HUBERT H. HUMPHREY

Hubert Horatio Humphrey was born May 27, 1911 in Wallace, South Dakota. He graduated from the Denver College of Pharmacy and earned degrees at the University of Minnesota and at the University of Louisiana. He briefly taught political science at Macalester College (1943-1944) and later was a professor in the University of Minnesota's Social Science program (1969-1970). During World War II Humphrey tried three times to enlist in the armed forces but was rejected each time for health reasons.

Humphrey began his political career as mayor of Minneapolis (1945-1948), and served as United States Senator from 1949 to 1964 and again from 1971 until his death in 1978. He was Vice President of the United States from 1965 to 1969. A leading liberal, he is perhaps best-known as a champion of civil rights, but also for his association with the increasingly unpopular Vietnam War as a member of the Johnson Administration.

Humphrey married Muriel Buck in 1936, and the couple had four children. He died of cancer at his home in Waverly, Minnesota on January 13, 1978.

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The Hubert Humphrey Papers were received in many accessions over a period of many years. The first accession arrived at the Minnesota Historical Society in 1957 under Society Director Russell W. Fridley and Curator of Manuscripts Lucile Kane, who worked beginning in 1949 to secure the collection.

Materials from Humphrey’s mayoral service include correspondence, reports, background materials, campaign files, and other files documenting the role and duties of the mayor and the general governance of the city.

The files documenting his Senatorial terms include general and legislative correspondence and campaign, academy, legislative, political, research, and trip files.

Vice presidential materials include administrative office and control files, general correspondence, inauguration documents, invitations, meetings and conference materials, and speech research and public relations files. There are also subject files covering such topics as agriculture; arts and humanities; business, economics, and urban affairs; civil and human rights; commodities; congress; education and welfare; employment assistance; federal agencies; foreign affairs; health and sports; legislation; messages; national security and defense; natural resources and parks; outer space; political affairs; postal service; poverty and youth; staff and research; states and territories; trips; veterans affairs; and welfare.

Also found in the papers are series on Humphrey’s 1968 Presidential campaign, his successful 1970 campaign for the seat of retiring Minnesota senator Eugene McCarthy, his personal and family life, his autobiography, and career-spanning series of legislative records, newspaper clippings, speech appearance files and speech texts, photographs, and office staff memoranda.

Additional Files consist of unprocessed senatorial, vice presidential, political, personal, press, and other material, much of which was received by the Minnesota Historical Society after processing of the original collection was completed.

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Paper finding aids to microfilm copies of many of Humphrey's public speeches and of materials relating to the 1968 Presidential campaign, and to Humphrey-related sound and visual materials, are available in the repository.

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Access Restrictions:

Access to the Reserve Materials and to a portion of the Personal and Family Papers is restricted. See the respective series-level finding aids for further details.

Additional Files: VIP Correspondence may only be used at the Special Use table. Consult the reference staff for more information.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Hubert H. Humphrey Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: See accession file 8138

Location of Master Files

Digital masters are maintained on the Society's secure digital collections storage servers and are managed and preserved in accordance with archival best practices.

The original sound recordings were disposed of after they were digitally reformatted into WAV files.

Processing Information:

Digital audio transferred from the master sound reels by the Minnesota Historical Society for preservation purposes.

Digitization was made possible by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund through the vote of Minnesotans on November 4, 2008.

Catalog ID number: 990069516070104294

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Microfilm copies of many of Humphrey's public speeches and of materials relating to the 1968 Presidential campaign, and to Humphrey-related sound and visual materials, are cataloged separately.

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Campaign literature.

Elections -- Minnesota.

International relations.

Mayors -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis.

Political campaigns -- United States.

Political conventions -- United States.

Presidential candidates -- United States.

Presidents -- United States -- Election -- 1968.

Vice-Presidents -- United States.

Vietnam War, 1961-1975.

Persons:

Johnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines), 1908-1973, author.

Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963, author.

Muskie, Edmund S., 1914-1996, author.

Nixon, Richard M. (Richard Milhous), 1913-1994, author.

Truman, Harry S., 1884-1972, author.

Agnew, Spiro T., 1918-1996.

Brown, Muriel Buck Humphrey.

Lindsay, John V. (John Vliet).

McCarthy, Eugene J., 1916-2005.

Rockefeller, Nelson A. (Nelson Aldrich), 1908-1979.

Wallace, George C. (George Corley), 1919-1998.

Humphrey family.

Organizations:

Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.

Democratic Party (U.S.)

Minneapolis (Minn.). Office of the Mayor (1945-1949 : Humphrey), author.

Republican Party (U.S. : 1854- ).

United States. Congress. Senate.

Meetings:

Democratic National Convention (1968 : Chicago, Ill.)

Places:

United States -- Politics and government -- 1945-1989.

United States -- Foreign relations.

Minnesota -- Politics and government -- 1945-1989.

Minneapolis (Minn.) -- Politics and government.

Document Types:

Microfilms.

Photographs.

Phonograph records.

Speeches.

Sound recordings.

Occupations:

Legislators -- United States.

Politicians -- United States.

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