Lippmann Wills His Estate To Harvard, Papers to Yale

The late Walter Lippmann '10 has left Harvard almost all of his estate, valued at over $500,000. Lippmann died on December 14 and his will was filed in Manhatten Surrogate's Court in New York on Monday.

With the exception of $50,000 each to his stepdaughter and his former ward, and $10,000 to his secretary, Lippmann's estate will be turned over to the University according to the terms of the will.

Yale Gets Papers

The will also stipulated that all of Lippmann's letters, notes, published and unpublished manuscripts and books should go to Yale's Sterling Library.

Keyes D. Metcalf, the University librarian when Lippmann made the agreement with Yale, said last year that he had estimated in 1946 that the columnist's papers would require at least a big freight car to be transported. He added that in the two decades since then Lippmann probably accumulated another freight car's worth.

The agreement to turn over the papers to Yale came as a surprise to Harvard library officials at the time. The only explanation ever officially offered by spokesmen for Lippmann was that Yale had asked him for the collection first.

Although Harvard spokesman have since claimed that they probably could not have adequately handled the bulk of Lippmann's material during the 1940s, rumors have persisted since then that the decision to turn to Yale was prompted by ill feelings.

Remain Confidential

The Harvard collection of correspondence during that time between Lippmann's close friend, Wilmarth Lewis and Metcalf will not be opened for public scrutiny for another 20 years, Douglas Bryant, director of the University library said last year. Lewis arranged for Lippmann to give his papers to Yale.

After graduating cum laude from the College in three years, Lippmann continued his association with Harvard for many years. He played a central role in the founding of the Nieman Fellows program in 1937.