The Lawrence H. Smith Papers are a small collection that best cover only his last two terms in office. Except for a few biographical scrapbooks and some fragmentary personal correspondence, the documentation for the period 1941-1950 was apparently discarded before contact was made by the Historical Society. The majority of the office records from 1951-1954 were also discarded in Washington, although a few files and the scrapbooks provide some coverage through 1955. Approximately three-quarters of the collection concerns Smith's final term, and of this approximately one half documents Mrs. Smith's work as district office manager. Thus, the focus of the collection is largely on case work and district issues, rather than national legislation or politics. There is virtually no personal material in the papers.
Despite its small size and limited potential for biographical research, the collection is useful for studying topics of concern to Smith' southeastern Wisconsin district, and it provides an important continuity to the Historical Society's unusually strong run of papers from the various occupants of this congressional seat. The collection demonstrates the close contact Smith maintained with his constituents, and it provides much information on their views on national and local matters. Nationally these matters included the United Nations, world government, universal military training, Communism, and the Supreme Court. Locally important topics included agriculture, employment and labor conditions, and the establishment of the Richard I. Bong Air Base in Kenosha County.
The majority of the collection is comprised of correspondence, but files on legislative bills and resolutions introduced or sponsored by Smith, speeches, news releases, microfilmed clippings and scrapbooks, and photographs are also included. The papers are divided into Biographical Material and Session Files. Within each documented session, the material is further divided, as it was in Smith's office, into governmental, legislative, and miscellaneous categories. The governmental and miscellaneous files are than arranged alphabetically and the legislative files are arranged by bill number.
BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL is a small part of the collection, containing information about both Lawrence and Eleanor Smith. Included are microfilmed clipping scrapbooks, a few examples of campaign literature, speeches, and news releases, along with files on personal interests, such as Mrs. Smith's involvement with the Congressional Club. Additional news releases and Smith's newsletter “In the Mill” were microfilmed as part of the biographical scrapbooks. Ironically, while the scrapbooks provide the most complete coverage of Smith's early career, volumes for the years 1956-1958 were not
turned over to the Society. Because of their deteriorating condition the scrapbooks were discarded after microfilming. However, the special volumes concerning trips made to Europe and Latin America by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, (1947-1953), which contained many original photographs were transferred to the Visual and Sound Archives. Included in these scrapbooks are Smith's summaries of meetings with officials and an economic and political assessment of each country visited. The speech files in the papers are not extensive, although the Historical Society also holds the Congressional Record which contains transcriptions of his floor remarks.
The SESSION FILES are divided into pre-84th, 84th, and 85th Session categories. The pre-84th (1951-1954) material is the least complete of the terms covered, consisting only of a few files, but these contain some useful and interesting correspondence and material on the United Nations, Universal Military Training, and the attempt to establish an Air Force academy in Wisconsin. The 84th Congress material (1955-1956) is more complete and includes a political section consisting of correspondence and information on politics in the district and the nation as a whole. The governmental section for this term and for the 85th Session includes correspondence concerning policy relating to various governmental departments, as well as a large selection of case files concerning individual problems and local issues. Miscellany includes letters to Smith following his 1955 heart attack (a good portion of the personal references in the collection may be found here), and information on employment conditions and efforts to stimulate employment in the district.
The files on the 85th Congress (1957-1958), which are the most extensive in the collection, include the above material as well as an extensive miscellaneous correspondence file. The legislative section includes correspondence relating to various bills introduced or sponsored by Smith such as changes in the tenure of federal judges. Correspondence and background material on legislative introduced by other is arranged alphabetically by type. Most extensive is the material here concerning onion and potato futures, a major agriculture product of the district., The miscellaneous correspondence consists of letters on general topics primarily filed by correspondent name. There is no index to this file. Also interfiled here are a number of alphabetically-ordered subject files including additional material on the Bong Air Base and on harbor improvements and employment conditions in the district.
