Title: James D. Preston Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1890-1955

Creator:

• Preston, James D.

Call Number: U.S. Mss 34AF

Quantity: 1.8 c.f. (1 record center carton and 2 archives boxes)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

Abstract:

Correspondence, research notes, articles and addresses, memorabilia, and scrapbooks kept by a journalist who was superintendent of the United States Senate Press Gallery, 1897-1932, and librarian of the Senate, 1932-1957. Research notes, which form the bulk of the collection, include information on press coverage of the Senate, liberties of the press and privileges of the Senate, filibusters, technicalities of Senate conduct, political conventions, and Presidential elections. While many of the notes are transcribed from the Congressional Record and other sources, one group of notes on filibusters and the U.S. entry into World War I are excerpted from Preston's diaries. Scattered correspondence, 1915-1955, concerns various career anniversaries, and occasional articles and addresses relate to politics and life in Washington, D.C. Seven scrapbooks contain clippings, letters, and pictures relating to his career as well as to important news stories from the 1910's to the 1940's.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-us0034af

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James D. Preston was born in Washington, D.C., on August 2, 1876. He was schooled in the Washington area, and then became associated with the Washington bureaus of the Boston Journal and the Chicago Inter-Ocean. Mr. Preston was elected Superintendent of the Senate Press Gallery on March 25, 1897, and stayed in this position for thirty-five years until he was transferred to the office of Librarian of the Senate of the United States. Mr. Preston's whole Washington career encompassed a total of sixty years.

The collection consists, in large part, of Mr. Preston's typewritten research notes concerning the Senate Press Gallery and activities in Congress, collected in the course of his career in Washington. Many of the notes have been transcribed from the Congressional Record, Congressional Globe, and miscellaneous newspapers, but there are sections which probably are from Mr. Preston's own diaries in the materials on World War I and filibusters. In addition, there are pertinent clippings from the Congressional Record and newspapers, and photostats of letters and clippings related to the various research topics.

This material represents a consolidation from primary printed sources, of all types of information on various topics regarding the Congress and political conventions.

The correspondence is very scattered over the years 1916-1955. It concerns, for the most part, various Preston career anniversaries. The scattered articles and addresses, largely undated, cover varied subjects pertaining to politics or Washington. Research notes are the same type as those mentioned above. The few items contained in the memorabilia of James Preston's father, Herbert Preston, are mostly concerned with Charles Guiteau's assassination of President Garfield.

Scrapbooks contain clippings, letters, and pictures relating to Preston's career and important news stories from the 1910's to the 1940's.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Edward H. Preston, Massapequa, New York, 1960 and 1963.

	Research Notes
Box   1 Folder   1	Senate Reporting Scope and Content Note: Galley proof of a biographical sketch of Mr. Preston; Material on the following topics: attempts to get more accurate newspaper reports on the Senate, methods of admitting reporters to galleries or the Senate floor, method of supplying stationery to the press gallery, investigation of pressures on low-paid reporters, debates over reports of secret sessions; photostat of a reporter's gallery admission card.
Box   1 Folder   2	Liberties of the Press and Privileges of the Senate Scope and Content Note: Speech of C. Pinckney (1800, March 5) in reference to liberty of the press in respect to Senate privileges; speech of Mr. Tracy (1800, March 5) upholding Senate privileges; citation of Wm. Duane of the Philadelphia General Advertiser for slandering the Senate; photostat of letter requesting admission to Senate Press Gallery (circa 1838-1839); photostat of column attacking Senators from New York Daily Express (1839, January 5); material in reference to charges of corruption brought by the Washington Daily Times (1846) and Washington Union (1847); various materials in reference to opening the Senate to the public, 1790-1861.
	Filibusters
Box   1 Folder   3	Part 1 Scope and Content Note: Army appropriation bill (1879, June); amending U.S. election laws (1891, January); repeal of Purchasing Clause of the Sherman Act (1893, October); Aldrich Vreeland Financial Bill; amending Servicemen's Readjustment Act (1951, June).
Box   1 Folder   4	Part 2 Scope and Content Note: Administration shipping bill (1915, January); defeat of administration's armed ship bill (1917, February-March); deficiency appropriation bill (1919, March); Dyer anti-lynching bill (1922, November-December); Boulder Dam (1927, February); amending closure rule (1949, March)
Box   1 Folder   5	Technicalities of Senate Conduct and Business; Miscellaneous Clippings and World War I Notes Scope and Content Note: Material on the following topics: Consideration of the resolution that a state of war existed between Germany and the United States, the British war mission in Washington, declaration of war against Austria-Hungary, what constitutes proper conduct of Senators and proper business of the Senate; clippings in reference to the rejection of Floyd H. Roberts for a federal judgeship.
Box   1 Folder   6	Political Conventions and Presidential Elections Scope and Content Note: Statistical materials referring to U.S. Presidents and Vice-Presidents; statistical materials in reference to Republican and Democrat national political conventions, down to the first administration of Mr. Eisenhower; miscellaneous materials in reference to the electoral college and third parties.
Box   2 Folder   1	Amendments to the Constitution
Box   2 Folder   2	Miscellaneous research notes and clippings
Box   2 Folder   3	Correspondence, 1916-1955
Box   2 Folder   4	Articles and addresses, 1933, undated
Box   2 Folder   5	Memorabilia
	Scrapbooks
Box   3 Volume   1	1880, 1914, 1917, 1935-1937
Box   3 Volume   2	1908-1936
Box   3 Volume   3	1916, 1922, 1935-1939
Box   3 Volume   4	1917-1922, 1938
Box   3 Volume   5	1921, 1925, 1933-1950
Box   3 Volume   6	1923-1934
Box   3 Volume   7	1939, 1944