Converted to EAD3 : Encoded Archival Description (EAD), Version 3 : Release: 1.1.1 : Release Date: 2019-12-16. Validating against latest version of schema.
Contact information: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm78020263
Collection material in English
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
The papers of James A. Farley, postmaster general, politician, and businessman, were given to the Library of Congress by Farley between 1965 and 1969. Additional items were obtained by purchase, 1971; by gifts of Emil Hurja, 1937-1942; and by donation of Farley's son, James A. Farley, Jr., in 1983.
The Farley Papers were processed in 1960 by John Butler, William J. Gralka, and Grover Batts. The collection was revised and expanded between 1971 and 1986 by Allan teichroew and Paul Ledvina, and the finding aid was revised in 2006.
Items have been transferred from the Manuscript Division to other custodial divisions of the Library. Motion picture films and sound recordings have been transferred to the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division. Photographs have been transferred to the Prints and Photographs Division. All transfers are identified in these divisions as part of the James A. Farley Papers.
Copyright in the unpublished writings of James A. Farley in these papers and in other collections of papers in the custody of the Library of Congress has been dedicated to the public.
The papers of James A. Farley are open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Manuscript Reading Room prior to visiting. Many collections are stored off-site and advance notice is needed to retrieve these items for research use.
A microfilm edition of part of these papers is available on fifty-four reels. Consult reference staff in the Manuscript Division concerning availability for purchase or interlibrary loan. To promote preservation of the originals, researchers are required to consult the microfilm edition.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container or reel number, James A. Farley Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of James Aloysius Farley (1888-1976) span the years 1790-1976, with the bulk of the items concentrated in the period 1918-1976. The collection includes General Correspondence, Presidential File, Private File, Subject File, Speeches and Writings, and Miscellany series. The focus is on Farley's political career and connections, although a great deal of the material after 1940 also concerns his public relations activity on behalf of the Coca-Cola Export Corporation and his involvement with commercial and service organizations, Irish-American societies, the Catholic Church, professional sports, and the world leaders he met socially in the course of many foreign travels.
A major portion of the Farley Papers reflect his role as Franklin D. Roosevelt's campaign manager and as postmaster general of the United States. Documented in every series of the collection, his relation to Roosevelt and the New Deal is especially evident in the Presidential File and in the Private File of confidential logs or memoranda Farley dictated to himself as a record of important events. The Presidential File includes letters with Eleanor Roosevelt, whom Farley often consulted on political matters, and correspondence with members of the Roosevelt family and staff. The Private File, begun sporadically in 1918, swells in volume and significance after 1932 and lessens after Farley's break with Roosevelt on the issue of the third term. In addition to containing descriptions of cabinet meetings, the Private File offers day-to-day evaluations of Roosevelt's political standing during critical phases of the New Deal. It includes occasional assessments of other cabinet officers and advisers and gives firsthand accounts of major patronage issues, personality conflicts, and Farley's private visits with the president.
The General Correspondence series features letters from prominent acquaintances through several decades, including politicians, judges, cabinet officers, diplomats, legislators, actors, boxers, baseball players, newspaper reporters, businessmen, and socialites. There is considerable correspondence with officials of the Catholic Church, including several cardinals and Pope Pius XII, and with foreign heads of state such as Winston Churchill; Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia; May-ling Soong Chiang (Madame Chiang Kai-shek); General Francisco Franco; and Anastasio Somoza.
The Subject File includes a variety of personal, financial, and genealogical material, but is strongest in its documentation of Democratic Party politics. Included in the files for the presidential campaign of 1936, for instance, are transcripts of ad hoc discussions regarding local and regional election conditions, transcripts of Farley's press conferences, and a campaign book detailing state reports as they were received by the Democratic National Committee prior to elections. Other topics include New York state politics; Louisiana Senator Huey Long, a political opponent; and the Eighteenth Amendment, which Farley opposed and helped to repeal.
The Speeches and Writings series and Miscellany cover the full range of Farley's career and activities. Partially indexed, the speech file is notable as a record of his talks as postmaster general. The Miscellany is notable for the comprehensive scrapbooks which Farley and his family or staff compiled from about 1923 until his death in 1976.
Farley corresponded with every president and most of their wives from Herbert Hoover to Gerald Ford. Among the more frequent of the presidential correspondents were Hoover, Harry S. Truman and Bess Wallace Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson. Other correspondents include Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle (1896-1961), Claude Gernade Bowers, Homer S. Cummings, Éamon De Valera, Denis J. Dougherty, John Nance Garner, Carter Glass, Louis M. Howe, Cordell Hull, Harold L. Ickes, Breckinridge Long, Sean T. O'Kelly, Alfred Emanuel Smith, William H. Woodin, and Harry Hines Woodring.
The collection is arranged in six series:
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm78020263
Letters received and some letters sent, with attachments.
Arranged chronologically.
Correspondence and related matter, including private and official memoranda, case materials, lists, and appended printed matter and miscellany. Includes correspondence and related matter concerning First Ladies and presidential family members and staff.
Arranged alphabetically by name of president and therein chronologically.
Private and confidential memoranda dictated by Farley as a diary of important events and activities, with occasional attachments relating to incidents discussed.
Arranged chronologically, with a hiatus between 1947 and 1955 and 1956 and 1974. The period between 1974 and 1976 is covered by bound diaries with infrequent entries in Farley's hand.
Available on six reels of microfilm. Shelf no. 19,365.
Correspondence, reports, memoranda, transcripts of interviews, financial data, condolence letters and funeral registers, genealogical information, and miscellaneous near-print and printed matter.
Arranged alphabetically by name of person, organization, or topic.
Drafts and printed and near-print copies of speeches and writings by Farley.
Arranged by category, with the speeches organized chronologically and the writings alphabetically by title. Undated speeches are located at the end of the chronological speech listings and organized alphabetically by title or location of address. An incomplete index precedes the speeches file.
Academic papers and theses on Farley, memorabilia, citations and certificates, clippings, invitations, programs, books, printed and near-print matter, and scrapbooks.
Arranged alphabetically by type of material or subject. Unbound scrapbook material precedes bound volumes that are grouped and labeled according to topical categories created by Farley.
The scrapbooks no longer exist in the original and are available only on microfilm. Shelf no. 19,365.