Paepcke, Walter P. Papers, 1912-1961

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Series VI includes a small container located in Box 131 that holds a reel of movie film. This film is currently restricted due to the condition of the material or need for special equipment.

When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Walter P. Paepcke. Papers, [Box #, Folder #], Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

Walter Paul Paepcke was born on June 29, 1896, in Chicago, Illinois. He was the son of Hermann Paepcke, a Prussian immigrant, and Paula Wagner Paepcke. Walter attended the University School for Boys and the Boy's Latin School where he graduated in 1913. He received a degree in economics and history from Yale University in 1917 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. From 1918 to 1919, Walter served as an ensign in the United States Naval Reserve Forces. During this same time he also attended night classes at the Kent College of Law.

Walter's father Hermann was the president of the Chicago Mill and Lumber Company, which was described in 1909 as being the largest lumber and box company in the country. In the spring of 1919, after being honorably discharged from the U.S. Naval Reserve Forces, Walter came to work at his father's company as the assistant to the treasurer. He held this position until 1921 when upon his father’s death he became president.

Through the influence of his parents, who were lovers of music and literature. Walter began a lifelong dedication to promoting and preserving the arts. Due in large part to his father, Walter began a relationship with the cultural community of the University of Chicago. It was in this cultural community that Walter became friends with Professor William A. Nitze, chairman of the Department of Romance Languages, and his family. In 1922, Walter married Professor Nitze's daughter, Elizabeth Nitze, and together Walter and Elizabeth began to make considerable contributions to the liberal arts.

In 1926 Walter assumed dual positions in both the Chicago Mill and Lumber Company and a new company he founded called the Container Corporation of America. This new company had begun as a side line business making paper containers during the economically lean period of World War I. Walter saw the potential of this new enterprise and merged it with businesses he had recently acquired, the Philadelphia Paper Manufacturing Company and the Midwest Box Company. By the late 1940s the Container Corporation of America (CCA) had become the largest domestic producer of paper containers.

Walter had an unusual vision for his new company. CCA set out to promote the service offered by its products not the product itself. It could be said that every household contained something made by CCA. Walter also felt that design was central to the success of his new enterprise. In the 1930s Walter Paepcke and CCA became innovators that brought the concept of modern design and business together. CCA launched an advertising campaign that established the company as the best known in the industry. It also helped to focus considerable light on the modern art and design world. By 1955 Walter was honored for his vision and named Industrial Advertiser of the Year.

Beyond his business interests, Walter and Elizabeth were patrons and promoters of the musical, literary, and artistic worlds. Walter Paepcke served as a trustee or as a member of the board of directors for the University of Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago Orchestral Association, Cliff Dwellers Club, Great Books Foundation, and the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

One unique project Walter Paepcke undertook was a festival in honor of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. His friend, Robert Hutchins, chancellor of the University of Chicago, and Professor Guiseppe Borgese came to him in 1947 with the idea of honoring the German philosopher and poet on the 200th anniversary of his birth. Walter had read Goethe’s writings since his youth and was very much in favor of helping to create a program to honor Goethe. A short time earlier on a trip to Colorado, Walter had seen the town of Aspen and its surrounding countryside. After searching unsuccessfully for a location near Chicago for the celebration, the group decided that the festival could be held in Aspen, Colorado. With considerable involvement on Walter’s part, especially financially, the festival took place in June 1949. As a result of the work Walter did to help organize the Goethe Bicentennial Festival, he began purchasing property in and around Aspen for future development.

The development of Aspen, Colorado led to Walter Paepcke’s most ambitious undertaking. Spurred by the success of the Goethe Festival, Walter established the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies in 1950. The Aspen Institute, a non-profit institute, was to be an intellectual and cultural center of continuing education. Part of its programs were geared towards giving executives the opportunity to understand their role in society and to develop goals and convictions for their lives.

It was said that Walter Paepcke sold big business on its responsibilities as a purveyor of culture. He devoted a lifetime to the patronage of the arts while building and leading a company that became the nation’s largest producer of paperboard containers. Paepcke died in Chicago on April 13, 1960.

General Files; Series II, Container Corporation of America; Series III, Goethe Bicentennial Foundation; Series IV, Aspen Institute for Humanities Studies; Series V, Financial Records; and Series VI, Photographs and Oversized Documents. The collection itself spans the period 1912 to 1976 and contains correspondence, manuscripts, published materials, newspaper and magazine clippings, photographs, annual reports, and financial documents. Much of the original arrangement has been retained.

Series I, General Files, contains correspondence, newspaper clippings, press releases, speeches, programs, invitations, legal documents, and financial statements. The correspondence has been arranged chronologically and then alphabetically within each year. The majority of the information contained in this series is of a personal nature, though business matters are discussed in some of the correspondence.

Some of the topics mentioned in Series I include: Walter's wife, Elizabeth (Pussy) Paepcke and their children, Anina (Nina), Paula, and Antonia (Toni); business colleagues; investments; relatives in Europe; effects of the Depression as well as WWII on Walter’s business and personal life; a farm in Sandwich, Illinois, and a dude ranch in Larkspur, Colorado, both of which were developed to include experimental farming and breeding of animals; the development of Aspen, Colorado; and the Goethe Festival.

Another interesting topic is the files in Subseries 2, Philanthropic Activities, on Papecke’s involvement with the Bilderberg Group. This group of slightly more than 100 members includes some of the most powerful men and women in the world. They came from government, politics, industry, finance, education, and communications and are chosen on the basis of their knowledge, standing, and experience. They meet in private for four days every year to discuss ways in which North American and Western Europe can work more closely together. No records are kept of the content of the meetings. Walter Paepcke was asked to participate in the meetings from 1957-1960 but was only able to attend the 1959 meeting.

Series II, Container Corporation of America, and Series IV, Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies, are both arranged as subject files. These were files maintained by Walter Paepcke in his business office and do not constitute the corporate records for these two businesses. The Container Corporation of America as been bought out several times since Paepcke’s death in 1960, the last time by Stone Container Corporation in the 1980s. The non-profit Aspen Institute is still in operation in Aspen, Colorado.

Series V, Financial Records, contains a miscellaneous group of financial ledgers and journals maintained by both Walter and Elizabeth Paepcke. Series VI, Photographs and Oversized Documents contains visual materials removed from the other five series and consolidated. Descriptions have been provided and notations have been made within the inventory where images were shifted to Series VI.

The following related resources are located in the Department of Special Collections:

• Names
  • Hutchins, Robert Maynard, 1899-
  • Schweitzer, Albert, 1875-1965
  • Ortega y Gasset, Jose, 1883-1955
  • Coward, Noel, 1899-1973
  • Wilder, Thornton, 1897-1975
  • Bayer, Herbert, 1900
  • Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 1749-1832
  • Chicago Mill and Lumber Company
  • Container Corporation of America
  • Community and War Fund of Metropolitan Chicago
  • Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies
  • Aspen Music Festival
  • Bilderberg Meetings
  • International Design Conference
  • Goethe Bicentennial Festival (1949: Aspen, Colo.)
  • University of Chicago -- Administration
• Subject
  • Depressions -- 1929 -- Illinois -- Chicago
  • Lumber trade
  • Paperboard industry
  • Paper box industry
  • Container industry -- United States
  • Art and industry
  • Design, Industrial
  • Advertising
  • Music festivals
• Geographic CoverageAspen (Colo.)