George Romney Papers, 1920s-1973

Start Over Collection George Romney Papers, 1920s-1973

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601 linear feet — 194.6 GB (online)

Republican Governor of Michigan, 1962-1969; Presidential candidate, 1968; Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, 1969-1972. Papers consist of extensive correspondence and subject files from his tenure as governor, campaign material, and files relating to service at HUD and his other political activities, includes photographs, films and videotapes and sound recordings.

The papers of George Romney document the many faceted career of an automobile executive, governor of Michigan, candidate for President, cabinet officer, and activist on behalf of volunteerism. In this electronic version of the finding aid to the Romney papers, there are six subgroups of materials. These are Gubernatorial Papers covering the period of 1962 to 1969, Pre-gubernatorial Papers covering the period before taking office in 1963, Post-gubernatorial Papers covering the period after 1968, records of Romney Associates (a group established during his bid for the presidency), Visual Materials covering mainly the period up to 1969, and Sound Recordings also covering up to 1969. There is some overlapping of dates, particularly around the time when Romney was first elected governor in 1962 and the period when he joined the Nixon administration in 1969. The researcher should also note that the papers of Lenore Romney are not part of this finding aid.

Governor's Papers

The gubernatorial collection of George Romney is the most important resource for the study of state government during the years 1963-1968. The collection presently totals 432 linear feet of correspondence, memoranda and official reports relating to all aspects of the workings of the executive branch of the state government. The great bulk of the files came to the library in 1969 when Romney left office; a few additional feet of materials came in 1983 as part of the William Milliken accession.

The collection, overall, concerns the administration of the governor's office, the governor's relationship with the boards and commissions under his charge, and the governor's responsibility as the state's highest ranking executive officer in proposing legislation and in responding to public crises and constituent concerns. Specifically, the Romney papers provide a wide range of information on the governor's response to such continuing areas of concern as education, civil rights, housing, labor disputes, environmental protection, highway safety, public welfare, and taxation. During his terms in office, Romney also had to face such particular issues as the reapportionment of the state's congressional districts, the implementation of the 1963 state constitution, the National Guard's alleged misuse of state funds, the Detroit Riot of 1967, and the Detroit newspaper strike of 1967. Also affecting the content of the files is the fact that during these same years Romney was a serious presidential candidate; and as a result, the gubernatorial papers have extensive material relating to the study of state and national politics and Republican Party matters.

In 1983, as part of a larger governor's papers project, the George Romney Collection was selected for reprocessing and reappraisal. The usability of the governor's papers as received precluded any thought of making extensive alteration in the file categories maintained by Romney's office. With slight modifications (primarily the combining of similar or overlapping series), the order of the files has been retained. The only rearrangement undertaken was in the ordering or grouping of series within the collection. Files maintained on a yearly basis were brought together as part of a Chronological series; files either covering a longer period of time or maintained by the governor's office as a unit have been grouped together as Governor's Office; and the remainder has been categorized as Political/Miscellaneous.

As part of its own control system, the governor's office maintained a card index to Romney correspondents. This card file, located in boxes 440-448, provides name access to those individuals and organizations having dealings with the state's executive.

Chronological

The Chronological Series consists of files maintained yearly by the governor's office. For each year from 1963 to 1968, the following categories of records were established: Boards and Commissions; General Subjects; Federal; Military Affairs; and Legislation.

Boards and Commissions is a yearly set of records arranged alphabetically by the name of the state board or commission, also for elective executive offices (Attorney General, Secretary of State, the Auditor General, etc.). The following types of records may be included for the various boards and commissions: communications with the agency head, audits and other budgetary materials, minutes of meetings, reports, printed matter, and constituent mail. Much of this latter correspondence is of a routine character, and consists of citizen complaints or discussions of personal problems that normally come within the responsibility of a specific state department or commission.

The organization of this set of records changed midway into Romney's years in office with the ratification of the new state constitution. Under the old constitution, Michigan had established a large number of fairly independent state boards and commissions. So for the years 1963-1965, the researcher should look directly within the alphabetical sequence for the name of the agency in which he/she is interested. After 1965, however, with the reorganization of the executive, the state made an effort to streamline its operations and to provide greater administrative control over the various agencies. Established were subject departments (conservation, education, commerce, etc.) which had responsibility over the formerly independent boards and commissions. The filing of the governor's papers reflected the change. Thus, Racing Commission, for example, once filed under R, is now filed under its parent body, the Department of Agriculture. The researcher should thus consult the Michigan Manual (1965-1966), pp. 211-261 for a listing of the various departments and commissions and their placement within the newly created state departments (Acts 380, Public Acts of 1965).

General Subjects is a yearly set of files arranged alphabetically and consisting primarily of citizen correspondence on a wide variety of subjects. Although much of these files are of a routine character, the files do reflect the concerns of the people of the state to the issues of the day.

Federal is a smaller sequence of records (primarily correspondence, reports and memoranda) documenting the governor's relationship with the Federal Government. The files have been maintained in their original order within the following categories: Miscellaneous (including communications on national topics such as the Peace Corps, the Vietnam War, etc.) U.S. Congress (House and Senate) Cabinet Departments (arranged alphabetically) Commissions and other regulatory agencies (arranged alphabetically) Legislation (federal legislation affecting Michigan)

Military is a small set of records concerning the governor's relationship with the adjutant general and the National Guard, but also concerning veterans matters. Beginning in 1966 with the reorganization of the executive branch, these records came to be filed with Boards and Commissions under Military Affairs.

Legislation is a small set of files consisting mainly of constituent correspondence on varying pieces of state legislation. There are no files for 1963 or 1964.

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