Subseries 5: Ephemera

The bulk of the collection has been arranged within the Joseph Ranft (1905-1974) series. Joe Ranft was a journalist and self-described “intelligence specialist,” who worked for International News Service (INS) and Radio Free Europe. The bulk of the series deals with Joe’s time with these two organizations. The Joseph Ranft series deals mainly with his work on Eastern Europe. There are news articles, interviews, correspondence, press releases, and briefings dealing with the Communist Soviet Union presence in Eastern Europe.

The bulk of the Joseph and Adele Ranft series centers on their financial records and photographs. There are over one hundred photos, most without a date or location/name noted. The legal documents consist of an apartment lease, rabies vaccination papers for their cat Kukla, who they took to live with them in Athens, Greece, and various estate information. Also included is a folder containing various ephemera.

The bulk of the Adele Ranft series revolves around travel information, which covers the years 1951 to 1973. Adele’s correspondence, both personal and professional spans the years 1943 to 1976. There are numerous articles written by Adele, spanning the years 1943 to 1952. Also included are various newspaper clippings and a list of quotations that Adele found interesting.

The Ranft Collection offers insight into the political and economic situation in communist Eastern Europe, directly following World War II. Much of Joe’s information came from interviewing refugees from Soviet controlled territories. There are also many articles on U. S. foreign aid and policy. Although Joe Ranft covered the Nuremberg Trials for INS, there are only a few items relating to this event. One major weakness of this collection is that many of the items do not have dates. Also, copies of Joe’s interviews do not state who is being interviewed. For some items the content could not be determined as they were written in either French or Greek.