Title: Estes Kefauver Papers

Date/Date Range :    1935-1967

Extent: 1204.0 linear feet

Abstract:

The collection contains the correspondence of the late Senator Estes Kefauver from 1935 to August 1963, including personal, constituent, and political correspondence. Also included are political files, speeches, legislative papers, manuscripts, clippings, and audio-visual material.

Call number: MS-0837

Repository: University of Tennessee Special Collections Library, Knoxville, TN

Aquisition Information:

Collection was donated to the Special Collections Library.

Access Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Copyright:

The copyright interests in this collection remain with the creator. For more information, contact the Special Collections Library.

Preferred Citation:

[Identification of Item], Estes Kefauver Papers, MS-0837. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Special Collections Library.

The collection is organized into 19 series:

1. Series I: Subject Matter Files
2. Series II: Estes Kefauver Bills
3. Series III: Committee Files
4. Series IV: Correspondence
5. Series V: Political Files
6. Series VI: Trip Files
7. Series VII: Jobs, Appointments, and Patronage Files
8. Serives VIII: Office Files, Miscellaneous
9. Series IX: Personal Effects Files
10. Series X: Speeches and News Releases
11. Series XI: Clippings Files
12. Serives XII: Photograph Collection
13. Series XIII: Frames Pictures
14. Serives XIV: Audio-visual Collection
15. Series XV: Memorabilia Collection
16. Series XVI: Miscellaneous
17. Series XVII: Plaques from Senate Office Wall
18. Series XVIII: Christmas Greetings to Mrs. Nancy Kefauver
19. Series XIX: Posthumous Material

Please note that, within each series, the boxes are numbered sequentially. When requesting information from the collection, please refer to both the series and box number(s).

Carey Estes Kefauver (1903-1963) was a U.S. House Representative (1939-1949), U.S. Senator (1950-1963), and 1956 Democratic Vice Presidential candidate. He graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1924 and Yale Law School in 1927. In 1935 he married Nancy Piggott, a native of Scotland.

During his years in the Senate, he served on the Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, voted for the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960, and sponsored the Kefauver-Harris Drug Control Act of 1962. He lost favor among Southerners with his support of the Brown v. Board of Education (1954) decision to desegregate schools and when he and Albert Gore, Sr., were the only southern senators to refuse to sign the Southern Manifesto, intending to block school integration, in 1956.

In 1952, he lost to Adlai Stevenson for the Democratic Presidential Nomination, but in 1956 he was Stevenson's Vice Presidential running mate.

The Estes Kefauver Papers contain the correspondence of the late Senator Kefauver from 1935 to August 1963, including personal, constituent, and political correspondence. Also included are political files, speeches, legislative papers, manuscripts, clippings, and audio-visual material.

Included in the political files is correspondence from each of the following major political races:

1. 1. 1938 State Senate race;
2. 2. 1939 race for U.S. House of Representatives;
3. 3. 1940-1946 general;
4. 4. 1948 U.S. Senate race;
5. 5. 1952 Presidential race, including primary files;
6. 6. 1954 U.S. Senate race;
7. 7. 1956 Presidential race, including primary files and files from the Stevenson-Kefauver campaign;
8. 8. 1960 U.S. Senate race.

A part of the political files are campaign materials, films and recordings.

The speech files include speeches (originals and copies) made by Senator Kefauver from circa 1938 to 1963.

The legislative papers of Senator Kefauver constitute a large portion of the collection. Included in this series is a large subject matter file, including miscellaneous correspondence and research material on various subjects (circa 1949-1963). Also included in the legislative papers are correspondence, background material, and hearings from the Special Committee of the U.S. Senate to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, of which Senator Kefauver served as chairman (circa 1950-1951), and from drug investigations (1962) of the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly, also chaired by Senator Kefauver. The legislative papers also contain a legislation file, composed of correspondence and background material on bills introduced by Congressman and later Senator Kefauver (76th Congress - 88th Congress). A large file containing information and correspondence pertaining to the major committees of the House and Senate, including extensive files ont he Armed Services Committee and the Judiciary Committee of the Senate (on which Senator Kefauver served), composes another part of the legislative papers. Hearings from subcommittee and committee investigations conducted by the Judiciary Committee are also included.

The collection contains the original manuscripts for the two books authored by Estes Kefauver - Crime in America and A Twentieth Century Congress.

Also included in the collection is an extensive newspaper and magazine clipping file, roughly covering the period 1939-1967, inclusive.

A more extensive listing of folders in this collection is available in the Special Collections reading room online at
http://idserver.utk.edu/?id=200700000002343.

Please note that, within each series, the boxes are numbered sequentially. When requesting information from the collection, please refer to both the series and box number(s).

• Kefauver, Estes, 1903-1963.
• United States -- Politics and government -- 1945-1989.
• United States. Congress. Senate. Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce.
• Tennessee -- Politics and government -- 20th century.