White House Correspondents Association Charter Returns

This afternoon, a rescued bit of American history is being restored -- at least as best it can be -- in a White House ceremony.

According to George E. Condon Jr., the unofficial historian of the White House Correspondents’ Association, the only piece of property ever “owned” by the WHCA was the large, handsomely framed original charter. But it was lost.

The document began simply enough: “This organization shall be known as the White House Correspondents’ Association. Its primary object shall be the promotion of the interests of those reporters and correspondents assigned to cover the White House.”

What followed were various organizational bylaws, along with the names of the group’s charter members, eight men (this was 1914, after all) representing The Washington Star, the Washington Times, the Cincinnati Times-Star, the three existing wire services, and two papers named The Sun -- one in Baltimore, the other in New York.

Attribution: Carl M. Cannon, Realclearpolitics.com 
Full Story: WHCA