Wallet
Object number2006.123.5 a-y
Date1931-1957
MediumLeather/Plastic/Paper/Ink/Crayon/Graphite/Metal
Credit LineGift of Rae S. Kurland
DescriptionLeather wallet with contents.DimensionsAll measurements in inches.Part a: 4.75 height, 9 width, 0.75 depth;
Part b: 2.5 height, 4 width;
Part c: 2.25 height, 3.875 width;
Part d: 2.5 height, 4 width;
Part e: 2.375 height, 4 width;
Part f: 2.25 height, 3.938 width;
Part g: Card folded: 2.25 height, Card unfolded: 4.5 height, 3.563 width; Stamp: 0.938 height, 0.75 width;
Part h: 2.5 height, 4 width;
Part i: 1.875 height, 3.375 width;
Part j: 2.563 height, 2.438 width;
Part k: 2.25 height, 4 width;
Part l: 2.25 height, 4 width;
Part m: 2.125 height, 4 width;
Part n: 2.25 height, 4 width;
Part o: 2.5 height, 4 width;
Part p: 2.25 height, 3.875 width;
Part q: 2.25 height, 3.875 width;
Part r: 5.5 height, Closed: 4.25 width, Open: 8.5 width;
Part s: 2.5 height, 3.75 width;
Part t: 2.25 height, 3.875 width;
Part u: 2.313 height, 3.563 width;
Part v: 2.438 height, 4 width;
Part w: 1.375 height, 2.25 width, 0.25 depth;
Part x: 4 height, 4.5 width;
Part y: 8.438 height, 5.5 width.
Inscriptions(a)
Wallet has "RAY SPRIGGLE [sic]" embossed in gold on interior right pocket flap, and "MEEKER / MADE" embossed to the right of the name.
(b-y)
All of the component parts have inscriptions consisting of printed and/or handwritten text. See objects and/or photographs for more detail.
(b)
Object has text "PRESS" .
Back of card is signed "The Sage of Moon Township Ray Sprigle".
(c)
Object has text "PRESS".
Back of card is inscribed with handwritten "Only one in / his class - / G. Bells".
(d)
Object has text "National Headliners' Club".
(e)
Object has text "WARNER BROS. THEATRES".
Back of card is signed "Ray Sprigle Mrs. Ray Sprigle".
(f)
Object has text "AMERICAN PRESS SOCIETY" and is signed by Ray Sprigle.
(g)
Object has text "THE AMERICAN NEWSPAPER GUILD"
Inside card and on back there are spaces for dues stamps; one dues stamp intact inside for dues paid in March 1937.
Stamp detached during cataloging from "Mar. 1937" section inside card, adhesive failure. Stamp is pink with red text "INTERNATIONAL DUES / THE ARMERICAN NEWSPAPER GUILD / ANG / SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS".
(h)
Object has text "WARNER BROS. THEATRES".
Back of card is signed by "Ray Sprigle - Agnes T. Sprigle".
(k)
Object has text "MOTOR VEHICLE REGISTRATION".
Signed by Ray Sprigle for a "BUICK 40 SDN".
(l)
Object has text "OPERATOR'S LICENSE".
Signed by Ray Sprigle.
(m)
Object has text "REGISTRATION TRANSFER".
Signed by Ray Sprigle for a "BUICK 40 SDN".
(n)
Object has text "OPERATOR'S LICENSE".
Signed by Ray Sprigle.
(o)
Object has text "PRESS IDENTIFICATION CARD".
(p)
Object has text "PRESS".
Back of card is signed by Sprigle.
(q)
Object has text "PRESS".
Back of card is signed by Sprigle.
(r)
Front has handwritten in pencil and crayon "Happy / Easter / 1946" and a color drawing of a rabbit and eggs. Inside has handwritten in pencil "Easters here again / With bunnies all about / So be gay and happ [sic] / Not down and out / To Mother + Daddy / With all my love / Rae Jean".
(s)
Object has text "LICENSE TO CARRY FIREARMS".
Signed by Ray Sprigle.
(t)
Object has text "PRESS".
(u)
Object has text "WESTERN UNION".
(v)
Object has text "REGISTRATION CERTIFICATE".
Signed by Sprigle on the front.
(w)
Front has text "RAY SPRIGLE / PGH. POST-GAZETTE".
(x)
Object has text "TEMPORARY REGISTRATION TRANSFER CERTIFICATE".
(y)
Object has text "BARCASKEY MOTOR SALES".
Marks(a)
Wallet has "MEEKER / MADE" embossed to the right of "SPRIGGLE" name.
Historical NotesLeather wallet with contents was found on Ray Sprigle after his death in 1957 from injuries sustained in a car accident. Ray Sprigle was a journalist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. In 1938, he won a Pulitzer Prize for proving Supreme Justice Hugo Black was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Often times he would go incognito to get to the truth of a story: in a popular story, he posed as an African American to investigate the plight of freed blacks in the South. Locally, he posed as a butcher for a month to expose the black market in meat during WWII, winning him the 1945 Headline club award. One of his trademarks was this corn cobb pipe. Sprigle died at age 71 in 1957 after a car wreck. From MSS 0779, Ray Sprigle Papers and Photographs archival collection finding aid: Martin Raymond Sprigle was a newspaper journalist, recognized both in Pittsburgh, Pa., and nationally, for over 51 years. He was born in Akron Ohio in 1886 to Emmanuel Peter Sprigle and Sarah Ann Hoover. Sprigle embarked on his journalistic career in 1906 with the Ohio Sun in Columbus, where he primarily covered the Ohio Penitentiary. Early in his career Sprigle also worked for his hometown Akron Times, and had brief stints with newspapers in Michigan, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Missouri. Along with news reporting, Sprigle wrote short stories during his early twenties, many of which were published in the Red Book magazine. While stopping in Pittsburgh in 1911 on his way to Red Book headquarters in New York, Sprigle was spontaneously hired onto the staff of the Pittsburgh Post. After only two years with the Post, Sprigle was appointed city editor. As a young adult in Pittsburgh, Sprigle associated with the International Workers of the World (IWW), with whom he organized strikes and protests. His involvement with the IWW led to his editor firing him soon after an IWW parade through downtown Pittsburgh. Sprigle proceeded to enlist with the U.S. Army during World War I and served as editor of the Camp Humphreys Newspaper in Virginia from 1917 through 1918. Sprigle returned to the Post as a reporter in 1918, and soon went undercover for the first time. Sprigle posed as a mine worker to expose dangerous working conditions and the cruelty of the State Iron and Coal Police, which as a result of his reporting was later dissolved. In 1926, Sprigle was appointed city editor for the second time. The Post was merged with the Gazette-Times in 1927, becoming the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and Sprigle continued to serve as city editor until 1932. As city editor, Sprigle spearheaded the "arrow campaign," a coordinated journalistic effort to publicize gambling operations, prostitution, bootlegging operations, and broad corruption throughout the region. In pictures published in the paper, Sprigle used white arrows to indicate the entrances to these illicit locations. Throughout 1929 and 1930, Sprigle's investigations lead to the extradition of Irene Schroeder and Glenn Dague from Arizona to Pennsylvania to stand trial for the 1929 murder of a Pennsylvania State Trooper. Sprigle viewed this as his best journalistic reporting. In 1931, Sprigle masqueraded as a hospital attendant at Mayview (then a state operated psychiatric institution in Pittsburgh) to investigate working conditions and patient treatment. He would perform a similar investigation at Byberry Mental Institution in Philadelphia, and his series of stories led to numerous reforms within state-run psychiatric hospitals. Sprigle married Agnes Trimmer in 1923, and the two had one daughter, Rae Jean. He left the Post-Gazette in 1932 to serve as Allegheny County Director of Properties and Services. However, he was drawn back to investigative reporting before his term was up, and rejoined the paper in 1935. The period of 1937 through 1948 produced several stories which garnered Ray Sprigle national attention as an investigative reporter. In 1937, Sprigle uncovered and exposed evidence of then-Supreme Court nominee Hugo Black's membership with an Alabama chapter of the Ku Klux Klan (though Black was confirmed to the court prior to the story being published). Sprigle won the 1938 Pulitzer Prize for his story, which was printed around the country. During World War II, Sprigle traveled to England in 1940 and reported during the Blitz. Back in the U.S. posing as a meat seller in 1945, Sprigle uncovered illegal buying and selling of meat which circumvented federal war-rationing. A subsequent Senate committee investigation led to a swath of indictments and several convictions. Sprigle earned a Headliners Award for his work. In what proved to be his most dedicated investigative attempt in 1948, Sprigle disguised himself as a black man and traveled throughout the segregated South, producing a controversial series of stories titled "I was a Negro in the South for 30 Days." While the above-mentioned description references several of the most recognizable of Ray Sprigle's journalistic endeavors, he covered hundreds of stories, small and large, local and national, over the course of his long career. Furthermore, Sprigle often defended those he felt had been dealt an unfair hand by the law, and was viewed by many as a champion for truth and justice. Ray Sprigle was 71 years old when he died from injuries sustained in a car crash in 1957. He was covering the "pink slip" trial of Lawrence County D.A. Perry Reeher, from which he was returning home from downtown Pittsburgh as his cab was struck by another vehicle. Sprigle won a posthumous citation from The National Association for Mental Health for his stories on the conditions of psychiatric institutions in Pennsylvania.
Previous owner
Ray Sprigle
Related person
Rae Jean Sprigle
Related person
Martin Raymond Sprigle
Related person
Agnes Sprigle
Related institution
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
Related institution
Barcaskey Motor Sales
Related institution
Pittsburgh Bureau of Police
Related institution
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
(founded 1927)
Related institution
Knights Templar
Related institution
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Related institution
The Western Union Company
On View
Not on view
1972
c. 1968
1923
