reserve Banks across the country and placing it in the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, this act changed the name and structure of the Board and centralized the power of the Federal Reserve System. Eccles believed the act, for which he was chiefly responsible, was his major accomplishment in Washington. Boxes 17-23 contain additional material about the Banking Act of 1935 and the effect it had on bank-holding companies, including Transamerica, the holding company for Bank of America. Reports published in 1948 speculated that the Giannini family, who controlled Bank of America, may have been responsible for Eccles' demotion as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. During the depression, the chief concern was how to raise sufficient revenues from a still-depressed economy; by the 1940s, the major issue was how best to generate sufficient revenues for national defense and still protect the economy from the inflationary pressures resulting from enormous war-time spending. Reports, memoranda, studies, and other items pertaining to taxation policies, 1934-1951, prepared mostly by Board staff members, are included in boxes 24-26.
One of Eccles' major accomplishments during the early 1930s was to successfully establish the Federal Housing Authority (FHA). Boxes 27-29 feature material on housing related issues, 1934-1951, but contain little material about the creation of the FHA.
Economic stabilization during and following World War II was a matter of grave concern to Eccles. He felt that the Truman administration had not taken the measures necessary to combat postwar inflation. Boxes 30-38 contain material about strategies for dealing with the postwar world. Included is some material from the Bretton Woods Conference Eccles attended in 1944.
The next part of the collection, boxes 39-56, represents many issues of importance. Some of the materials include correspondence and addresses, confidential correspondence, the Eccles-Byrd controversy, gold and capital issues, and other miscellaneous correspondence. Correspondence with members of Congress is found in boxes 56-57; information about prospective members of the Federal Reserve Board is located in boxes 58-60; material about the 1951 Accord, when the Board finally asserted its independence from the Treasury, is found in boxes 61-62; Eccles' testimonies, some of which are duplicated in his scrapbooks, are found in boxes 63-71; and Lauchlin Currie memoranda, 1934-1939, are in boxes 72-73. Currie, for whom Eccles had great respect, was long associated with the Board in a staff position. Speeches for the years 1925-1951, some of which is duplicated in Eccles' scrapbooks, are found in boxes 74-86. An abundance of miscellaneous material is contained in boxes 87-112.
Businessman and Public Figure Papers
The second section of the papers, boxes 113-240, covers the fourth period of Eccles' life, from 1951 when he left Washington, D.C., until his death in December 1977. During that period he divided his time between Salt Lake City, where he resumed control of the First Security banking system, and San Francisco, where Utah Construction was headquartered. Eccles was chairman of the board of Utah Construction, a company with world-wide interests in mining and construction. The Stewart Library at Weber State College has Utah Construction records, 1906-1961. His papers do not directly document his role as a businessman, but rather are reflective of his role as a public figure speaking out often against the foreign policy of the US government. He was particularly opposed to its policies in Southeast Asia, where Utah Construction had many interests. Eccles also took a strong stand against over-poplation and was a supporter of groups such as Zero Population and Planned Parenthood.
Personal correspondence and public speeches arranged chronologically from 1951 to May 1972, when Eccles gave his last public address, are located in boxes 113-133. During the early 1950s he usually spoke on monetary and fiscal topics. By 1957 he had begun to question US Cold War policies and believed the United States should recognize Red China. By 1959 over-population was an issue which Eccles addressed often. His next area of interest and the one about which he spoke most vociferously was the involvement of the United States in Vietnam. Speeches on this topic are accompanied by related correspondence. Box 133, folder 1, provides an index to Eccles' speeches, statements, and testimonies.
Eccles' interest in politics continued, and he corresponded frequently with political figures; boxes 134-147 contain material which cover these topics. Boxes 134-135 feature material from Eccles' unsuccessful campaign for the Utah Republican senatorial nomination against incumbent Arthur Watkins in 1952. United States foreign policy, vis-a-vis China, is the topic of material in boxes 146-147, although correspondence with members of Congress is held in boxes 193-196.
The issue of population control, during the 1950s through the 1970s, is the subject matter of boxes 148-159. Included are addresses by Eccles and others, correspondence, reports, and a sampling of published items from various organizations concerned with the problem of over-population.
Eccles was one of the first members of the business community to protest US involvement in Vietnam. Boxes 160-167 contain articles, speeches, newsclippings, reports, publications, and correspondence of Eccles and others who inveighed against America's Asian policy.
The American Assembly, the Commission on Money and Credit, the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, the Atlantic Council, and the Hall of Fame are all organizations with which Eccles was associated in the last two decades of his life. Material reflecting his involvement is found in boxes 168-179.
The largest correspondence section of the collection is located in boxes 180-211. General correspondence is arranged alphabetically in boxes 180-192. Boxes 193-196 hold correspondence with members of Congress; box 197 with Federal Reserve Board members and bank officers; box 198 with universities; boxes 199-203 related to his autobiography and biography. Boxes 204-208 contain invitations; boxes 209-210, Christmas greetings, 1934-1974; and, in box 211, are condolences to Mrs. Sallie Eccles upon the death of her husband.
Most of the materials dealing with corporate interests are found in boxes 212-220. Included are limited correspondence and annual reports from Pet Milk Company, Utah International (formerly Utah Construction), Amalgamated Sugar, and the First Security Corporation. In view of the extent of Eccles' participation in these companies, there is little substantive material.
The final general heading for this section is Miscellanea. Included are manuscripts of Eccles' biography and autobiography and manuscripts of other works related to his career. Journal articles written by and about Eccles are in boxes 228-230. In some cases these duplicate the Eccles scrapbooks retained in the Eccles Room, as well as material found in boxes 90-91.
Papers about Eccles from other repositories-the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, the Harry S. Truman Library, the Library of Congress, the University of Virginia Library, and the National Archives-are found in boxes 231-233.
The final part of this section, boxes 234-240, includes the microfilm by Dean May of the Washington files, cassette and reel-to-reel tape recordings, daybooks from 1966-1977, and materials that have become available since the collection was initially processed.
A second component of the collection is the Eccles library, which consists of approximately 1000 books pertaining to his interests, career, the New Deal, and the 1940s. Government documents relating to the time he spent in Washington, D.C., as well as a number of indexed, bound volumes prepared by Va Lois Egbert, complete the library.
The Eccles Library contains volumes on banking and finance, economic treatises, the Roosevelt years, and a large number of books from the American Assembly series. The library is based on Eccles' original, private collection, which was augmented before the collection was received by the Manuscripts Division. The book collection provides background material for researchers interested not only in Eccles' career, but also the economic and political events occuring during the 1930s and 1940s.
The government documents section of the Eccles Library contains bound copies of the Federal Open Market Committee Minutes, 1936-1975; Federal Reserve Bulletin, 1966-present; annual reports from the Federal Reserve Board and other government agencies; soft-cover reports from the 1940s dealing with post-war recovery; and Proceedings from the Bretton Woods Conference, 1944.
Of the bound volumes of scrapbooks containing newsclippings, magazine articles, testimonies, cartoons, and other items organized by Miss Egbert, the most useful may be the set of newsclippings. The articles begin in 1922, but only ten are dated prior to 1933. These clippings originated from Utah, Washington, D. C., New York, and points between. They provide extensive coverage of Eccles' career from 1933 forward-the period covered by his papers. To ensure their long-term preservation, these clippings were photocopied and placed in archival folders and boxes.
Other scrapbooks include printed copies of Eccles' addresses, 1925-1975; testimonies, 1933-1951; cartoons, 1935-1951; invitations, 1934-1951; magazine articles by and about Eccles; day books, 1937-1951; and miscellaneous memoranda and letters and other assorted material.
Summary
The Marriner S. Eccles collection provides substantial research material about the Federal Reserve System during the third and fourth decades of the twentieth century. It also provides insight into some of the public issues of the 1960s and 1970s with which Eccles was concerned-over-population and US foreign policy, particularly as it applied to Asia. The collection offers little information about his role in the development of banking in the Intermountain West, or his many other business interests, other than minimal correspondence and annual reports from companies with which he was associated. Some of the correspondence with members of Congress, public figures, friends, and acquaintances reveals his views about issues and events in his life. Because there is almost no family correspondence, it is through his general correspondence that part of Eccles' personal life emerges.
Marriner Stoddard Eccles, intelligent, complex, and ambitious, seemed determined to make his mark in the world, and probably succeeded beyond all his expectations. Although his views were often unpopular, time usually proved them to be correct. Unfortunately, these papers do not convey the full measure of the man, but they are an invaluable source of information about the monetary and fiscal systems of the United States during the 1930s and 1940s, and document the significant financial role Eccles played during these turbulent decades.
Dates
- 1910-1985
Creator
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English.
Conditions Governing Access
Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.
Conditions Governing Use
The library does not claim to control copyright for all materials in the collection. An individual depicted in a reproduction has privacy rights as outlined in Title 45 CFR, part 46 (Protection of Human Subjects). For further information, please review the J. Willard Marriott Library’s Use Agreement and Reproduction Request forms.
Biographical Sketch
"Brigham Young was the colonizer; Daniel Jackling the mining giant, and Marriner S. Eccles was Utah's premier financial genius," was the introduction to a 1977 Deseret News review of Eccles' then-recently published biography. The biography, Marriner S. Eccles: Private Entrepreneur and Public Servant, as well as a previously published autobiography, Beckoning Frontiers, detail the life of this remarkable man. He became the "principal economic philosopher of the New Deal," according to James Gardner, a professor in the University of Utah's College of Management. Another review of Eccles' biography stated, "The political and institutional principles he advocated and laid down as head of the 'Fed' are the very armature of the legislative structure under which US business and finance now operates."
Marriner Eccles, born 9 eptember 1890, to David Eccles and his second wife, Ellen Stoddard, was the oldest of nine children. David Eccles, a leading Utah entrepreneur and a Mormon polygamist, also had twelve children by his first wife, Bertha Maria Jensen. To distinguish between the two families, Bertha and her children were known as the Ogden Eccleses; Ellen and her children as the Logan Eccleses. The significance of these geographical distinctions was later diminished when Marriner Eccles moved to Ogden and centered his business pursuits there during the 1920s.
Ellen Eccles and her children lived alternately in Baker, Oregon, and in Logan, Utah, because of her husband's business interests in both places. Sidney Hyman, author of Eccles' biography, speculates that because of her uncertain status as a plural wife (the Mormon church declared an end to polygamy in 1890), and thus a diminished sense of financial security, Ellen Eccles instilled in her sons a strong work ethic and the drive to become successful. She reasoned that their success would ensure her security, as was to be the case.
David Eccles, reputed to be the largest tithe payer in the Mormon church, died unexpectedly and intestate in 1912 at the age of 65. Although all of his children from both families shared equally in their father's estate, there was only one legally recognized widow--Bertha Eccles. The Logan Eccleses were left with a two-sevenths share, and the Ogden Eccleses with five-sevenths of the multi-million dollar estate.
Marriner Eccles attended Brigham Young College in Logan, Utah, which functioned more as a high school than a college. He left school in June 1909 at the age of 18; this was to be the end of his formal education. His father, whose schooling was limited, did not believe an extended education was necessary for success in business, and Marriner proved him correct. As the oldest son in his family, the responsibility for the welfare of his mother and his eight brothers and sisters, as well as the administration of the estate left them by their father, was thrust upon him.
In the meantime, he did what most other young Mormon men did-he served a mission for his church. From 1910 to 1912 he was in Scotland, the country his father left as a penniless youth. While in Schotland he met May Campbell Young (Maysie), his wife-to-be. On his return to Utah they corresponded, she joined him in Utah, and they were married in 1913.
His marriage and business career began at the same time. He first became president of the Hyrum State Bank, and a director and officer of the Thatcher Brothers Bank in Logan, two institutions in which his father had held significant interests. In 1916 he organized the Eccles Investment Company, a holding company, to manage the inheritance left to the Logan Eccleses. This holding company would exist for the next sixty years. Throughout the 1920s he built his business base in Utah. He assumed control of the First National Bank and First Savings Bank of Ogden. Eccles was also able to assume control of or take a leading role in the direction of several companies in which his father had held interests. These companies included Stoddard Lumber, Sego Milk, Eccles Hotel Company, Anderson Lumber, Mountain States Implement, Utah Home Fire Insurance Company, Utah Construction, and Amalgamated Sugar.
David Eccles was described by Leonard Arrington, Utah historian, as being a "man of vision, an analyst, an independent thinker, a fashioner of strong organizations and strong policies." While Marriner Eccles inherited these qualities from his father, they seemed lacking in the Ogden Eccleses. Their share of David Eccles' estate was much larger than that of the Logan Eccleses', but it dwindled considerably over the years. The inheritance of the Logan Eccleses, on the other hand, under Marriner's sound management, grew handsomely. According to Hyman, "The Ogden Eccleses would in time virtually disintegrate as a family while the Logan Eccleses, with Marriner in control, were held together over the passing decades despite many internal strains."
By 1918, Marriner and Maysie Eccles were the parents of three children: Campbell, Eleanor, and John (a fourth child died at an early age). During the next decade Eccles acquired, seemingly without conscious design, interests in additional banks. This led to the formation of the First Security Corporation in 1928 with Marriner serving as president and his brother George as a vice president. The corporation is believed to have been the nation's first bank holding company. At the end of the 1920s, Marriner Eccles had achieved a full measure of success.
The next decade would tell a different story. By 1930, the nation was in the grip of the Great Depression, and Eccles stood to lose much of what he had worked for during the previous eighteen years. As he reflected on the dynamics of the national economy and the responsibilities of business and government toward society, he decided that "hard work and thrift as a means of pulling us out of the depression is unsound economically. True hard work means more production, but thrift and economy means less consumption." Since these two forces were difficult to reconcile, his answer was that of controlled deficit financing on the part of government. Eccles was often asked to address local groups about his fiscal and monetary views. One group particularly interested in his ideas was an organization of Ogden businessmen called the Freidenkers. German for free-thinkers, they were also known phonetically as the "free-drinkers." Eccles was a member of this group. Another member was Robert Hinckley, who later served in the Roosevelt administration. Hinckley was a nephew of Senator William H. King, a Utah Democrat, who was a member of the Senate Finance Committee. The committee had been directed to determine the causes of the depression and to suggest legislative remedies. Hinckley recommended to Senator King that Eccles should be invited to testify before the committee.
Eccles' ideas about the need for government intervention in the economy and deficit financing directly contradicted the testimony offered by others. However, because of his testimony and subsequent meetings with men close to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he was asked to join the administration as an assistant to Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr. He accepted and began his duties in February 1934. In November of that year he was nominated by Roosevelt to head the Federal Reserve System; the Senate approved this appointment 25 April 1935. In 1936 he was appointed as chairman of the board of governors of the newly restructured Federal Reserve System created by the Banking Act of 1935.
Eccles has been given credit as being the architect of the Federal Housing Act of 1934 and the Banking Act of 1935. He continued in Washington for seventeen years as head of the nation's banking system, and provided strong leadership during the turbulent years of the depression and World War II. He often disagreed with the secretaries of the Treasury and both presidents under whom he served. These disagreements are well documented; Eccles was not a man to conceal his feelings about monetary and fiscal policies. After his initial successes in the mid-thirties, he turned his attention to two other issues. The first was the unification of the country's banking system, and in this endeavor he was not successful. He based his acceptance of reappointment to the board of governors in 1944 on Roosevelt's implied endorsement of the Eccles Unification Plan. It was not until the mid-1970s that this was accomplished, however, under then-Federal Reserve chairman Arthur Burns. The second issue involved a long-standing disagreement with the Treasury Department and both secretaries, Morgenthau and Snyder, about the best way to handle the inflationary pressures building as a result of World War II. Eccles was more successful with this issue, and saw most of his ideas realized by the Accord of 1951.
While Eccles was in Washington he was fortunate to have able men in Utah to maintain his business interests. In particular, his brother George profitably managed the First Security Corporation. Marriner did not completely remove himself from his Utah interests, however, for he assumed the position of chairman of the board of both Utah Construction and Amalgamated Sugar in the 1940s. Although his professional career was flourishing, his relationship with his wife Maysie deteriorated. They were divorced in 1950, after thirty-seven years of marriage.
The early 1950s marked several changes in Marriner Eccles' life. In 1948, because he disagreed with President Harry S. Truman's economic policies, Truman did not reappoint him as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. Eccles was, however, still a governor of the board, as these appointments are made for fourteen years. Because he was no longer chairman, he felt that he could speak more openly about his disagreements with the administration, As his Washington career was winding down, he began writing his autobiography and retained Sidney Hyman to assist him. The book, Beckoning Frontiers, was published in 1951, the same year he resigned from the Federal Reserve Board and the same year he remarried. His new wife, Sara (Sallie) Madison Glassie, was socially prominent in Washington, D.C.
Although Eccles returned to Utah, he did not think of it as a permanent move. He mounted a brief campaign to wrest the Republican senatorial nomination from the incumbent, Arthur Watkins. Even though he was unsuccessful and he was in his early sixties, an age when most men think of retirement, Eccles was not one to retire and live on memories. Instead, he resumed active participation in his numerous business interests, primarily Amalgamated Sugar and First Security Corporation in Utah, and Utah Construction and Mining based in San Francisco. He divided his time between Salt Lake City, where he and Mrs. Eccles maintained an apartment at the Hotel Utah, and San Francisco, where they also maintained an apartment. On occasion they visited their cottage at the Eldorado Country Club in Palm Springs, California. Golf was Eccles' favorite pastime and over the years he belonged to the Burning Tree and Chevy Chase Country Clubs in Washington, D.C., as well as various other clubs.
Eccles' prime objective for the past four decades of his life was to "help lay the foundations for a stable economic order at home and in the world areas," and he felt compelled to share his concerns and solutions with every possible audience. Whereas during the 1950s he had devoted himself primarily to his business interests, in the 1960s he became more active in speaking and writing about issues of public concern.
The specific issues of critical interest to him were those of world over-population, the war in Vietnam, and to a lesser extent, the need for US recognition of Red China. He felt these problems were responsible for a great deal of instability in the world and prevented the realization of the stable economic order he had worked so hard to achieve. He wrote and spoke often about these issues to a wide variety of audiences, ranging from the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, of which he was a member, to the Brigham Young University student body and his own family reunion (encompassing his father's large progeny), to whom he lectured on the importance of birth control. He also spoke at small meetings, such as the Unitarian Church in Salt Lake City. From all of these audiences he usually received mixed reviews.
In 1972 he delivered his last public speech before the World Trade Club in San Francisco, who presented him with their International Achievement Award. Eccles' ideas and opinions over the years had often been controversial and in many cases ahead of their time, but by 1972 many of his concepts were more widely accepted, and the Trade Club members applauded him enthusiastically.
Although his public role had increased significantly in the 1960s, his role in business had not diminished. The early 1970s, however, witnessed a winding down of his business commitments, and the lines of succession were arranged. Utah Construction and Mining became Utah International in 1971. That same year he stepped down from his active board chairmanship and became honorary chairman of the board. In 1975 he also stepped aside as his brother George became chairman of the board of the First Security Corporation.
Eccles Investment Company, which had been formed some sixty years earlier in an attempt to further the inheritance of the Logan Eccleses, was now disbanded. Over the years much of its stock had been distributed to its stockholders, and in 1970 its affairs were so arranged that all its assets were sold, except the stock in Utah Construction. The proceeds from these sales were then used to buy stock in that firm. Eccles Investment Company was liquidated, leaving its stockholders with only Utah Construction stock, which then became Utah International.
In December 1976, Utah International merged with General Electric, constituting the largest corporate merger in US history to that time. Details of the merger were worked out by Edmund Littlefield, who had succeeded Eccles as Utah International's chairman. The effect of this merger was to greatly increase the value of the stock previously held in Utah International. An example of the increased stock value was demonstrated by the holdings of Eccles's long-time secretary, Va Lois Egbert, whose personal investments had been handled by Eccles. When her will was probated in 1978, following her death in November 1976, her estate was valued at approximately $4 million, instead of the anticipated sum of $250,000-largely due to the increased value of the Utah International stock. The University of Utah Medical Center was the recipient of the bulk of her estate, receiving $3.6 million dollars, the largest single donation ever made to the institution to that time.
In addition to the time he gave to his public concerns and business interests, Eccles found time to serve on a few special committees and select groups. Notable among these was the board of the American Assembly sponsored by Columbia University. The group met yearly and sponsored publications regarding issues of public concern. Many of these books and publications can be found in the Marriner S. Eccles Library of Political Economy, a part of the Eccles collection.
After Eccles finalized arrangements for both his business and personal affairs, he initiated "bequests designed to encourage the emergence of young leaders of the future who could recognize, as he did, 'that the good of the individual, the family, and the community was indivisible with the good of the larger national and world society." One form these bequests took was a series of contributions to the University of Utah for fellowships. He also established the Marriner S. Eccles Library of Political Economy, and created the Marriner S. Eccles Foundation. The Foundation funds various causes within Utah, encompassing private, non-governmental, charitable, scientific, and educational organizations for the benefit of the citizens of the state. Eccles also established the Marriner S. Eccles Professorship of Public and Private Management at the Stanford University School of Business in 1973.
During 1977, Eccles' health worsened, and he stopped traveling between San Francisco and Salt Lake City. He died in Salt Lake City on 18 December 1977. Eccles' funeral service was held 22 December 1977, in Salt Lake City and was described as "brief" by the Deseret News. Edmund Littlefield and Joe Quinney spoke movingly about his character and the qualities which set him apart from most other men. R. H. Burton, who presided at the service, summed up the meaning of those remarks when he noted that, "rarely has an individual affected the lives of so many." Eccles is well remembered by many. His descendants and other family members continue to contribute generously to Utah institutions. From time to time his name appears in a newspaper article, and in 1982 the main Federal Reserve Building in Washington, D. C., was named in his honor.
A more personal tribute is contained in a letter written to Eccles in June 1977, shortly before his death. In it his brother-in-law, Joe Quinney, referred to the biography that Sidney Hyman had been writing: "I must tell you I feel the author did not reveal the whole MSE to the extent I would have recommended. You were and are more than a mere technician and manipulator. There is also that MSE who is tempestuous in battle; argumentative and insistent in debate; tough-even hard-boiled in business relations; yet honest, judicious as you saw justice; companionable with your friends, especially your good old friends with whom you are mellow, kind and considerate; who can dish it out and take it in good humor; whose family relationship, though strange at times has an underlying affection and compassion all strange but true."
Marriner Eccles, born 9 eptember 1890, to David Eccles and his second wife, Ellen Stoddard, was the oldest of nine children. David Eccles, a leading Utah entrepreneur and a Mormon polygamist, also had twelve children by his first wife, Bertha Maria Jensen. To distinguish between the two families, Bertha and her children were known as the Ogden Eccleses; Ellen and her children as the Logan Eccleses. The significance of these geographical distinctions was later diminished when Marriner Eccles moved to Ogden and centered his business pursuits there during the 1920s.
Ellen Eccles and her children lived alternately in Baker, Oregon, and in Logan, Utah, because of her husband's business interests in both places. Sidney Hyman, author of Eccles' biography, speculates that because of her uncertain status as a plural wife (the Mormon church declared an end to polygamy in 1890), and thus a diminished sense of financial security, Ellen Eccles instilled in her sons a strong work ethic and the drive to become successful. She reasoned that their success would ensure her security, as was to be the case.
David Eccles, reputed to be the largest tithe payer in the Mormon church, died unexpectedly and intestate in 1912 at the age of 65. Although all of his children from both families shared equally in their father's estate, there was only one legally recognized widow--Bertha Eccles. The Logan Eccleses were left with a two-sevenths share, and the Ogden Eccleses with five-sevenths of the multi-million dollar estate.
Marriner Eccles attended Brigham Young College in Logan, Utah, which functioned more as a high school than a college. He left school in June 1909 at the age of 18; this was to be the end of his formal education. His father, whose schooling was limited, did not believe an extended education was necessary for success in business, and Marriner proved him correct. As the oldest son in his family, the responsibility for the welfare of his mother and his eight brothers and sisters, as well as the administration of the estate left them by their father, was thrust upon him.
In the meantime, he did what most other young Mormon men did-he served a mission for his church. From 1910 to 1912 he was in Scotland, the country his father left as a penniless youth. While in Schotland he met May Campbell Young (Maysie), his wife-to-be. On his return to Utah they corresponded, she joined him in Utah, and they were married in 1913.
His marriage and business career began at the same time. He first became president of the Hyrum State Bank, and a director and officer of the Thatcher Brothers Bank in Logan, two institutions in which his father had held significant interests. In 1916 he organized the Eccles Investment Company, a holding company, to manage the inheritance left to the Logan Eccleses. This holding company would exist for the next sixty years. Throughout the 1920s he built his business base in Utah. He assumed control of the First National Bank and First Savings Bank of Ogden. Eccles was also able to assume control of or take a leading role in the direction of several companies in which his father had held interests. These companies included Stoddard Lumber, Sego Milk, Eccles Hotel Company, Anderson Lumber, Mountain States Implement, Utah Home Fire Insurance Company, Utah Construction, and Amalgamated Sugar.
David Eccles was described by Leonard Arrington, Utah historian, as being a "man of vision, an analyst, an independent thinker, a fashioner of strong organizations and strong policies." While Marriner Eccles inherited these qualities from his father, they seemed lacking in the Ogden Eccleses. Their share of David Eccles' estate was much larger than that of the Logan Eccleses', but it dwindled considerably over the years. The inheritance of the Logan Eccleses, on the other hand, under Marriner's sound management, grew handsomely. According to Hyman, "The Ogden Eccleses would in time virtually disintegrate as a family while the Logan Eccleses, with Marriner in control, were held together over the passing decades despite many internal strains."
By 1918, Marriner and Maysie Eccles were the parents of three children: Campbell, Eleanor, and John (a fourth child died at an early age). During the next decade Eccles acquired, seemingly without conscious design, interests in additional banks. This led to the formation of the First Security Corporation in 1928 with Marriner serving as president and his brother George as a vice president. The corporation is believed to have been the nation's first bank holding company. At the end of the 1920s, Marriner Eccles had achieved a full measure of success.
The next decade would tell a different story. By 1930, the nation was in the grip of the Great Depression, and Eccles stood to lose much of what he had worked for during the previous eighteen years. As he reflected on the dynamics of the national economy and the responsibilities of business and government toward society, he decided that "hard work and thrift as a means of pulling us out of the depression is unsound economically. True hard work means more production, but thrift and economy means less consumption." Since these two forces were difficult to reconcile, his answer was that of controlled deficit financing on the part of government. Eccles was often asked to address local groups about his fiscal and monetary views. One group particularly interested in his ideas was an organization of Ogden businessmen called the Freidenkers. German for free-thinkers, they were also known phonetically as the "free-drinkers." Eccles was a member of this group. Another member was Robert Hinckley, who later served in the Roosevelt administration. Hinckley was a nephew of Senator William H. King, a Utah Democrat, who was a member of the Senate Finance Committee. The committee had been directed to determine the causes of the depression and to suggest legislative remedies. Hinckley recommended to Senator King that Eccles should be invited to testify before the committee.
Eccles' ideas about the need for government intervention in the economy and deficit financing directly contradicted the testimony offered by others. However, because of his testimony and subsequent meetings with men close to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he was asked to join the administration as an assistant to Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr. He accepted and began his duties in February 1934. In November of that year he was nominated by Roosevelt to head the Federal Reserve System; the Senate approved this appointment 25 April 1935. In 1936 he was appointed as chairman of the board of governors of the newly restructured Federal Reserve System created by the Banking Act of 1935.
Eccles has been given credit as being the architect of the Federal Housing Act of 1934 and the Banking Act of 1935. He continued in Washington for seventeen years as head of the nation's banking system, and provided strong leadership during the turbulent years of the depression and World War II. He often disagreed with the secretaries of the Treasury and both presidents under whom he served. These disagreements are well documented; Eccles was not a man to conceal his feelings about monetary and fiscal policies. After his initial successes in the mid-thirties, he turned his attention to two other issues. The first was the unification of the country's banking system, and in this endeavor he was not successful. He based his acceptance of reappointment to the board of governors in 1944 on Roosevelt's implied endorsement of the Eccles Unification Plan. It was not until the mid-1970s that this was accomplished, however, under then-Federal Reserve chairman Arthur Burns. The second issue involved a long-standing disagreement with the Treasury Department and both secretaries, Morgenthau and Snyder, about the best way to handle the inflationary pressures building as a result of World War II. Eccles was more successful with this issue, and saw most of his ideas realized by the Accord of 1951.
While Eccles was in Washington he was fortunate to have able men in Utah to maintain his business interests. In particular, his brother George profitably managed the First Security Corporation. Marriner did not completely remove himself from his Utah interests, however, for he assumed the position of chairman of the board of both Utah Construction and Amalgamated Sugar in the 1940s. Although his professional career was flourishing, his relationship with his wife Maysie deteriorated. They were divorced in 1950, after thirty-seven years of marriage.
The early 1950s marked several changes in Marriner Eccles' life. In 1948, because he disagreed with President Harry S. Truman's economic policies, Truman did not reappoint him as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. Eccles was, however, still a governor of the board, as these appointments are made for fourteen years. Because he was no longer chairman, he felt that he could speak more openly about his disagreements with the administration, As his Washington career was winding down, he began writing his autobiography and retained Sidney Hyman to assist him. The book, Beckoning Frontiers, was published in 1951, the same year he resigned from the Federal Reserve Board and the same year he remarried. His new wife, Sara (Sallie) Madison Glassie, was socially prominent in Washington, D.C.
Although Eccles returned to Utah, he did not think of it as a permanent move. He mounted a brief campaign to wrest the Republican senatorial nomination from the incumbent, Arthur Watkins. Even though he was unsuccessful and he was in his early sixties, an age when most men think of retirement, Eccles was not one to retire and live on memories. Instead, he resumed active participation in his numerous business interests, primarily Amalgamated Sugar and First Security Corporation in Utah, and Utah Construction and Mining based in San Francisco. He divided his time between Salt Lake City, where he and Mrs. Eccles maintained an apartment at the Hotel Utah, and San Francisco, where they also maintained an apartment. On occasion they visited their cottage at the Eldorado Country Club in Palm Springs, California. Golf was Eccles' favorite pastime and over the years he belonged to the Burning Tree and Chevy Chase Country Clubs in Washington, D.C., as well as various other clubs.
Eccles' prime objective for the past four decades of his life was to "help lay the foundations for a stable economic order at home and in the world areas," and he felt compelled to share his concerns and solutions with every possible audience. Whereas during the 1950s he had devoted himself primarily to his business interests, in the 1960s he became more active in speaking and writing about issues of public concern.
The specific issues of critical interest to him were those of world over-population, the war in Vietnam, and to a lesser extent, the need for US recognition of Red China. He felt these problems were responsible for a great deal of instability in the world and prevented the realization of the stable economic order he had worked so hard to achieve. He wrote and spoke often about these issues to a wide variety of audiences, ranging from the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, of which he was a member, to the Brigham Young University student body and his own family reunion (encompassing his father's large progeny), to whom he lectured on the importance of birth control. He also spoke at small meetings, such as the Unitarian Church in Salt Lake City. From all of these audiences he usually received mixed reviews.
In 1972 he delivered his last public speech before the World Trade Club in San Francisco, who presented him with their International Achievement Award. Eccles' ideas and opinions over the years had often been controversial and in many cases ahead of their time, but by 1972 many of his concepts were more widely accepted, and the Trade Club members applauded him enthusiastically.
Although his public role had increased significantly in the 1960s, his role in business had not diminished. The early 1970s, however, witnessed a winding down of his business commitments, and the lines of succession were arranged. Utah Construction and Mining became Utah International in 1971. That same year he stepped down from his active board chairmanship and became honorary chairman of the board. In 1975 he also stepped aside as his brother George became chairman of the board of the First Security Corporation.
Eccles Investment Company, which had been formed some sixty years earlier in an attempt to further the inheritance of the Logan Eccleses, was now disbanded. Over the years much of its stock had been distributed to its stockholders, and in 1970 its affairs were so arranged that all its assets were sold, except the stock in Utah Construction. The proceeds from these sales were then used to buy stock in that firm. Eccles Investment Company was liquidated, leaving its stockholders with only Utah Construction stock, which then became Utah International.
In December 1976, Utah International merged with General Electric, constituting the largest corporate merger in US history to that time. Details of the merger were worked out by Edmund Littlefield, who had succeeded Eccles as Utah International's chairman. The effect of this merger was to greatly increase the value of the stock previously held in Utah International. An example of the increased stock value was demonstrated by the holdings of Eccles's long-time secretary, Va Lois Egbert, whose personal investments had been handled by Eccles. When her will was probated in 1978, following her death in November 1976, her estate was valued at approximately $4 million, instead of the anticipated sum of $250,000-largely due to the increased value of the Utah International stock. The University of Utah Medical Center was the recipient of the bulk of her estate, receiving $3.6 million dollars, the largest single donation ever made to the institution to that time.
In addition to the time he gave to his public concerns and business interests, Eccles found time to serve on a few special committees and select groups. Notable among these was the board of the American Assembly sponsored by Columbia University. The group met yearly and sponsored publications regarding issues of public concern. Many of these books and publications can be found in the Marriner S. Eccles Library of Political Economy, a part of the Eccles collection.
After Eccles finalized arrangements for both his business and personal affairs, he initiated "bequests designed to encourage the emergence of young leaders of the future who could recognize, as he did, 'that the good of the individual, the family, and the community was indivisible with the good of the larger national and world society." One form these bequests took was a series of contributions to the University of Utah for fellowships. He also established the Marriner S. Eccles Library of Political Economy, and created the Marriner S. Eccles Foundation. The Foundation funds various causes within Utah, encompassing private, non-governmental, charitable, scientific, and educational organizations for the benefit of the citizens of the state. Eccles also established the Marriner S. Eccles Professorship of Public and Private Management at the Stanford University School of Business in 1973.
During 1977, Eccles' health worsened, and he stopped traveling between San Francisco and Salt Lake City. He died in Salt Lake City on 18 December 1977. Eccles' funeral service was held 22 December 1977, in Salt Lake City and was described as "brief" by the Deseret News. Edmund Littlefield and Joe Quinney spoke movingly about his character and the qualities which set him apart from most other men. R. H. Burton, who presided at the service, summed up the meaning of those remarks when he noted that, "rarely has an individual affected the lives of so many." Eccles is well remembered by many. His descendants and other family members continue to contribute generously to Utah institutions. From time to time his name appears in a newspaper article, and in 1982 the main Federal Reserve Building in Washington, D. C., was named in his honor.
A more personal tribute is contained in a letter written to Eccles in June 1977, shortly before his death. In it his brother-in-law, Joe Quinney, referred to the biography that Sidney Hyman had been writing: "I must tell you I feel the author did not reveal the whole MSE to the extent I would have recommended. You were and are more than a mere technician and manipulator. There is also that MSE who is tempestuous in battle; argumentative and insistent in debate; tough-even hard-boiled in business relations; yet honest, judicious as you saw justice; companionable with your friends, especially your good old friends with whom you are mellow, kind and considerate; who can dish it out and take it in good humor; whose family relationship, though strange at times has an underlying affection and compassion all strange but true."
Extent
120 Linear Feet
Abstract
The Marriner S. Eccles papers (1910-1985) chronicles the years when Eccles made his greatest contributions as a national and international fiscal and monetary expert, businessman, and public figure. A portion of these papers have been digitized and are available online through the Federal Reserve Archive.
Arrangement
Organized in eleven series: I.Biographical Materials; II. White House Papers; III. Federal Reserve Papers; IV. Speeches and Correspondence; V. Political Files; VI. Population Files; VII. Vietnam War Files; VIII. Organizations; IX. Personal Correspondence; X. Business and Banking Files; XI. Miscellaneous.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated by Mrs. Marriner S. Eccles in 1979.
Separated Materials
Photographs and audio-visual materials were transferred to Multimedia Division of Special Collections (P0178 and A0178).
Processing Information
Processed by Gwen Gittins and Nancy Young in 1989.
- Banks and banking -- Utah
- Birth control
- Correspondence
- Economics and Banking
- Federal Reserve banks
- First Security Corporation
- Reports
- Speeches (documents)
- United States -- History -- 1933-1945 -- Sources
- United States -- History -- 1945-1959 -- Sources
- United States. Federal Housing Finance Board
- United States. Federal Reserve Board
- Utah -- Politics and government
- Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975 -- Protest movements -- United States
Creator
- Title
- Inventory of the Marriner S. Eccles papers, 1910-1985
- Author
- Finding aid prepared by Gwen Gittins and Nancy Young
- Date
- © 1989 (last modified: 2018)
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid encoded in English.
Repository Details
Part of the J. Willard Marriott Library Special Collections Repository
Contact:
295 South 1500 East
Salt Lake City Utah 84112 United States
801-581-8863
special@library.utah.edu
295 South 1500 East
Salt Lake City Utah 84112 United States
801-581-8863
special@library.utah.edu