THE SENATORIAL PAPERS
OF JOHN H. CHAFEE
1976-1999
MsG 115
SCOPE AND
CONTENT NOTE
The Senatorial Papers of John
H. Chafee (1976-1999) are divided into three sub-groups: Providence Office, Washington
Office, and Multi-Media. The records of the
Providence Office subgroup were transferred to the University of Rhode
Island from Senator Chafee's offices in Providence, RI. The records
from the Washington sub-group were sent from his Washington, D.C.
office. Many of the same types of records are found in both
sub-groups because of the close working relationship between the two
offices. The first shipments of the Chafee Senatorial Papers were
transferred to the University of Rhode Island in the Spring of 1993 and
continued to arrive periodically through March of 2001. Chafee's papers as Governor, Secretary of Navy,
and for his campaigns are in Manuscript
Group 114, Gubernatorial and Secretary of the Navy Papers, 1962-1975.
The
senatorial papers contain 1,929 boxes of records and occupy approximately
1,088 linear feet of shelf space. The Providence Office, Sub-Group
1, contains 220 boxes of records and occupies 155 linear feet of shelf
space. The Washington Office, Sub-Group 2, contains 1,642 boxes of
records and occupies 873 linear feet of shelf space. Multi-Media,
Sub-Group 3, contains 67 boxes of records and occupies 60 linear feet of
shelf space.
Records contained in the Multi-Media sub-group containing 16mm
motion picture film, reel to reel audio tape, audio cassette tape, zip disks,
floppy disks, CD-ROM, photographs, video cassettes, and video broadcast
cassettes. The
electronic files consists of eight 100 megabyte Zip disks that contain
files that were transferred from various staff member's computers.
Four of the disks originate from the Providence office and four came from
the Washington office. The files were converted from an outdated
version of the Macintosh WordPerfect program into the latest version of
the Microsoft Word program in order facilitate greater
accessibility.
This register provides series
descriptions and folder title listings for the records of Senator Chafee
and his staff from his Providence office, 1962-1999, and his Washington
office, 1962-1999. The records found in these papers that date to prior years when
Chafee was Governor of Rhode Island, 1963-1969, Secretary of the Navy,
1969-1972, and Rhode Island law firm partner, 1973-1975 were most likely
used as research materials during his Senatorial years and therefore are
kept in this collection.
The Providence
Office records consist of constituent case work files, memoranda, speeches,
notes, bills, correspondence, publications, news articles, and
photographs. Records also include artifacts such as citations,
certificates, trophies, paintings, campaign bumper stickers, and buttons.
The Washington
Office records consist of memoranda, speeches, notes, bills,
correspondence, publications, news articles, maps, charts, and
photographs. Records also include artifacts such as campaign bumper
stickers, buttons, as well as an American flag, and his office flag as
Secretary of the Navy.
The Multi-Media
records consist of 16mm
motion picture film, reel to reel audio tape, audio cassette tape, zip disks,
floppy disks, CD-ROM, photographs, video cassettes, and video broadcast
cassettes. Records include films of campaign ads, Chafee
radio show tapes, video of Chafee appearing on news programs, and digital
copies of correspondence, memoranda, press statements. The series
were originally processed as part of the Providence and Washington Office
records before being organized as the Multi-Media sub-group for enhanced
access facilitation purposes.