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/mm76043356
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 Joseph P. Tumulty, lawyer and secretary to President Woodrow Wilson, were given to the Library of Congress by the Tumulty family between 1960 and 1975.
The first three installments of the collection were arranged and described in 1967-1968. Material received in 1970-1975 was arranged and described by Michael McElderry with the assistance of Sherralyn McCoy in 1975-1976. The finding aid was revised in 2011.
Photographs have been transferred to the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library where they are identified as part of these papers.
The Tumulty Papers supplement the Manuscript Division's wide collection of papers relating to the Wilson era and are especially complementary to the papers of Woodrow Wilson.
Copyright in the unpublished writings of Joseph P. Tumulty in these papers and in other collections of papers in the custody of the Library of Congress has been dedicated to the public.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 Joseph P. Tumulty 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 seven reels. To promote preservation of the originals, researchers are required to consult the microfilm edition as available.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container or reel number, Joseph P. Tumulty Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of Joseph Patrick Tumulty (1879-1954) span the years 1898-1969, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1913-1940. They consist primarily of correspondence, letterbooks, legal material, and drafts of speeches and writings. Those papers received and organized by the Library in the 1960s are arranged and described as Set I of the General Correspondence, Special Correspondence, and Miscellany series in the collection and are predominantly concerned with Tumulty's White House years. Additions to the papers, with the exception of letterbooks and a “Black Book” of patronage, emphasize Tumulty's post-White House years, 1922-1940, when, as a Washington lawyer, he assumed an active role in Democratic Party politics. The collection is organized into nine series: Family Correspondence, General Correspondence, Special Correspondence, Letterbooks, Subject File, Legal Case File, Speeches and Writings File, Miscellany, and Oversize.
During his years as presidential secretary, Tumulty exercised the duties that in later administrations were apportioned to more than a dozen specialized advisers. The General Correspondence and Special Correspondence series reflect his wide-ranging contacts with prominent personalities in the theater and the press as well as with nationally known government officials and politicians. Perhaps the most important file in the Special Correspondence is that relating to Woodrow Wilson. Other special correspondents represented by substantial amounts of material include John T. Barnett, Bernard M. Baruch, William Jennings Bryan, James M. Cox, Joseph Edward Davies, James A. Farley, John Nance Garner, Edward Mandell House, Edward N. Hurley, Warren F. Johnson, James Kerney, Charles Lynch, W. G. McAdoo, William Frank McCombs, Arthur J. Sinnott, Alfred Emanuel Smith, and Edith Bolling Galt Wilson.
The most fruitful single source of documentation for Tumulty's years as Wilson's secretary is found in the Letterbooks. Though mostly routine, the content provides insight into Tumulty's role in dispensing patronage and also reveals the style and manner in which he carried out his duties as secretary and adviser. Tumulty never severed his interest in local New Jersey politics, and the Special Correspondence and General Correspondence reveal his continued relationship with figures of local political influence. Tumulty's early political training as a Hudson County assemblyman to the New Jersey legislature (1907-1910) left a lasting impress on him. His use of patronage is well documented in the so-called “Black Book” in the Miscellany that provides biographical information on candidates for political appointments.
Tumulty's post-White House years are equally well documented in the papers. Many of his personal traits emerge in his letters to close friends and former colleagues. He often assumed the debts of others as shown in the Family Correspondence and under various headings in the Subject File. Set II of the Special Correspondence contains material that demonstrates Tumulty's sensitivity to a need for reconciling political ambitions and tactics with religious and philosophical precepts.
Though he declined to run for political office, he continued to give advice to political friends after 1920, as can be seen in the Special Correspondence series. Tumulty's backing of Alfred E. Smith in 1928 and his continued devotion to Wilsonian principles are apparent in correspondence from the 1920s. Material dated during Franklin D. Roosevelt's administrations reflects his declining political influence. This trend can best observed in the special correspondence files of various politicians and newspapermen.
The General Correspondence is mostly routine, but Set II includes letters from prominent figures such as J. Edgar Hoover, Harold L. Ickes (1874-1952), William Frank McCombs, Theodore Roosevelt, Oswald Garrison Villard, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks (1883-1939), Sam Rayburn, and W. Averell Harriman.
The Subject File contains material relating to Tumulty's controversial speech at the National Democratic Club's Jefferson Day banquet in April 1922. Centered around a misunderstanding over what Tumulty perceived to be Wilson's endorsement of James M. Cox as Democratic candidate for the 1924 presidential election, the speech caused a break in the friendly relationship between Wilson and Tumulty that lasted until Wilson's death in February 1924. Other entries in the Subject File are concerned with Tumulty's private life and personal interests.
Tumulty's legal career is documented in the Legal Case File which is an alphabetical listing of client counseling and litigation proceedings undertaken by his law firm, and, as such, includes correspondence of his law associates, Charles Baker and Ralph Kelley. The Speeches and Writings File includes the typescript of Tumulty's
The collection is arranged in nine series:
Letters sent and received between family members, copies of letters sent, telegrams, and miscellaneous attachments.
Tumulty's correspondence with family members is arranged alphabetically by name of
family member. Correspondence exchanged between other family members and the
correspondence of family members with others is organized separately.
Letters received and copies of letters sent, correspondence between others, telegrams, policy statements, memoranda, notes, speeches, newspaper clippings, and printed matter. Some family correspondence is included.
Arranged chronologically.
Letters received and copies of letters sent, telegrams, and miscellaneous attachments.
Arranged alphabetically by name of person or organization and chronologically thereunder.
Letters received and copies of letters sent, telegrams, speeches policy statements, memoranda, newspaper clippings and miscellaneous attachments and notes. Includes correspondence between individuals other than Tumulty.
Arranged alphabetically by name of person and chronologically thereunder.
Letters received and copies of letters sent, telegrams, and miscellaneous attachments.
Arranged alphabetically by name and chronologically thereunder.
Copies of outgoing correspondence, arranged chronologically. Indexes are included for most volumes.
Available on microfilm shelf no. 16,908.
Correspondence, telegrams, legal and financial documents, notes, newspaper clippings, and printed matter.
Arranged alphabetically by subject and chronologically thereunder. Alist of correspondents is provided for selected subject headings.
Correspondence, telegrams, financial documents, legal briefs and summations, notes, newspaper clippings, and printed matter.
Arranged alphabetically by case and chronologically thereunder. A list of correspondents is provided for selected cases.
Typewritten and handwritten drafts, typescripts and carbon copies, notes and correspondence, telegrams, and reviews relating to speeches and writings.
Arranged by type of material and chronologically thereunder.
“Black Book” of patronage, dissertation by John M. Blum, financial and legal papers, press releases and other miscellaneous items including official documents, speeches and writings by Tumulty and others, memoranda, notes, newspaper clippings, and printed matter.
Arranged by type of material. Material in the “Black Book” is organized alphabetically by state.
Correspondence, speeches and writings by others, telegrams, financial and legal papers, memoranda, notes, scrapbooks, calling card, invitations, newspaper clippings, and printed matter.
Arranged alphabetically by subject and/or type of material and chronologically thereunder.
Scrapbooks.
Arranged and described according to the series and container from which the items were removed.