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Contact information: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm82048074
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 Paul Field Sifton, playwright, government official, and lobbyist, and Claire Sifton, editor and author, were given to the Library of Congress in 1941, 1966-1967, and 1972, by Claire Sifton. Additions were given by their son, Paul Ginsburg Sifton, 1982-1987.
The Sifton Papers were processed in 1984 by Paul Sifton and additions were made in 1985 and 1987. The finding aid was revised in 2012.
Sound recordings have been transferred to the Library's Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division where they are identified as part of these papers.
Additional office files and documentation on Paul Sifton's UAW service are located in the UAW-CIO Papers, Labor History Collection, Wayne State University, Detroit, Mich. Paul Sifton is also represented in the Helen Gahagan Douglas and Melvyn Douglas Papers in the University of Oklahoma Library, Norman, Okla., and in the Paul H. Douglas Papers in the Chicago Historical Society, Chicago, Ill.
Other collections in the Manuscript Division containing correspondence or material of Paul Sifton include the National Urban League Records, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Records, the Robert Houghwout Jackson Papers, the Harold L. Ickes Papers, the Irving Brant papers, and the Work Projects Administration /Federal Writers' Project file on New York City (Panorama file on industry and commerce), wherein Paul Sifton reviewed a section on unemployment insurance. A file of the professional correspondence of Claire Sifton is located in the records of the National Consumers' League and the records of the Women's Joint Congressional Committee .
Copyright in the unpublished writings of Paul Field Sifton and Claire Sifton in these papers and in other collections in the custody of the Library of Congress is reserved. Consult a reference librarian in the Manuscript Division for further information.
The papers of Paul Field Sifton and Claire Sifton 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, Paul Field Sifton and Claire Sifton Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of Paul Field Sifton (1897-1972) and Claire Ginsburg Sifton (1897-1980) span the years 1912-1980, but cover primarily the period 1925-1971. They consist of correspondence, diaries, subject files, writings, personal files, printed matter, and miscellany. The collection is of interest to students of twentieth-century American social theater, of the emergence of various labor organizations as a growing political force, and of the methodology of legislative lobbying on Capitol Hill in behalf of farmers, labor, civil rights, full employment, and other social causes. The papers are organized into nine series: Correspondence, Diaries of Claire Sifton , Subject File of Paul Field Sifton, Writings File, Personal Files, Printed Matter , Miscellany, Addition, and Oversize. Files or folders pertaining to Paul Field Sifton are connoted in the container list with the acronym PFS; those of Claire Ginsburg Sifton with the acronym CGS.
The student of the social theater will find a large number of plays in many stages of composition and production for the 1922-1950 period. The Writings File includes material on the press reaction and controversy which surrounded many of the Siftons' plays:
Of importance to the students of the politics of labor organization and of the methodology of Washington lobbying are the Subject File of Paul Sifton . His involvement in the nation's first full-fledged unemployment compensation system (New York State, 1934-1938) led to his post in the newly created Wages and Hours Division in the Department of Labor. This was followed by his position as consumers' counsel, Bituminous Coal Administration, Department of the Interior. After leaving government service in 1941, he became national legislative representative for a number of organizations including the National Farmers' Union, the Union for Democratic Action, and the National Council for a Permanent Fair Employment Practice Committee, among others. Additionally, during World War II, he served as a labor representative on the War Manpower Commission. From 1948 until his retirement in 1962, Paul Sifton devoted his time and attention to the position of national legislative representative of the International Union, United Automobile Workers of America (CIO). The subject files have some chronological overlapping, particularly in the 1941-1947 period when he engaged in successive lobbying efforts in behalf of several complementary causes.
The Correspondence series, Diaries of Claire Sifton , material on a 1963 testimonial dinner to Paul Sifton, and the Miscellany reflect the couple's involvement in writing and the theater as well as their interest in farmers, labor, women, civil rights, full employment, and other contemporary issues.
The largest amount of personal correspondence occurred in the summers when Claire Sifton went to Maine with her two sons, and Paul remained in New York City and (later) Washington, D.C. Theatrical and literary correspondence is concentrated in the 1929-1940 period. After 1941, the non-family correspondence touches on many of the topics covered in the Subject File of Paul Sifton . The Diaries of Claire Sifton include detailed comment on college life in the 1915-1916 period; the thoughts of a young working woman in Manhattan in 1922; the private comments of a government official's wife in late New Deal Washington; and some increasingly philosophical and introspective observations in her later years. Perhaps the most interesting contemporary evaluations of Paul Sifton's impact and influence on others are contained in the letters presented to him at the testimonial dinner in his honor in 1963.
The Printed Matter series includes material Paul Sifton retained for an eventual evaluation of his work and career. The Miscellany documents a new group of interests that engaged his attention in the last decade of his life. A victim of emphysema, he felt that pollution abatement, alternative energy systems, use of non-fossil fuels, and the use of fish protein (for the underdeveloped areas of the world) were of paramount importance to mankind's survival on the planet. The last segment of the Miscellany comprises obituary, funeral, and condolence material on the Siftons, as well as photographs, press cards, address files, family genealogy, and other items.
Eminent figures represented in the letters presented at the testimonial dinner to Paul Sifton in 1963 include John F. Kennedy and past and incumbent senators, congressmen, cabinet officers, and numerous officials in farmer, labor, political, governmental, and social welfare organizations. Other prominent correspondents in the collection include Esther Root Adams (Mrs. "F.P.A."), Brooks Atkinson, Helen Gahagan Douglas, Paul H. Douglas, attorney Walter Frank, British freelance writer Ruth Esther Howe, German-language translator Heinrich Kranz, James I. Loeb, writer David Loth, Norma Millay, theatrical agent Adrienne Morrison, Reinhold Niebuhr, National Farmers' Union president James G. Patton, Roy Reuther, Victor Reuther, and Walter Reuther,
On Claire Sifton's background and childhood as the daughter of Southern Baptist missionaries to Brazil, the reader is referred to her father's official work,
The collection is arranged in nine series:
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm82048074
In addition to personal and family correspondence, this group includes material on theatrical and literary works (including acceptance, rejection, press reaction, and censorship); job security and the writer's market in the Great Depression; the effects of working inside and outside the federal government service in Washington, D.C.; and disparate lobbying activities that engaged Paul and Claire Sifton.
Arranged chronologically. Undated material is placed at the end of each decade.
Personal diaries and ledger/account books kept by Claire Sifton.
Arranged chronologically.
Printed matter and a wide variety of miscellaneous material. This group closely follows the career changes in Paul Sifton's life. The last container in the series comprises personnel, loyalty, and medical files on Paul Sifton and a personnel file on Claire Sifton.
Organized chronologically within each subject; undated material as well as print and near-print items follow the dated items in each group.
Plays in multiple stages of their composition and production, as well as press reaction and research and background material. Also includes material on the "Revolting Playwrights" movement (1935). Poems of Paul Sifton start in the post-World War I period, and end with
Material assembled for a testimonial dinner given to Paul Sifton in Washington, D.C., April 23, 1963. Includes a bound volume of presented letters; a larger group of letters not included in the volume; photographs taken at the dinner; notes, remarks, and miscellany. One container has photocopies of letters presented to Sifton.
Clippings, near-print itesm, pamphlets, and issue-oriented material that reflect
Paul Sifton's newspaperman's instinct for the preservation of his sources. Notable
groups include post-World War II issues (price decontrol, inflation, atomic
energy, full employment, and civil rights); material on the United Automobile
Workers; and scrapbooks on John L. Lewis and the United Mine Workers. The latter
complement a book project (1943) in the
Material reflects Paul Sifton's post-retirement interests; also includes obituary, funeral, and condolence files, photographs, press cards, address files, Sifton family items, Sifton genealogy (Canadian), and other items.
Arranged by topic or type of material.
Typescripts of articles, books, and other writings, and miscellany. Includes first and authors' editions of the Siftons' plays and books.
Chronologically arranged.
Photocopies of clippings in scrapbooks.
Arranged and described according to the series, containers, and folders from which the items were removed.