Restrictions to Access

This collection contains additional materials that are not available for immediate or same day access. Please contact Research and Instructional Service staff at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu to discuss options for consulting these materials.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Josephus Daniels Papers #203, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from various sources from February 1952 through June 1997. Additions received from J. Douglas Mattox of Raleigh, N.C., in April 1997 (Acc. 97060), September 1999 (Acc. 98479), and February 2001 (Acc. 99146); and from Peter Tompkins in 2013 (Acc. 101930).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Lisa Tolbert, Roslyn Holdzkom, Jackie Dean, October 1995

Encoded by: Eben Lehman, April 2006

Updated by: Kathryn Michaelis, June 2010; Nancy Kaiser, October 2020

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Ambassadors--United States--History--20th century.
• Autobiographies--United States--History--20th century.
• Bryan, William Jennings, 1860-1925.
• Cabinet officers--United States--History--20th century.
• Daniels family.
• Daniels, Addie Worth Bagley, 1869-1943.
• Daniels, Jonathan, 1902-
• Daniels, Josephus, 1862-1948.
• Diplomatic and consular service, American--History--20th century.
• Journalists--North Carolina--History.
• Mexico--Description and travel.
• News and Observer (Newspaper : Raleigh, N.C.)
• Page, Walter Hines, 1855-1918.
• Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945.
• Seabrook family.
• United States. Navy Dept.--History--20th century.
• Watterson, Henry, 1840-1921.
• Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924.
• World War, 1914-1918--Naval operations.

• Josephus Daniels Papers, Library of Congress.
• Charles C. Daniels Papers (#3630); Frank Arthur Daniels Papers (#4481); Jonathan Worth Daniels Papers (#3466) in the Southern Historical Collection.

Newspaper editor, lawyer, Southern liberal, and politician who never ran for office, Josephus Daniels was born in Washington, N.C., in 1862. He started his career as newspaper editor in 1880 at the Wilson Advance in Wilson, N.C. After attending the University of North Carolina, Daniels passed the state bar examinations in 1885, but never actually practiced law. In 1891, he assumed editorial control of the Raleigh News and Observer.

An ardent, life long Democrat, Daniels was appointed Democratic national committeeman from North Carolina in 1896 and held that post until 1916. Woodrow Wilson appointed him secretary of the Navy in 1912. Daniels was one of four cabinet members who served throughout Wilson's two terms. In 1921, Daniels returned to the Raleigh News and Observer. He supported Franklin D. Roosevelt in the election of 1932. Roosevelt, who had served as assistant secretary of the Navy under Daniels from 1913 to 1921, always called his former boss "chief," and, in 1933, appointed him ambassador to Mexico. Daniels helped to implement Roosevelt's good neighbor policy for eight years, resigning in 1941 to resume his editorial duties in Raleigh. He continued to write editorials for the News and Observer almost until his death in 1948.

A devoted family man throughout his life, Daniels married Adelaide Worth Bagley (1869-1943) in 1888. They had six children. Two daughters died in infancy. Four sons survived: Josephus (1894-1964), Worth Bagley (born 1899), Jonathan Worth (1902-1981), and Frank Arthur (1904-1986). For more information see the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, edited by William S. Powell. See also Subseries 2.1.

The collection includes correspondence, writings, diaries, and other materials of Josephus Daniels, newspaper editor, secretary of the Navy and United States ambassador. Most correspondence relates to Daniels's activities as secretary of the Navy and ambassador to Mexico rather than to his personal life or to his work as owner and editor of the Raleigh, N.C., News and Observer. Also included are letters to his mother; letters, 1887-1889; to his future wife, Adelaide Worth Bagley; a file of "important letters"--Woodrow Wilson, William Jennings Bryan, Henry Watterson, Walter Hines Page, and others; and selected excerpts of letters, probably arranged by Daniels's son, Jonathan Daniels. Writings include a typescript of the first three volumes of Daniels's autobiography, genealogies of the Daniels and Seabrook families, and drafts of speeches, editorials, and books. The diary series contains a notebook about military bases and supplies, 1917-1918; and diaries, 1913-1921, 1933, and 1940-1941. Other material includes a calendar Daniels kept as ambassador to Mexico, January 1937-August 1939; clippings of articles about Daniels; and correspondence and writings of Adelaide Worth Bagley Daniels. Some slight material relates to Franklin D. Roosevelt.

• Photographs (PF-203/1)
• Separated folder (SEP-203/1)