Available for use in Manuscripts Division reading room.
Copyright has not been transferred to the Archives.
Arthur H. Motley Papers (Mss 58), Literary Manuscripts Collection, University of Minnesota Libraries, Minneapolis.
Donated by Mr. Motley from 1974 to 1978.
The collection has not been thoroughly processed.
The collection is organized in four general groups of materials:
Arthur "Red" Motley was a master salesman and a prolific motivational
speaker and writer who spent fifty years in the publishing profession. Born in
Minneapolis in 1900, he graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1922. His
career with Crowell-Collier Publishing Company began in 1928 as an advertising
space salesman for Colliers; he then became manager of the Detroit office, then
Western Manager of the company. In 1941 he was elected Vice President and
Director of Crowell-Collier and appointed publisher of the
He was a widely known speaker on the topic of selling and marketing. His favorite topic was "Nothing Happens Until Somebody Sells Something." He served as president of Sales Marketing Executives International, chairman of the marketing division of President Eisenhower's Conference on Small Business, president and chairman of the board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The bulk of the collection includes copies of his speeches, often reworked for different audiences, and tapes of his presentations. Other professional materials relate to his presidency of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and administrative office files. Also included are family correspondence and recordings.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the University of Minnesota Libraries. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.
The following section contains an overview of materials in the collection. More detailed lists of speeches and recordings are available in the Archives.
Includes speeches given by Motley during his career and after retirement. Many of them are on the topics of selling, advertising, and the American economy.
A detailed list of the speeches is available in the Archives.
Mainly deal with Motley's election to presidency of U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Generally the tapes are speeches given by Motley.
Include both family recordings and speeches given by Motley.
These letters were written by Mr. Motley to his sister, but were for the information of the entire family and were distributed to many family members. They contain information about family doings as well as his own personal views and interpretations of national and international events of the month preceding.
They are contained in loose-leaf notebooks from 1953-1972 and are loose in document cases since then.
Includes both business and personal correspondence, photographs of Motley and his wife, Helene, clippings, articles, and itineraries.