The collection begins with a small series of Biographical/Family Material about the life and career of Prentiss M. Brown. These folders of course should be supplemented with detailed information about Brown to be found in the Scrapbook and Clippings series. The series also includes a small folder of earlier family correspondence.
28 linear feet (in 29 boxes) — 2 oversize folders — 12 microfilms
The Prentiss M. Brown Collection is rich and full and offers researchers materials on a variety of local and national topics reflecting the diversity of the man's private and public life. The earliest item in the collection is a letter book dated 1902-04 of James J. Brown, like his son a prominent St. Ignace attorney. The collection then picks up Prentiss M. Brown's entrance to the legal profession in 1917, traces his rise to public office, his work in Congress and with the O.P.A., and then concludes with his later business interests and his crusade upon behalf of the Mackinac Bridge.
The Brown Collection comprises approximately twenty-eight feet of correspondence, letterbooks, scrapbooks, diaries, speeches, topical and legislative files, photographs and phonograph records, and legal case files and business records. Covering the period 1917 to 1973, the papers concentrate most heavily in the years 1932-1942 when Brown was in the U.S. Congress. The greatest gap in the collection is in the period of the 1920s when Brown was making his first bids for political office. Also missing are any extensive files for the time of Brown's O.P.A. directorship. What the collection has on the O.P.A. are largely speeches, scrapbooks, and congratulatory letters.
2.5 linear feet
The Correspondence series (2.5 linear ft.; 1930-1973) is made up of a mixture of legislative and business papers, letters from constituents, and personal correspondence. To aid the researcher, this series has been intensively indexed for significant correspondents. Noteworthy individuals in these files include politicians, public figures, and business people. Some of Brown's correspondents are: Horatio J. Abbott, Roger M. Andrews, George R. Averill, Sewell Avery, Alben W. Barkley, Jack L. Bell, Harry H. Bennett, James F. Byrnes, Claude E. Cady, Gerald J. Cleary, William A. Comstock, Frank Couzens, James J. Couzens, Alfred Debo, Murl H. DeFoe, Charles C. Diggs, John D. Dingell, Sheridan Downey, Marriner S. Eccles, James A. Farley, Louis H. Fead, Edward H. Fenlon, Frank D. Fitzgerald, John N. Garner, Josephine Gomon, Fred W. Green, Joseph F. Guffey, Carl A. Hatch, Malcolm K. Hatfield, Leon Henderson, Frank E. Hook, J. Edgar Hoover, Cordell Hull, Emil E. Hurja, Robert H. Jackson, William F. James, Jesse Holman Jones, George D. Kennedy, Charles H. Kimmerle, Sebastian S. Kresge, Arthur F. Lederle, John C. Lehr, John Luecke, Thomas F. McAllister, Frank D. McKay, William B. Mershon, Henry Morgenthau, Frank Murphy, Hary W. Musselwhite, George W. Norris, Chase S. Osborn, Stella B. Osborn, Frank A. Picard, Rudolph E. Reichert, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Edmund C. Shields, Gerald L.K. Smith, Shirley W. Smith, Brent Spence, John K. Stack, Raymond W. Starr, Henry B. Steagall, Robert M. Toms, Arthur R. Treanor, Harry S Truman, Arthur H. Vandenberg, Murray D. Van Wagoner, Robert F. Wagner, George W. Welsh, Walter F. White, and W.S. Woodfill.
2 linear feet
The Political files series (2 linear ft.; 1934-1956) consists of correspondence and campaign miscellanea documenting Brown's political activities in the period of 1934 to 1942. There is significant material here on the election campaigns of 1940 and 1942 and on Brown's work with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 1938.