Robert F. Wagner Papers
The personal and official papers of Robert F. Wagner, long-term United
States senator from New York, are an important resource for scholars in
many fields. They constitute without question one of the best sources available
for the legislative history of the New Deal. Though Wagner is best known
for his work in labor legislation, the collection has important segments
documenting the senator's involvement with civil rights legislation, immigration
(especially from Nazi Germany), and the recognition of a Jewish state in
Palestine. Correspondents include Franklin D. Roosevelt and almost every
important federal and New York state official of the period.
Gift of Robert F. Wagner, Jr.
1912-1949 * 588.00 linear feet
The collection includes that part of Keyserling's papers which relate
to his long tenure as legislative aide to Senator Robert F. Wagner. Besides
correspondence from Wagner, it contains numerous drafts of bills written
by Keyserling, such as the Housing Act of 1937 and the Wagner National
Labor Relations Act (present in eight separate drafts), files of campaign
speeches, and related material.
Gift of Mrs. Leon H. Keyserling
1933-1946 * 4.50 linear feet
Earle B. Mayfield Papers
Though Senator Mayfield's personal papers cover virtually all of his
lifespan, they focus most strongly on his term (1923-1929) in the United
States Senate. A quantity of materials, however, relate to his service
as a Texas state senator and, more importantly, as a Texas railroad commissioner.
Mayfield was elected to the U. S. Senate and confirmed despite malicious
accusations of receiving campaign funds from the Ku Klux Klan.
Gift of Edith S. and John S. Mayfield
1890-1964 * 49.50 linear feet
The private papers of Senator Brien McMahon, comprising correspondence,
manuscripts, printed articles, clippings, and photographs, offer insight
into McMahon's rise to eminence in the Justice Department and in the Connecticut
and national Democratic parties in the 1930s. His senatorial campaigns
of 1944 and 1950 are also documented, as is his attempt to capture the
Democratic presidential nomination in 1952. Correspondents include Franklin
D. Roosevelt, J. Edgar Hoover, Homer S. Cummings, and a host of other government
officials and members of Congress.
Gift of Patricia M. Fox
ca. 1930-1953 * 17.00 linear feet
Harry L. Hopkins Papers
The Hopkins Papers comprise the personal archives of Franklin D. Roosevelt's
most trusted advisor. The papers contain appointment books and diaries,
drafts of Hopkins' speeches and memoranda, and extensive correspondence
with his family and friends, including letters from President and Mrs.
Roosevelt, Averell Harriman, the Winston Churchill family, George C. Marshall,
Carl Sandburg, and Felix Frankfurter. Among other frequent correspondents
are presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Harry S. Truman, and Lyndon B. Johnson
as well as Bernard Baruch, Joseph Kennedy, Harold L. Ickes, Rexford G.
Tugwell, Robert E. Sherwood, Max Beaverbrook, and Anthony Eden. The papers
help document virtually all facets of Hopkins' career, from his role as
chief architect of the New Deal to his becoming Roosevelt's Secretary of
Commerce. There is also important material regarding his World War II work
as head of Lend-Lease and as a major American policy maker, especially
in the matter of Roosevelt's negotiations with Churchill and Stalin. The
original gift has been supplemented by an important group of early family
correspondence, chiefly relating to Ethel Gross Hopkins, the gift of
June Hopkins.
Registers available online:
Accession I ;
Accession III;
and Accession IV
Gift of Robert Hopkins
ca. 1890-1961 * 34.00 linear feet
Lloyd W. Bowers Papers / John W. Davis Papers
The extensive correspondence files of United States solicitors general
Lloyd W. Bowers (for 1909-1910) and John W. Davis (for 1913-1918) concerning
for the most part nominations and applications for various federal government
positions.
Gift of Mrs. William J. Hughes
1909-1918 * 6.00 linear feet
Emily Smith Warner Collection
The Warner Collection embodies the very few surviving personal papers
of former New York governor and unsuccessful Democratic presidential candidate
Al Smith. Assembled by the governor's daughter, by whom it was presented,
the collection includes a rich assemblage of family scrapbooks and other
materials documenting Governor Smith's long career in local, state, and
national politics.
Gift of Emily Smith Warner
1913-1940 * 11.50 linear feet
Robert Low Bacon Papers
The Bacon Papers provide a detailed look at the New Deal's "loyal
opposition," documenting Bacon's career as a Republican member of
the House of Representatives from 1923 until his death in 1938. Bacon represented
an affluent New York State district and made a reputation as a consistent
and determined opponent of the policies of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Bacon
Papers are supplemented by those of his wife, Virginia Murray Bacon (described
under American History).
Gift of the estate of Mrs. Robert Low Bacon
ca. 1915-1938 * 91.50 linear feet
McCarthy Historical Project Archive
The McCarthy Historical Project Archive, created to document the 1968
campaign by Senator Eugene J. McCarthy for the Democratic presidential
nomination, is perhaps the first large collection of records of any American
political primary campaign. It has served since as a model for chroniclers
of the political efforts of others, notably of George McGovern in 1972.
Records of the national campaign office are supplemented by selected records
of state offices, paid television and radio advertising, speech and release
files, and a wealth of written and oral history narratives by many of the
most active participants in the campaign.
Gift of the McCarthy Historical Project and of Senator and Mrs. Eugene
J. McCarthy
1967-1970 * 445.00 linear feet
Other McCarthy Campaign Collections
The McCarthy Historical Project Archive has been supplemented since 1970 by a number of collections which bear on the 1968 campaign as well as on Senator McCarthy's previous and subsequent political career:
Archives of the Fair Campaign Practices Committee
Records of the Fair Campaign Practices Committee include papers, correspondence,
and related files alleging instances and documenting charges of dirty dealing
in state and national elections. Coverage of the 1960 presidential election
is especially detailed, as is that for the 1964 New York senatorial race
between Robert F. Kennedy and the Republican incumbent, Kenneth Keating.
Also included are the committee's internal records documenting its origin,
composition, governance, and fundraising activities.
Gift of the Committee
1954-1976 * 70.50 linear feet
Archives of the Center for the Public Financing of Elections
The archives of the center document its activities from its inception
in June, 1973, through its advocacy of the Federal Election Campaigns Act
Amendments of 1974, to the closing of its offices in December, 1975. The
collection includes legal records, reference files, correspondence, and
financial records of the center.
Gift of the Center
1973-1976 * 19.50 linear feet
The collection comprises a substantial fragment of the papers of this
longtime member of the U. S. House of Representatives, where he represented
Kentucky's second district. To a large extent the papers consist of letters
received from White House political officers, influential constituents
and supporters, and others.
ca. 1970-1985 * 2.50 linear feet
The Rommen Papers include extensive correspondence files as well as
numerous manuscript drafts in German and galley and page proofs in English
for his best-known work, The State in Catholic Thought (1945,
based on his 1935 German publication Der Staat in der katholischen
Gedankenwelt). Rommen's political philosophy found its other great
expression in The Natural Law (1947, translated from his
Die ewige Wiederkehr des Naturrechts, 1936).
Gift of Mrs. Heinrich Rommen
1923-1967 * 5.50 linear feet
William J. Walsh Collection
Composed of papers, correspondence, and an extensive clipping file
relating to practical aspects of political campaigning on all levels, the
collection has a special emphasis on New York State. It was assembled over
a period of nearly 50 years by William J. Walsh, former campaign adviser
to New York Mayor Fiorello J. LaGuardia and founder of the Citizenship
Research Project.
Gift of Mrs. William J. Walsh
1930-1980 * 96.00 linear feet
The papers comprise two distinct series of correspondence: the first,
letters received by Mrs. Butturff from Eleanor Roosevelt, James Roosevelt,
Malvina Thompson, and others; the second, a series of letters written to
her family by Mrs. Butturff while she was serving as Eleanor Roosevelt's
White House social secretary, 1933-1945. This latter group was published
in book form as Eleanor Roosevelt, An Eager Spirit: The Letters of
Dorothy Dow 1933-1945. The collection also includes a series of
photographs of the Roosevelts, the John F. Kennedys, the Lyndon Johnsons,
and others.
Gift of Mrs. Butturff and of Barbara Butturff Delaney
1933-1985 * 1.00 linear foot
Editorial Cartoon Collections
Politicians and the political process are a frequent topic for the editorial cartoonist. The library's collection, totalling more than 5,000 original cartoons dating from the late nineteenth century to the present, frequently offers corroborative evidence in hotly debated questions of American politics. (For a full discussion of these collections see under Visual & Performing Arts).
MacNeil Collection
Formed by Washington journalist and novelist Neil MacNeil, the collection originally contained approximately 6,000 monographs, serials, pamphlets, and government documents relating to the history of the United States Congress, its rules and proceedings, and the men who have served--and occasionally fought--in it. The collection, especially strong in early pamphlet material and in its complete runs of congressional directories and records of debates, is divided between the main stacks and the rare books section, which houses more than 1,000 titles.
The Barnes Collection is, in fact, the photographic morgue file of
the Barnes Company, which specialized in the production of albums reproducing
the faces and giving capsule biographies of members of Congress during
the latter part of the nineteenth century. The collection includes 501
imperial carte de visite photographs, principally of members of Congress
from 1872 to 1876, many of the photographs being embellished by added signatures
trimmed from letters or other documents.
ca. 1870-1876 * 501 items
Other Political Science Holdings
The foundation of the library's varied collections in the field of political science is a nucleus of first or early editions of classic writings by such authors as Bodin, Godwin, Hobbes, Locke, and Mill. These are supplemented by a strong collection of American state and federal statutes of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. A number of manuscript collections beside those described above contain material of potential value to the political scientist, perhaps most notably: