HUBERT H. HUMPHREY:

The files are divided into the subseries Legislative Files and Administrative Files; within each subseries they are arranged by year, and by subject within each year. While the distinction between these two subseries is not entirely firm, the Legislative Files as a rule include correspondence concerning various issues which were generally (though not always) the current or potential subject of some congressional action. For example, a few of the many topics covered are civil rights, aid to education, arms control, and Watergate. The final heading in each year's Legislative Files, "Multiple Issues" contains correspondence pertaining to more than one issue or to issues in general.

The Administrative files are comprised primarily of two kinds of materials: administrative correspondence, concerning the operations of the Humphrey offices in Washington and Minneapolis and the execution of senatorial duties and ceremonies; and courtesy correspondence, including holiday greetings, thank you and congratulatory notes, requests for photographs and autographs, and similar non-issue-oriented, constituent-relations material. Also to be found in the Administrative Files are what the Humphrey office termed "SAD" letters, including crank mail and letters with no return address or for which no reply was considered necessary.

By far the largest body of material in the Administrative Files comes under the heading "Public Affairs" (or "Public Activities"), both terms are used - "6a. General Correspondence." While most of the correspondence filed under this heading is general letters of support from constituents, social notes from acquaintances, and similar materials, "general correspondence" can be construed to include virtually anything, and in many cases the staff did apparently place material in the PA 6a. heading even when another, more specific heading might have been more appropriate.

Throughout the series the filing system presents problems. File codes for some years were located, but even these written codes are not entirely accurate, since new subject headings and subheadings were apparently added freely when needed. For those years for which no written file code was found, the filing system tends to conform generally, although not in every detail, to the written codes of earlier years. The file codes, when present, are located in the Administrative Files, coded "Administrative 8."

Ambiguities in the file code itself also lead to confusion. Distinctions between one heading or subheading and another are in many cases extremely unclear, and as a result similar materials, even various portions of one ongoing sequence of correspondence, may be filed in different locations. As one striking illustration of this problem, material concerning national parks might readily be found in any of at least four places in the 1974 Legislative files: "Executive Branch 7b," Interior and Insular Affairs 3," Minnesota 23," or "Natural Resources 5."

Similar confusion occurs, although less often, between the Legislative and Administrative subseries. This confusion is most pronounced in the indiscriminate filing of a wide range of material, some of it issue-oriented, under the "PA 6a. General Correspondence" heading.

Throughout the Correspondence Files, most, but not all, incoming mail has a reply attached. The overwhelming majority of these replies are form letters, or variations of form letters, although personal responses were drafted in answer to questions or requests of unusual complexity, or to reply to personal friends. Some especially large bodies of materials, such as letters about the Watergate scandal, get-well messages received during Humphrey's 1977 illness, and requests for autographs, are filed without attached replies.

The contents of several files in this series, particularly the various sets of printed and mimeographed materials and files on public affairs, are similar to those of other, separately described series. They have not been compared for duplication and precise relationships.

The boxes are numbered in several alphabetical sequences.

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These documents are organized into the following sections:

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Hubert H. Humphrey Papers. Final Senate Terms: Correspondence, Legislative, and Administrative Files. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: Many, see separate Humphrey, Hubert H. accession file.

Processing Information:

The file code as reflected in the box list was drawn primarily from the headings on the folders themselves. Alphabetical and numerical designations were retained. In the numerous instances in which the folders were unlabelled, or in which there was some apparent inconsistency in the system or discrepancy between the actual contents of a folder and its heading, reference was made to the available written codes and to the folder contents themselves. Further complications are indicated in the box list.

The many labeled but empty folders found with these files have been retained. Empty folders are noted as such in the file list.

Materials are unprocessed.

Catalog ID number: 990069516070104294

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1971 files

1972 files

1973 files

1974 files