The papers of Oscar Henry Brandon (1916-1993) span the years 1939-1994 and relate primarily to his professional life as a journalist. Brandon spent the major portion of of his career as chief American correspondent for of London. He covered presidential administrations from Franklin Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan and interviewed renowned Americans in the political and cultural arenas. His papers document his coverage of many of the major events in the second half of the twentieth century, his interest in foreign policy, and his official and personal contacts with prominent Americans and world figures. They are arranged in six series: Diaries, Engagement Calendars and Address Books, Interview File, Reference File, Speeches and Writings File, and Miscellany.

The diaries in the first series provide accounts of Brandon's activities, meetings with officials, reports of conversations at social engagements, and his reflections on events spanning over fifty years. He occasionally attached clippings, notes, and other related material to the entries. Although entries were not made for each day, the diaries provide frequent impressions of historical events and personal glimpses of major figures with whom Brandon interacted socially. These individuals include Dean Acheson, John F. Kennedy, Henry Kissinger, and Walter Lippmann.

Appointment books with attached address books in the Engagement Calendars and Address Books series complement the diaries and serve as additional records of Brandon's activities, friends, and contacts.

The Interview File contains typed transcripts and handwritten notes from interviews Brandon conducted for publication or for gathering background information. Brandon conducted taped conversations with leading Americans in the 1950s and 1960s which were published in the and in two books, and Transcripts from these interviews are filed in this series. Interview subjects include George Bush, Jimmy Carter, Gerald R. Ford, John F. Kennedy, Margaret Mead, Harold Macmillan, a joint interview with Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Anwar Sadat, Margaret Thatcher, Edmund Wilson, and Frank Lloyd Wright. As a working journalist, Brandon also took notes during meetings and interviews which appear in other series.

The Reference File contains clippings, notes, and other material relating to prominent individuals and subjects. The most extensive topics include a file labelled "biographical material" containing information on important world leaders and individuals, a grouping titled "countries and geographical locations" which includes sections on Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States, and a valuable segment labelled "international affairs."

The Speeches and Writings File contains Brandon's published articles, books, and other writings as well as speeches, assorted notes and notebooks, and a newsletter titled "Henry Brandon from Washington" which he issued in the early 1980s. Many of his newspaper articles are mounted in scrapbooks. Extensive files relating to his memoirs, are a significant source of information in which Brandon brought together copies of relevant diary entries, notes, writings, and clippings.

Among the Miscellany are a small amount of personal and biographical material and files relating to some of Brandon's activities outside journalism. One such activity was his participation in the Committee on the Constitutional System, established to suggest reforms to the American Constitution. A major portion of the series, however, relates to Brandon's work as a guest scholar in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution from 1983 to 1993 and focuses on the end of the Cold War and the future of United States-European relations. During this period Brandon made several trips to his native Czechoslovakia, and several files relate to events in that country as well as his trips there. Brandon wrote a number of pieces on Czechoslovakia which are filed in the Speeches and Writings File.