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David Burnham Papers

An inventory of his papers at the Syracuse University Archives


Finding aid created by: David Hazel
Date: 2018

Biography

David Burnham (1933- ) is an associate research professor at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication. He is also the co-founder/co-director of the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC). He became a reporter shortly after receiving his Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University in 1955. Burnham has worked for UPI, CBS, Newsweek, and is most famous for having worked at The New York Times as an investigative reporter from 1968 to 1986. He has gained decades of experience concentrating on federal enforcement and surveillance issues.

Burnham has written three books and penned numerous magazine articles. Burnham’s first book, The Rise of the Computer State, was published in 1984. His investigative book on the Internal Revenue Service, A Law unto Itself: Power, Politics and the IRS, was published in 1990. A third book, Above the Law: Secret Deals, Political Fixes, and Other Misadventures of the U.S. Department of Justice, was published in 1996.

Over the years, Burnham has received a number of professional honors including the George Polk Award for Community Service, Long Island University (1968); the Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship (1987); the Best Investigative Book of 1990, Investigative Reporters and Editors (1990); and the Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, Bellagio, Italy (1992). In 2003, Burnham was awarded an honorary doctorate degree in Humane Letters from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. In 2006, he was inducted into the National Freedom of Information Act Hall of Fame.

Scope and Content Note

The David Burnham Papers consists of correspondence, research notes, articles, news clippings, interview records, reports, videocasette tapes, microcasette tapes, a news broadcast transcript, a television script, and a color photograph print. Some documents are related to notable individuals such as John Wayne and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions:

Please note that the collection is housed off-site, and advance notice is required to allow time to have the materials brought to the Reading Room on campus.

Access to recordings requires advance notice to produce a use copy.

Use Restrictions:

Written permission must be obtained from the Syracuse University Archives and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

Related Material

The University Archives also contains a clipping file on David Burnham.

Selected Search Terms

Names

Burnham, David, 1933-
King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968.
Syracuse University -- History.
Syracuse University.

Subjects

Investigative reporting.
Journalism.
United States. -- Internal Revenue Service.
College teachers.
Higher education.

Types of Material

Clippings (information artifacts)
Interviews.
Microcassettes.
Photographs.
Videocassettes.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

David Burnham Papers,
University Archives,
Special Collections Research Center
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse transferred this collection to the Syracuse University Archives in 2018.

Processing Information

This collection has been fully processed and rehoused in acid free folders and archival boxes.

Arrangement

Materials have been arranged alphabetically and chronologically. Many of Burnham's original folder titles have been retained.

Table of Contents

Media

Subject Files

Inventory