Records of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and its predecessor, the Democratic Organizing Committee (DOC). Records for the period 1948-1962 are extensive; those for the 1960s and 1970s are very incomplete. Included in the collection are minutes of the administrative committee, constitutions, files on annual state platform conventions, extensive early correspondence from the state headquarters of the executive secretary and several chairmen (especially James Doyle, Jerome Fox, Patrick J. Lucey, Philleo Nash, and Elliot Walstead), correspondence with county organizations, financial and membership records, campaign files (chiefly dating from the late 1940s and early 1950s), publications, and reference material. The correspondence from the 1950s includes letters to and from many leaders in the state party including Daniel Hoan, Thomas Fairchild, William Proxmire, Henry Reuss, Carl Thompson, and Clement Zablocki, as well as national leaders such as William Benton, Hubert Humphrey, and John F. Kennedy. Subjects well documented in the collection include campaigning and practical politics, fundraising, public relations, party organizing, agriculture, women and politics, and the Young Democrats. There are also extensive files on the 1952 senatorial campaign against Joseph R. McCarthy and on reform of delegate selection procedures for the 1976 national convention.

The records of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin form an unbalanced collection offering exceptional documentation and unusual research potential for the DOC period of the party's history, but disappointing and fragmentary records for the 1960s and 1970s. The records for the early period include documentation that is significant both for a study of high level policy-making as well as for an examination of its day-to-day functioning. This documentation is even further enhanced as the result of an oral history project undertaken in 1985 which included many of the surviving leaders of this period in the party's history; the interviews and their abstracts are separately catalogued.

The collection includes minutes of the Administrative Committee, historical and organizational information, files on the annual state platform convention, extensive correspondence from the state headquarters of the executive secretary and several chairmen (especially James Doyle, Jerome Fox, Patrick Lucey, Philleo Nash, and Elliot Walstead), correspondence with county organizations, financial and membership records, campaign files, publications, and reference material.

The ADMINISTRATIVE COMMITTEE MINUTES contain important information on the committee's deliberations and frequent reports on membership and party finances. These files appear complete from 1950 through 1976, overcoming the fragmentary coverage of the party's history in other portions of the collection. Missing, however, are any records of the very early meetings of the leaders of the provisional DOC.

The HISTORICAL FILES consist of miscellaneous material of an historical nature which was collected by party staff members for an unknown purpose during the 1950s. As a result, there is no information here on the later period in the party's history. Also filed here is one folder separately donated by Julia Boegholt, a former national committeewoman active in the DOC, concerning her political activities during the mid-1940s. Related to the historical materials are ORGANIZATIONAL FILES which consist of membership progress reports, county DOC petitions, forms, and samples of forms and other material found elsewhere in the collection--all of which pertain to attempts to build a strong local organization during the 1950s. Much related documentation on this topic can be found in the County Correspondence file.

The CONSTITUTIONS AND STATE CONVENTION FILES vary in the completeness with which they document the annual platform conventions from 1948 through 1978. The contents variously include platforms and resolutions, constitutional amendments, correspondence, minutes, lists of delegates and committee members, programs, financial reports, and local arrangements information. There is also a file of published state party constitutions.

The centralized state headquarters CORRESPONDENCE is divided into three files: 1) an early file dating from the late 1940s through 1962 consisting of letters and memoranda of most of the chairmen of the state party of the era such as Jerome Fox, Patrick Lucey, Philleo Nash, and Elliot Walstead; 2) correspondence, 1949-1953, of James Doyle as chairman which was never incorporated into the centralized file; and 3) a second centralized file, 1963-1978, subdivided by chairman and then arranged alphabetically by subject. Taken together, the “early file” and the Doyle chairmanship file include letters to and from most of the state leaders of the period such as Andrew Biemiller, Daniel Hoan, Thomas Fairchild, William Proxmire, Henry Reuss, Carl Thompson, and Clement Zablocki, as well as leaders of the Democratic National Committee and figures such as William Benton, Hubert Humphrey, and John F. Kennedy. Remarkable as this file is, there are notable omissions such as Norman Clapp, John Gronouski, Henry Maier, Gaylord Nelson, John Reynolds, and Robert Tehan. The correspondence of Patrick Lucey also appears incomplete and some evidence suggests that he may have had a personal correspondence file which was not left in party headquarters. Topics which are well documented include campaigning and practical politics, fundraising, public relations, party organizing, agriculture, women and politics, and the Young Democrats. There is also extensive correspondence on the 1952 senatorial campaign against Joseph R. McCarthy.

The second state headquarters file consists of only one cubic foot of material, the majority of which pertains to efforts to reform the convention delegate selection procedure during the chairmanships of William Gerrard and Herbert Kohl. The size of this file may be due to the death of Frances Rose Luetscher, the executive secretary during the 1950s who brought continuity and considerable administrative skill to her post and whose correspondence figures as an important part of the early file. In the absence of her support and of regular contacts from the Historical Society during the 1960s and 1970s the majority of the party's records from this period appear to have been destroyed.

The CAMPAIGN FILES cover the DOC era and are nonexistent for the later years. These files are arranged chronologically and consist of material on general statewide campaign activities as well as extensive information on the campaigns of a few individuals such as Thomas Fairchild (1950 senatorial campaign), William Gorham Rice (1946 congressional campaign), and Carl Thompson (1947 congressional and 1948 gubernatorial campaigns). Included are correspondence, publicity, press releases, speeches, and itinerary planning materials. Especially valuable within the publicity are biographical questionnaires completed by many candidates throughout the state for “mutual assistance” flyers, 1954-1960, and for a 1950 insert in the “Wisconsin Democrat.” Samples of the flyers have been retained with the DOC records; the remainder are filed individually by name in the Wisconsin Political Vertical File.

PUBLICATIONS AND PRESS MATERIAL includes examples of handbooks, officers' manuals and newsletters, press releases, and other materials prepared and distributed by the Wisconsin party. A run of the “Wisconsin Democrat” has been transferred to the Society Library where it is available on microfilm.

The FINANCIAL AND MEMBERSHIP RECORDS are quite fragmentary, consisting of miscellaneous state and federal financial reports and two printouts from the state organization's membership data base. These printouts, which are an extremely valuable resource, cover the 1950-1965 period and list party members alphabetically by name, together with a history of individual contributions. The slim nature of the financial records is overcome in part by the regular financial reports included with the Administrative Committee Minutes.

The REFERENCE MATERIAL was originally part of a large library of general information on issues, material used to monitor opponents, and documents issued by the Democratic National Committee. This section has been extensively weeded to remove publications of a purely informational character which are available from other sources. In addition, publications and near-print material not pertaining to Wisconsin which were issued by the DNC have been sent to the National Archives' presidential library office for incorporation in the records of that organization. The remainder consists of statistical and narrative vote analyses, lists of state and party officers and candidates, and miscellaneous information.

The COUNTY CORRESPONDENCE, which consists of correspondence, reports, lists, forms, and voting statistics filed alphabetically by county was maintained in the central office in order to monitor the success of local organizing efforts. The file documents only the 1948-1954 period, with the majority of the files terminating in 1953. It is not known if this activity was discontinued at that time or merely if documentation was never transferred to the Historical Society. Although a good deal of the information is of a routine character, it has been retained virtually unweeded as the best record extant on local political organizations.