The papers of Carl William Ackerman (1890-1970) span the years 1833-1970, with the bulk of the material concentrated in 1931-1956 when he was dean of the School of Journalism and Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University. The collection constitutes an important source for the history of twentieth-century journalism as well as for some of the public questions in which he took an interest, most notably freedom of the press and journalism education. The papers also include documentation of Ackerman's activities as a news correspondent during and after World War I, the scene of which ranged from Germany in 1915-1917, to Siberia in 1918, to American labor unrest in 1919, to the Irish rebellion in 1920-1921. In addition, there are papers concerning his activities as a public relations consultant from 1921 to 1927. The collection consists of Diaries; Family Papers; General Correspondence; Subject File, Speech, Article and Book File; Miscellany; Oversize; and Classified series.

Ackerman enjoyed the acquaintance of many prominent newspaperman, editors, authors, educators, and statesmen. Significant correspondents include Nicholas Murray Butler, William R. Castle, Kent Cooper, William Cullen Dennis, George Eastman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Frank Diehl Fackenthal, Douglas Southall Freeman, James W. Gerard, Edward Mandel House, Roy Wilson Howard, Arthur Krock, David Lawrence, Joseph Pulitzer (1885-1955), Ralph Pulitzer, and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The collection includes items from the years 1915-1917, when Ackerman served as United Press correspondent within the Central Powers. There are notes, research materials, and scrapbooks relating to the hundreds of dispatches he filed from Berlin, many of which appeared as front-page stories in the American press. Diaries for this period are scant, but letters to various family members by both Ackerman and his wife, Mabel VanderHoof Ackerman, provide a narrative of the life of an American correspondent in wartime Europe.

After the break in United States diplomatic relations with Germany in 1917, Ackerman served as a special correspondent for the and gathered material in Switzerland, Mexico, and elsewhere concerning political events in the years 1917-1918. While working for the , Ackerman served simultaneously as a confidential reporter to Edward Mandell House, President Wilson's adviser, and began an exchange of letters that ended only with House's death in 1938. At the end of World War I, Ackerman and House corresponded on such subjects as the League of Nations, press censorship, Russia, and Japan. On July 16, 1919, House wrote Ackerman: "I shall always regret that you were not in Paris during the Peace Conference. You would have been helpful in many directions and I constantly missed your not being here." Subject files for Switzerland and Siberia contain copies of reports written by Ackerman for House and the United States Department of State.

One of the most dramatic episodes in Ackerman's career was a trip to Siberia for the in the fall of 1918 to investigate the reported execution of Czar Nicholas II of Russia and his family. Ackerman's papers document his slow journey of five thousand miles across the Trans-Siberian Railway to the village of Ekaterinburg, where he interviewed eyewitnesses to the event and lived in a hired railway boxcar. Subject files for Siberia and the include some of Ackerman's notes and dispatches. Correspondence concerning Siberia is in files for Newton Diehl Baker, Herman Bernstein, Felix Cole, Allen W. Dulles, Abram I. Elkus, William Sidney Graves, and Hugh Wilson. Reminiscences are to be found in some later speeches, articles, and letters. There are also subject files for China and Japan dating from this period.

A large group in the Subject File series concerns the Foreign News Service, which Ackerman organized and headed from 1920 to 1921. These files concern the activities of the dozen or so correspondents under his direction in Europe and the Near East, as well as his own writing. There is much about the European scene, including a group of Ackerman's own dispatches filed from the League of Nations Assembly in Geneva in 1920, but the most interesting episode is Ackerman's coverage of the Sinn Fein rebellion in Ireland. The British Government allowed Ackerman to make a number of trips from his base in London to Dublin to seek out Michael Collins, the militant leader of the Irish Republican Army, for a rare series of interviews. Ackerman was guaranteed safe passage in return for sounding out the Irish leaders on possible peace terms. There is correspondence with Sir Basil Thomson, chief of the intelligence services of Scotland Yard, and with Collins himself. Much of Ackerman's diary for 1920-2921, his "London Notes," deals with the Irish question; it also includes his observations about Colonel House, who was then a member of Ackerman's staff.

In 1921, Ackerman left newspaper reporting to become a public relations consultant, and there are subject files for firms and organizations with which he was associated, including the American Valuation Association, the Eastman Kodak Company, the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, Inc., and the Washington Cathedral.

In 1930, the largest of Ackerman's five published books appeared, the biography George Eastman, based on extensive interviews with Eastman's papers. As in the case of many of Ackerman's writings, there are accompanying files of source material and correspondence.

By far the largest group of subject files concerns Ackerman's twenty-five year tenure as dean of the Columbia University School of Journalism. The files contain correspondence, memoranda, reports, and printed material relating to internal changes and controversies at Columbia under the presidencies of Nicholas Murray Butler, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Grayson L. Kirk, as well as documentation of Ackerman's own innovations in the School of Journalism.

During his Columbia years Ackerman corresponded with a great number of public figures. fellow journalists, and Columbia alumni, many of whom were scattered throughout the world. Much of this correspondence deals with the effect of national and international events upon journalism and the relation of governments to the press, especially in matters of censorship and propaganda. There is material in the Columbia University subject files and in files for the American Newspaper Publishers Association and American Society of Newspaper Editors concerning the possible effect on press freedom of certain provisions of the National Industry Recovery Act of 1933, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, and the Lend-Lease Bill of 1941.

Some fairly typical exchanges of correspondence are as follows: in 1939-1940, Ackerman corresponded with William R. Castle about President Roosevelt's foreign policy and potential American involvement in the European war; in 1945, with General George S. Patton (1885-1945) about freedom of expression; in 1946, with William Benton, assistant secretary of state, concerning the government's international information program; in 1948, with Westbrook Pegler on the subject of journalism education; and in 1959, with the Turkish journalist Ahmed Emin Yalman shortly after the latter had been sentenced to prison for articles criticizing the Turkish Government.

The Speech, Article, and Book File includes speeches and articles by Ackerman during his years at Columbia, accompanied by correspondence that provides a sampling of public reaction. There is such a file in the case of his speech of October 21, 1942, "Freezing the Press," delivered in the wake of a Justice Department suit against the Associated Press and 1,275 daily newspapers, in which Ackerman asserted his belief that wartime government restrictions on news were dangerous. A correspondence file also accompanies a 1953 article on civil liberties entitled "Is Political Conformity Forced upon Students?"

One interesting subject file is that for the Pulitzer Prize Advisory Board, of which Ackerman served as secretary. There are memoranda, correspondence, and minutes documenting the selection of some award winners and controversies within the board. Also included are transcripts of correspondence as early as 1921, antedating Ackerman's tenure on the board.

Ackerman was instrumental in organizing and administering the Maria Moors Cabot Prizes in inter-American journalism, and the subject file for the Cabot Prizes includes much information concerning Latin American journalism. Additional materials on Latin America, including correspondence and scrapbooks, are in subject files dealing with Ackerman's frequent trips to the Southern Hemisphere. Similar subject files deal with his trips to the Far East, as well as with his role in establishing the Post-Graduate School of Journalism in Chungking, China, in 1943-1945.

A subject file for the Oberlaender Trust of Philadelphia, of which Ackerman was a trustee, contains information on the trust's work in financing the relocation of displaced German scholars and students in the United States after the rise of Adolph Hitler. In 1932 the trust was the first philanthropic organization in the United States to grant a stipend to Albert Einstein.

Another subject file concerns Ackerman's part in a 1945 three-man mission of the American Society of Newspaper Editors that made, with the approval of the government, a forty thousand mile world tour to promote freedom of the press in the postwar settlement. Of particular interest are Ackerman's lengthy letters to his wife, written almost daily, that record his observations on the political and social situation in over a dozen countries in the last months of World War II. The originals of these letters are in the Family Papers series; they are also compiled as the typescript of an unpublished book, in the Speech, Article, and Book File.

Ackerman's last major writing was an anecdotal and critical history of Columbia University, chiefly concerned with the presidencies of Nicholas Murray Butler and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Entitled “Eisenhower in Wonderland,” it was completed in 1958, following Ackerman's retirement from Columbia, but not published.