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Collection

Prentiss Marsh Brown Papers, 1902-1973

28 linear feet (in 29 boxes) — 2 oversize folders — 12 microfilms

Michigan congressman and senator, head of the U.S. Office of Price Administration; papers include correspondence, legislative files, speeches, political files, business and legal records, diaries and scrapbooks, visual materials, and sound recordings.

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.

Folder

Correspondence, 1930-1973

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.

Prentiss Marsh Brown Papers, 1902-1973
Folder

Political files, 1934-1956

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.

Prentiss Marsh Brown Papers, 1902-1973
Folder

Legislative files, 1933-1942

The Legislative files series (1933-1942.; 1933-1942) includes Brown's voting record in Congress and the record of bills which he introduced. This Legislative series also contains a great deal of material on specific legislation. Such files have been sorted by term of Congress, then by session in that Congress, and finally by the bill number. Although many of these files are on private bills (e.g. naturalization cases, relief of widows of Civil War veterans, etc.), there is also important material here on tax and banking legislation, the Mackinac Straits Bridge legislation, and legislation to amend the Hatch Act. These Legislative files are strongest for the period of 1936 to 1942, essentially the late New Deal and early years of the Second World War. As a rule, these files include a copy of the particular legislation, drafts of the bill, correspondence on the issue, and perhaps some related supplementary material.

Prentiss Marsh Brown Papers, 1902-1973
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