87th Congress

Series

Identifier: CAC_CC_004_6_0000_0000_0000

Staff Only

The Page Belcher Collection consists of 182 cubic feet of material. The bulk of the collection is organized by Congress, with files within each legislative session arranged in alphabetical order by topics. Although legislative, departmental, and general material is found together, the folder title reflects the type of material found within each. Often, folders with general information simply list the topic without the qualifying label of "general."

Materials on a wide range of topics can be found in these congressional files. The more prominent ones include agricultural legislation, wheat, meat inspection legislation, federal aid to education, tax legislation, social security amendments, civil rights, school prayer, oil legislation, the Vietnam War, the Republican Party (both national and Oklahoma), Oklahoma state government and politics, soil conservation, the Farmers Home Administration, and rural electrification.

A group of special series complete the collection. Among these are Water Projects (arranged by river basin), Post Office, and Belcher Bills (arranged by committee). The Water Project Files contain materials on the legislation and construction of dams and reservoirs primarily in the Arkansas River Basin but also, to a lesser extent, in the Red River Basin. There are also 56 maps in the collection.

The Belcher Collection consists of 182 linear feet of material plus maps and nearly 250 photographs. Materials cover a wide-range of topics with prominence being give to agriculture, wheat, meat inspection, federal aid to education, tax legislative, social security amendments, civil rights, school prayer, oil legislation, the Vietnam War, the Republican Party, soil conservation, the Farmers Home Administration, and rural electrification. A variety of document types related to legislation exist within the Belcher Collection, particularly those found generally in congressional collections including memos, background research, bills, and publications. However, the majority of the documents is constituent correspondence and highlight Belcher’s relationships with his constituents. The Water Projects and Post Office series also provide useful insight into various projects in Oklahoma and how they altered the state.