Title: Estes Kefauver Papers

Date/Date Range :   1943-1964

Extent: 0.2 linear feet

Abstract:

This collection, the Estes Kefauver Papers, 1943-1964, contains 67 letters to or from Kefauver corresponding with other political figures. Many of the letters are thank you notes, opinions on particular bills, and for political appointments. There is also a photograph of Kefauver and Walter Scheel of Germany, as well as two letters that do not pertain to Kefauver, both of which are to Edwin Michael Hoffman of North Carolina.

Call number: MS-2337

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

Aquisition Information:

The Special Collections Library purchased this collection in February of 1997.

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-2337. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Special Collections Library.

Collection consists of two folders.

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.

This collection, the Estes Kefauver Papers, 1943-1964, contains 67 letters to or from Kefauver corresponding with other political figures. Many of the letters are thank you notes, including several for Christmas cards, Red River Valley Potatoes, and Texan Ruby Red Grapefruit. Other letters deal with suggested political appointments, opinions on particular bills, and various trips. Some of the correspondents include Eleanor Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Senator Adlai E. Stevenson, Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, President John F. Kennedy, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, and Vice President Richard Nixon. Also, a photograph of Kefauver and Walter Scheel of Germany is included.

There are two letters that do not pertain to Kefauver, both of which are to Edwin Michael Hoffman of North Carolina. One is dated May 1959 from Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, the other October 1964 from Governor Terry Sanford of North Carolina.

Five of the items are from the 1940s (one in 1943, one in 1947, the rest from 1945). Between 1947 and 1955, there is only one letter from 1953. Eleven are from the 1960s, including one seeming to have no connection to Kefauver. The other 51 items are from the 1950s, the majority of them - a total of 38 - from 1957 and 1958.

The UT Special Collections Library holds several collections pertaining to Estes Kefauver. The Martha Ragland Collection - Kefauver Campaign, Women's Division 1948 is located at MS-883. These papers relate to the 1948 primary and general election of Estes Kefauver to the United States Senate. Ragland was chairman of the State Women's Division. The Estes Kefauver Papers, 1933-1939, in MS-2025 is a collection of letters from family members, admirers, and the future Mrs. Estes Kefauver. The Senator's political papers can be found in MS-837. The Nancy Kefauver Collection in MS-2027 contains "mementos from Nancy and Estes' life together," including photographs of their families, letters, biographical sketches of Estes' political life, and information about the Art in the Embassies Program.

• Kefauver, Estes, 1903-1963.
• United States -- Politics and government -- 1945-1989.