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Contact information: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm81026153
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 Richmond P. Hobson, naval officer and U.S. representative from Alabama, were given to the Library of Congress by his wife, Grizelda Hull Hobson, and the World Narcotic Defense Association and Constitutional Democracy Association, through Mrs. Hobson, in 1939-1940 and 1944. A smaller addition was received from Hobson's daughter, Mrs. W. E. D. Stokes, Jr., in 1986.
The Hobson Papers were processed in 1996 by Bradley E. Gernand with the assistance of Patrick Kerwin. The finding aid was revised in 2010.
Some broadsides have been transferred to the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library, where they are identified as part of these papers.
Copyright in the unpublished writings of Richmond Pearson Hobson in these papers and in other collections of papers in the custody of the Library of Congress has been dedicated to the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 Richmond Pearson Hobson 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.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Richmond Pearson Hobson Pearson, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of Richmond Pearson Hobson (1870-1937) span the years 1889-1966, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the years 1890-1937. Hobson's career is noted for his naval operation against the Spanish during the Spanish-American War; proficiency in naval design and construction; his activism in the campaign to enact a prohibition amendment to the United States Constitution, both as member of Congress and afterward; and his efforts to restrict the availability and use of recreational narcotics. All of these facets of Hobson's life are chronicled in these papers. Hobson is also noted for predicting a global war among European powers, ten years before it began in 1914, and between Japan and the United States, thirty years before Pearl Harbor. Hobson's papers contain his analyses and correspondence regarding both conflicts. The collection consists of six series: Family Papers , Navy File , Congressional File , Organizations File , Miscellany , and Oversize .
Hobson and his wife, Grizelda, wrote frequently to one another during times of separation. Hobson also corresponded with other members of his family, including his brother, sisters, and mother. The Family Papers contain information regarding both professional and personal endeavors related to subjects also documented in other series in the collection.
The United States Navy series includes files regarding a congressional bill to retire him as admiral and his service in the Spanish-American War. His papers record his inspections of the battle fleet under wartime conditions, his attempts to sink the
The Congressional File documents Hobson's career as a member of Congress from Alabama and his efforts to enact a prohibition amendment to the Constitution. Correspondents include leaders of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, Anti-Saloon League of America (which he later joined as traveling orator), and other anti-alcohol movements. It also features his work to enlarge the American fleet, fund an aggressive battleship construction program, and establish a permanent fleet in the Pacific Ocean. His distrust of Japanese intentions, which he believed were rooted in aggressive imperialism, spurred his interest in a permanent Pacific fleet, and many of his speeches and correspondence are devoted to the subject. Of particular note is a series of exchanges between Hobson and Theodore Roosevelt in which the two debated issues related to Japan. Hobson also headed a congressional panel investigating alleged police brutality during a 1913 national suffragette march in Washington, and the Congressional File contains correspondence and reports from participants.
The Organizations File contains the records of several associations as well as of the 1936 New York Olympic Committee . These organizations, with exception of the Olympic committee, operated more or less concurrently from the same offices with shared officers, and the administrative files of the three overlap. Hobson remained interested in prohibition after leaving Congress. He traveled on behalf of the Anti-Saloon League of America until passage of the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, after which he worked to restrict narcotic use. He established and directed the Alcohol Education Society of America , the International Narcotic Education Association , and the World Narcotic Defense Association to educate Americans regarding drugs and to lobby state, national, and international legislatures to eliminate the drug trade. He organized an international convention during which he was received privately by the pope and secured worldwide agreement limiting the drug trade. Afterward Hobson, believing patriotism to be waning, founded the Public Welfare Association to campaign for greater love of country. He also organized the Constitutional Democracy Association , which worked to defeat Franklin D. Roosevelt's attempt to enlarge the United States Supreme Court, and he campaigned with Hubert W. Eldred to establish a national Veterans Reserve Corps, ideological forebear of the contemporary military reserve system. After Hobson's death in 1937, these organizations disbanded.
Papers that are personal in nature are grouped in the Miscellany File. Included are correspondence, memoranda, newspaper clippings, photographs, and reports regarding Hobson's life and death, a plan of George Huntington Hull, Jr., to spark industrial recovery during the Great Depression, the sinking of the British passenger liner
The collection is arranged in six series :
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm81026153
Correspondence and cables between Hobson and his wife, children, siblings, parents, and other relatives.
Arranged chronologically.
Articles, books, correspondence and cables, memoranda, notes, orders, papers, photographs, press clippings, reports, and speeches.
Organized alphabetically by name of person, subject, or type of material and thereunder chronologically.
Articles, books, correspondence, memoranda, photographs, press clippings, printed matter, reports, speeches, and writings.
Arranged alphabetically by subject and thereunder chronologically.
Correspondence and reports.
Arranged alphabetically by subject and thereunder chronologically.
Correspondence and reports.
Arranged alphabetically by subject and thereunder chronologically.
Correspondence, press clippings, and reports.
Arranged alphabetically by subject and thereunder chronologically.
Correspondence, press clippings, and reports.
Arranged alphabetically by subject and thereunder chronologically.
Correspondence arranged chronologically.
Correspondence, press clippings, and reports.
Arranged alphabetically by subject and thereunder chronologically.
Correspondence, press clippings, and reports.
Arranged alphabetically by subject and thereunder chronologically.
Correspondence and cables, memoranda, notes, photographs, press clippings, and reports.
Organized alphabetically by name of person, subject, or type of material and thereunder chronologically.
Oversize material consisting mostly of charts, ship schematics, and panoramic photographs.
Organized and described according to the series, folders, and boxes from which the items were removed.