Prentiss Marsh Brown Papers, 1902-1973

Start Over Collection Prentiss Marsh Brown Papers, 1902-1973 Date range 1970 to 1973

1 - 10 of 10 entries

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.

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.

1954-1973

38 folders

Box 3

Business and legal files, 1902-1973

8 linear feet

A significant part of the collection documents Brown's business and legal interests. Business and legal files (8 linear ft.; 1902-1973) is especially valuable for information on Brown's banking interests and his involvement with St. Ignace and Mackinac Island land development. For the historian of the Mackinac Straits, these files detail the operation of the Arnold Transit Company, the firm which operated the ferry between Mackinaw City and St. Ignace, and to Mackinac Island. Brown was for many years a member of the board of directors of the Arnold Company.

1943-1973

31 folders

Box 21

Annual reports, 1964-1971

Box 21

Microfilmed Materials, 1932-1973

12 rolls

Materials retained by the family have been copied. This Microfilmed Materials series (1932-1973; 12 rolls) includes diaries kept by Brown from 1942 to 1973. The microfilm was includes scrapbooks, the originals of which are described in the Scrapbooks and Clippings series. One of the microfilm reels consists of Brown material located in the Franklin Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park, New York.