CAMPAIGN AND TRANSITION PERIOD, 1928-1929
The papers of this subgroup cover the interim between the Republican National
Convention which began on June 12, 1928 and Mr. Hoover's Inauguration as President
on March 4, 1929. These papers are arranged in the following series:
General Correspondence (34 linear feet)
Correspondence, enclosures, and memoranda received during this period.
Arranged alphabetically by name of correspondent.
Subject (45 linear feet)
This series includes reports, charts, schedules, lists, speeches, bulletins,
letters, telegrams, and memoranda. Arranged alphabetically by common
subject content. The larger sub-series are:
Appreciation -- Form letters sent by Mr. Hoover to campaign
people in October, 1928. Arranged alphabetically by state.
Cabinet Appointments -- Biographical sketches of candidates and
correspondence endorsing or opposing appointments.
Arranged alphabetically by candidate and cross referenced
to the General Correspondence series.
Congratulations -- Letters and telegrams received by Mr. Hoover
after his nomination, June 14, 1928; acceptance speech,
August 11, 1928; and election, November 6, 1928. Each
set of congratulations arranged separately and alphabetically
by correspondent and cross-referenced to the General
Correspondence series.
Latin American Trip -- Materials created during Mr. Hoover's
goodwill visit to ten Latin American republics, November 19,
1928 to January 6, 1929. Correspondence and a separate
file for each republic arranged alphabetically. Ships' bulletins
arranged chronologically. Correspondence cross-referenced
to the General Correspondence series.
Campaign Literature (21 linear feet)
This series includes a collection of pamphlets, press releases, clipsheets,
and other printed materials used in the 1928 Presidential Campaign. One
set of pamphlets is arranged alphabetically by title. Another set of pamphlets
was assigned numbers by the Publicity Department of the Republican
National Committee for control purposes and arranged sequentially. A
set of press releases was arranged chronologically and another by author
and subject.
Additional Sources of Information
Mr. Hoover's papers for the Campaign and Transition period are supple-
mented by audio-visual materials, oral histories and other manuscript
collections. A 1977 bibliographic project * described these materials as
follows:
There are 13 boxes of records of the Republican
Service League, 1924 and 1928, in the Hanford MacNider col-
lection. These comprise press releases, circular letters,
precinct and ward lists, and correspondence files for each state.
The Herbert Hoover Commerce Papers contain three
folders of materials relating to tentative moves to secure
the vice presidential nomination for Hoover in 1924 and
the presidential nomination in 1928. Two newsreels, a
campaign motion picture, and more than 700 photographs of
the 1928 campaign are in the Audio-Visual Collection, and
the campaign is discussed in 37 interviews in the Oral
History Collection, including interviews with Edward An-
thony, Hoover's publicity manager, and Alfred H. Kirchhofer,
assistant director of publicity for the Republican National
Committee. There are letters about the campaign in retro-
spect in four folders of Kirchhofer correspondence (1933-1962)
in the Post-Presidential Papers. There are two large scrap-
books compiled by Anthony which contain campaign organization
correspondence, news releases, campaign literature, clippings,
and memorabilia., mostly relating to the campaign in New York.
The papers of George A. Akerson, Hoover's secretary, in-
clude six boxes of political correspondence, campaign liter-
ature, and-files on convention delegates and other individuals.
Nathan W. MacChesney's papers include a box of materials con-
cerning the Hoover-Curtis Organization Bureau, which he es-
tablished and directed, comprising reports by state organizations.,
weekly and final reports to the Republican National Committee,
and campaign literature. Other correspondence., clippings,
pamphlets, and publicity materials used in the 1928 campaign
are in the papers of Hugh R. Wilson and John Flesher Newsom.
Senator Charles Curtis’ correspondence with William Allen
White and others, held in one folder of electrostatic copies
(originals are in the Kansas State Historical Society), des-
cribes Curtis’ unsuccessful bid for the Republican Presidential
nomination in 1928.
* Boyd Keith Swigger, A Guide to Resources for the Study
Hoover Presidential Library
Since the completion of the Swigger bibliographic project the Library has
received two additional collections containing significant amounts of material on the
campaign of 1928. The papers of Lewis L. Strauss contain correspondence concerning
Strauss' involvement in the abortive campaign of 1920 and the campaign of 1928 as an
adviser to Mr. Hoover and as a very successful fundraiser. Indiana's wartime (1917-21)
governor, James Putnam Goodrich, was a close friend of both Will Hays and Herbert
Hoover and a respected member of the Republican National Committee. His interest in
the campaign and comments on its progress are documented in his papers.
Indexing Project
A selective name and subject indexing project for the Campaign and Transition
Papers is in progress. Names of individuals, businesses and organizations are utilized as
indexing terms along with historical events or subjects. Criteria for inclusion of individuals
include both historical significance and quantity of correspondence.
Researchers should bear in mind that dates shown on index cards indicate only
the first time that a name or subject appears in a given file and that the project is a
continuing one and is not comp1ete at present. Archivists will be happy to provide
further information concerning the project.