Massachusetts Men on the National Political Stage: The Papers of Richard Wigglesworth, Robert Valentine, C.P. Curtis, George Williams, & Richard Olney

Summary

The MHS seeks funding to arrange and describe (i.e. process) the papers of five Massachusetts men who served on the national and international political stage: Richard B. Wigglesworth (1891-1960), counsel and representative for organizations created under the Dawes Plan following the default of German reparation payments after World War I, member of Congress, 1928-1958, and Ambassador to Canada,1958-1960; Richard Olney (1835-1917), US Attorney General, 1893-1895, and Secretary of State during the boundary dispute between Great Britain and Venezuela over British Guiana,1895-1897; Robert G. Valentine (1872-1916), commissioner of Indian affairs, 1909-1912, founder of the field of industrial relations counseling; and owner of the "House of Truth," a Washington, DC location where intellectuals gathered to discuss issues of the early 20th century; Charles P. Curtis (1891-1959), Assistant to Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles, 1941, creator of Massachusetts's Fair Employment Practice Act, and author of The Oppenheimer Case: The Trial of a Security System (1955) about the revocation of J. Robert Oppenheimer's government security clearance in 1954 during the red scare; and US Representative and civil service reformer George Fred Williams (1852-1932). All five collections are closed to researchers pending processing. The project will result in five searchable EAD-encoded finding aids at the MHS website and recommend changes in processing and reference services at the MHS.