The majority of the David Blanchard Papers pertain to Blanchard's political career, 1954-1962. The collection is arranged in seven series: correspondence, Assembly files, speeches, campaigns, Republican conventions, personal papers, and clippings. The papers contain no substantive information relating to Blanchard's personal affairs or to his professional activities.
More than half of the collection is a chronological CORRESPONDENCE file, 1954-1962. The letters clearly document political maneuvering, as well as the breadth of activity, conciliatory efforts, accommodations, and privileges of office.
Some correspondence, through 1958, concerns specific bills, and is similar to correspondence of later dates filed by Blanchard's staff in his Assembly Files.
The ASSEMBLY FILES, 1955-1962, have been subdivided into sections on committees, legislation, the Joint Legislative Council, and Blanchard's reference files. Under Committees are letters and working papers concerning committee assignments for the 1961 legislative session and to interim committees during Blanchard's term as Speaker of the Assembly. There is also a folder relating to the reapportionment question and the Assembly interim committee on reapportionment appointed in June 1962. The segment on Legislation, 1955-1962, includes copies and analyses of bills, joint resolutions, and acts to amend; notes and press releases concerning legislation; and correspondence, 1959-1962, from Blanchard's constituents, most of which concerns specific legislation, on such matters as bus transportation for parochial school children, withholding tax, sales tax, a uniform commercial code, and conservation appropriations. The folders titled Joint Legislative Council concern the Council and the Water Resources Committee of the Council during Blanchard's tenure as chairman, 1961-1962. Blanchard's Reference Files are self-explanatory as listed in the Container List.
The SPEECHES are copies of addresses Blanchard made from 1955 to 1962, usually before Rock County groups, on a number of subjects: education; estates and wills; farms and the farmer; government and legislation in Wisconsin; juvenile delinquency; Abraham Lincoln; Masonry and revolutionary period Masons; Memorial Day; peace; political issues; Republicanism; restaurants; taxation and the economy; traffic safety; water resources; and women. Also found here is a small group of speeches, “At Edgerton,” which includes a variety of topics touched on in talks Blanchard made in his home city. Many of the speeches filed here are little more than notes and fragments. They have been arranged alphabetically by subject.
The CAMPAIGNS segment consists of correspondence, election financial statements, vote tabulations for the Assembly seat in Rock County's second district, and miscellaneous materials concerning Blanchard's campaigns for the Assembly. There is a signed letter from Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, 21 September 1956, offering campaign assistance to Blanchard if requested, and indicating McCarthy's intention to campaign in Wisconsin in support of the Republican ticket.
The REPUBLICAN CONVENTIONS file, 1959-1962, consists of material concerning Wisconsin state conventions and the 1960 national convention. The Wisconsin material includes programs, 1959-1962; correspondence between Lt. Governor Warren P. Knowles and Blanchard concerning Knowles' request for Blanchard's active support of Knowles' candidacy for governor; and the nomination speech for Knowles given by Blanchard at the 1962 state Republican convention. The papers created or collected by Blanchard during his service on the platform committee of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, 1960-1962, are filed in this series. These include platforms, statements of principles and resolutions, 1958-1962; and correspondence, notes and other working papers. The folder relating to the 1960 National Republican convention, at which Blanchard was a Richard M. Nixon delegate from Wisconsin's First Congressional District, includes correspondence; an election financial statement; lists of members of the Wisconsin delegation; copies of Saturday Evening Post editor Stewart Alsop's interview with Nixon and subsequent article published in the Post on 12 July 1958; a copy of Wisconsin “Delegate Law,” 1959; and some material relating to the Legislators for Nixon Club and to Wisconsin Volunteers for Nixon.
The PERSONAL PAPERS file contains only Blanchard's diplomas; and certificates of admission to the bar, of membership in bar associations, and of election. NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS constitutes a small file of Xeroxed clippings relating to matters of interest to Blanchard as a legislator.
