Personal

Correspondence with Carl Riblet, Jr., to develop Dirksen’s weekly newspaper column. Subjects: contract, writing style, subject matter, syndication, schedules, advertising, payment, and others. Includes Riblet’s appraisal of Arizona politics in 1969. The Los Angeles Times Syndicate eventually purchased the rights to the column from the Carl Riblet Syndicate.

Typed drafts of columns arranged by column number. Preliminary drafts prepared in outline and textual form can be found in the Notebooks series of the Dirksen Papers.

Final version of the columns distributed as syndicate press releases. Arranged chronologically. The column as it appeared in newspapers can be found in the Remarks and Releases series of the Dirksen Papers.

Chicago Tribune clipping listing Dirksen as a graduate of officers’ training school; certificates of membership; certificate of appointment as second lieutenant.

Staff memorandum regarding Dirksen’s contract with the Doubleday Company to write his autobiography; a transmittal letter to the Foley Agency, literary agents.

Typed, lightly annotated draft chapters for what was initially titled, “So You Want to Be a Senator” but which was later published by the University of Illinois Press as The Education of a Senator.

Form Letters (1959)

Subjects: Albatross Problem; Alcoholic Beverage Advertising Petitions; Alma Postmastership in Behalf of John Barksdale; Alternate Candidate Naval Reserve Program; Berlin Budget; Cache River Drainage District; California Irrigation; Congressional and Presidential Elections; Des Plaines; Des Plaines Wildlife Area; Development Loan fund; Divested Stock; Dividend Tax; Draft; Edinburg Rural Service; Fair Trade; Farm; Fellowship Congratulations; Financing of Federal Highway Program; Forand Bill; Foreign Aid ; G.I. Bill; Gasoline Tax; General Veterans Letter; Hawaiian Statehood; Indiana Dunes; Inflation; Joliet Arsenal Land; Kennedy-Erwin Bill; Kruschchev Visit; Labor; Louisville, Illinois, Rural Carrier Vacancy; McCellan Labor Bill; Minimum Wage; Minimum Wage Pro; Murray-Metcalf Bill; New Boston Rural Service; New Citizens; New Highway; Non-Resident Taxation; Oil Depletion; O’Kelly Program (Irish President); Pre-Price; Principal Candidate Naval Reserve Program; Public Law 199; Questionnaire; Radio and Television; Railroad Retirements; Robinson-Patman; Rock Island Arsenal; Scholarship; School Lunch Program; S. 11; Senate Rule 22; Shelbyville Dam; Simpson-Keough bill; Smith Act; Standard Time; Star Route, Batchtown to Winfield, Missouri; Star Route, Burlington, Iowa; Tawney, James A.; Tax Insurance Companies; Tax Non-Resident Corporations; Tax Reduction; Telephone Tax; Unemployment Compensation;  Veterans Committee; Veterans Pensions; Veterans of World War I; Women in Reserves; Yearbook.

No description

Autograph book addressed to “Friend Alfred” and signed by schoolmates.

Draft of a joint participation agreement concerning oil and gas leases; memorandum regarding the Tennessee Steel Corporation.

Correspondence regarding donations by Mrs. Jesse Ball DuPont for Dirksen to distribute to various charities of his choice. Some of the funds were used to establish scholarships at several colleges and universities, amounting to more than $40,000.

Certificate from Germany (2875); childhood recollections; explanation of legal education; campaign biographies; clippings.

One page of Dirksen’s typed outline; published reference material on Pan American agriculture.

Certificate of Death for Everett Dirksen issued by the District of Columbia Department of Public Health.

Dirksen and C. Hubert Ropp’s play published by the T.S. Denison & Company, Chicago.

The Dirksen family Christmas cards. Those dated before 1960 were personally designed and drawn by a member of the family.

Correspondence and text related to a Dirksen-authored article for the Family Circle Magazine.

Miscellaneous letters dealing with family matters, insurance, and financial transactions; controversy over developments at the Second Reformed Church in Pekin, 1954; telegrams to Louella from Everett during his 1955 trip to Asia; a letter from Westbrook Pegler chastising Dirksen.

Letter enclosing a 1924 letter from Dirksen to Commercial Solvents, Peoria, seeking a job and Dirksen’s response; correspondence regarding delivery of a La-Z-Boy recliner; January 1967 letter from the Assistant Attorney General regarding campaign contributions solicited by Robert G. “Bobby” Baker.

Florida fishing license; correspondence regarding property taxes; pamphlet about the Frederick DeBary mansion.

Correspondence; “Student Manual and Course of Study, Pekin Community High School, 1935-1936”; autograph book featuring signatures of Congress members, 1937; application documentation, Hollins College, 1946; wedding photographs; Cherry Blossom Festival 1951 (Joy was First Blossom Princess).

Undated material relating to Dirksen’s option to buy out A&E Wholesale Bakers; documentation of disputed tax claim against the Dirksen bakery.

Pekin High School Commencement programs (1895, 1897, and 1913); program for Class of 1909 Tazewell County Graduation Exercises; grade and credit reports for Dirksen; Pekinians; grade transcripts from the University of Minnesota; membership card, LaSalle Extension University, Chicago, Department of Law (1919).

Constitution and Statutes, Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks.

Personal letters written primarily by Everett to Louella while he served in the House of Representatives while she and their daughter, Joy, remained in Pekin, living with her mother, Lillie Carver. Louella published excerpts from these letters (and others not in the collection) in her memoir, The Honorable Mr. Marigold.

Dirksen’s letters are rich in detail and comparable to diary entries. Often he would write three or four letters each day, although there are gaps in the chronological series. Subjects include his daily activities, speaking engagements, family plans, legislation, House and Senate personalities and proceedings, trips, and constituents.

Occasionally, Dirksen will describe how he came to a position on legislation, but these are rare. There are some letters from Louella and others letters relating to business and finances in the late 1920s.

There are two difficulties with the family letters. First, most of them were undated and arrived at The Center in no apparent order; archival staff has attempted to date them by internal evidence and context. Second, although granddaughter Cissy Baker donated scores of letters to add to the series in 2013, gaps remain—letters known to have existed when Louella wrote her memoir are apparently lost.

Lists of Dirksen office files transferred to storage.

Minutes of the February 10 Board of Directors meeting.

Lists of gifts sent by Dirksen for parcel post auctions, celebrity auctions, bazaars, and other fund-raising events; memorandum on gift taxes.

Two pages from the guest register at the Dirksen home in Virginia—the signatures are primarily from senators; map to Broad Run Farms.

Dirksen’s investment in HOMI.

Dirksen’s, “From Committee to Debate: The Work of a Senator.”

Legal matter.

Copiers of 1864 Lincoln letters; Abraham Lincoln Sees Peoria (1939); Lincoln Day programs; magazine articles and pamphlets; Wigwan edition, Life, Speeches, and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln; remarks and writings by others about Lincoln; selected copies of the Lincoln Herald; materials related to the Lincoln Sesquicentennial.

Dirksen’s consistory record; election as 33rd degree Mason; Dirksen speech to Masons.

Descriptions of medical equipment related primarily to respiratory problems; medical journal articles on respiratory illness; 1947-1948 medical reports on Dirksen’s eyes; x-rays of Dirksen’s broken hip, 1966; 1968 and 1969 eye examination reports.

Resolution proposing Dirksen as president; Invictus, Dirksen’s favorite poem; pamphlets; lists; blank postcards; illustrations of U.S. presidents; dance card, officers’ mess, Treves, 1919; warranty deed, color illustrations of American Indians; Dirksen’s 1965 speaking schedule.

Playbill, “The Pekin Players” present “A Thousand Years Ago”; the script by Percy Mackaye.

Report to stockholders.

Memoranda regarding Dirksen’s proposed contract with Gene Shalit and Artists Agency Corporation concerning RCA recordings; press release from Capitol Records announcing the debut of “Gallant Men”; proposed legislation dealing with copyright of sound recordings; Function Media, Inc., radio programs, “Decisive Moments,” featuring Dirksen; clipping describing Dirksen’s recording career; letter regarding agreement with MCA Inc.

Correspondence and memoranda concerning a one-hour documentary walking tour of the U.S. Capitol with Dirksen and Howard K. Smith, “Everett Dirksen’s Washington”; notations on reference cards; script of the documentary which aired on January 22, 1968.

Information concerning the “Bold Americans” series to be hosted by Dirksen.

Correspondence regarding Dirksen’s appearance on the “Red Skelton Show”; Skelton’s notes of his impression of Dirksen.

Personal income tax forms and information; real estate tax statement.

Tax claim.

Program, publicity, and correspondence related to Dirksen’s appearance as Grand Marshal.

Photocopy of Dirksen’s diary entries, which are mostly mundane but which include autographs from heads of state, during his trip to Asia and Europe.

War ration books issued to the members of the Dirksen family by the Office of Price Administration during World War II.

Advertising brochure for the Tri-Plex washing machine, manufactured by Pekin’s Vacuum Electric Washing Machine Company.