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.