Pumpkin Papers

The "Pumpkin Papers" refer to a collection of 35-mm microfilm documents that Whittaker Chambers hid inside a hollowed-out pumpkin on his farm. These papers were crucial evidence in the 1950 trial of Alger Hiss, a former U.S. State Department official. Chambers, a journalist and former Communist Party member, accused Hiss of being part of a Soviet espionage ring in the 1930s. Hiss denied these accusations, but the documents, which included classified State Department materials, were presented as evidence. The "Pumpkin Papers" ultimately contributed to Hiss's conviction for perjury. The case was highly publicized during a period of intense anti-communist sentiment in the United States and brought Richard M. Nixon to national prominence.123