Resurfacing a tabloid from the Vietnam War
For the past 40 years, a Stanford alumna’s journalistic legacy from the Korean and Vietnam wars has sat forgotten in musty boxes in a basement in Sweden.
Overseeing Overseas Weekly ’s Pacific edition was Ann Bryan, the only female editor in chief in Saigon. She successfully sued the Department of Defense to lift a ban that prohibited women from reporting in combat zones. South Vietnam, 1967 (Image credit: Ann Bryan)
But now, thanks to a new collection at the Hoover Institution Library and Archives, the long-lost story about Overseas Weekly – a small tabloid publication that offered an alternative perspective to official military publications – is being brought to light in an exhibition now on display at the Herbert Hoover Memorial Exhibit Pavilion.
In addition to showcasing long-forgotten images, the show highlights the two women who ran the publication, Stanford alumna Marion von Rospach and Ann Bryan, as well as their team of photojournalists who championed freedom of the press and challenged the conventional role of women reporting war on the battlefield.
When Lisa Nguyen, who curated the exhibition, saw for the first time the photos that were taken for Overseas Weekly , she said she immediately was struck by these intimate portraits of soldiers and Vietnamese civilians immersed in the daily life of the war-torn nation.
“Immediately you see the figures, scenes and facets of that period,” Nguyen recalled. “You see the emotions captured on the faces of soldiers and civilians. You see both the fear but also moments of happiness. You also see the moments in between.”
Discovering a long-lost legacy
The images had been boxed away in a Nordic cellar of one the former photographers, Calle Hesslefors. After Hesslefors passed away in 2009, the collection made its way to Swedish designer Mark Goldsworthy, who reached out to the Hoover Institution when he realized its historical significance.
Don Hirst, Overseas Weekly reporter and Pacific Bureau chief (1972-73). Cambodia, 1970 (Image credit: Overseas Weekly staff)
“We welcomed the collection,” said Nguyen, who is the curator for digital scholarship and Asian initiatives at the Hoover Institution Library and Archives and editor of the exhibition catalog and companion book .
But Nguyen also had many questions. When the collection came to her, many of its negatives were warped and deteriorating. Some of the images had no descriptions and were often unattributed.
“We quickly began to wonder, who took these photographs? What circumstances led them to Vietnam – on the battlefield and off? Where are they now?” Nguyen asked.
With little to no information online, Nguyen and her colleagues pored over microfilm reels of old newspapers, traced primary sources and connected to veteran networks to identify photos and learn more about the near-forgotten publication.
Through the State Historical Society of Missouri, where Bryan’s papers are now stored, Nguyen tracked down some of the the photojournalists and reporters, including Cynthia Copple, Art Greenspon, Don Hirst and Brent Procter – whose photos are also included in the exhibition.
“It was incredible,” said Nguyen about reconnecting with them. “You never know how people are going to react. Some were ecstatic – like Don Hirst – who didn’t realize that these photographs had survived.”