Subject Files, 1935-1946

Series

Identifier: CAC_CC_007_2_0000_0000_0000

Staff Only

The Boren Collection comprises more than 48 linear feet of papers dating 1885-1949, although the overwhelming majority date from 1933 to 1947. Most of the documents were created in or maintained by Boren's congressional offices (Washington, D.C., and Oklahoma), although items in the Personal and Family Files may have been kept at the congressman's home. Over the years a number of secretaries and assistants maintained the files, and the names of these people appear in the Office Files series. Boren donated the initial part of the collection to the University of Oklahoma in 1949, with additional accretions occurring through the 1970s.

The collection contains a wide variety of documents. Included are correspondence, telegrams, legislation, publications, brochures, flyers, speeches, press releases, newspaper clippings, campaign literature, lists, financial records, mimeograph and photostat copies, appointment and scheduling materials, office memos, phone messages, and notes. Well over half of the documents in the collection are constituent correspondence for the years Boren served in Congress (1937-1947). A number of other people also corresponded with the congressman, and the names of the more prominent and prolific appear in the series descriptions.

The collection also covers a wide range of subjects for the later part of the Great Depression and the entirety of World War II. Some of the broad topics include agriculture, armed services, Native Americans, newsprint supply, organized labor, politics (national and Oklahoma), price controls, railroads, rationing, stocks and bonds, strikes, and taxes. Some of Boren's legislative efforts are well documented; others are not. There are a substantial number of files on New Deal programs in Oklahoma, including the Farm Security Administration (FSA), the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the National Youth Administration (NYA), and the Works Progress Administration (WPA).