Member of Congress,
1952-1972 Collection
Statement Biography
| Scope
and Content | Series
Outline | Series
Statement | Dowdy
Home The bulk of Dowdy's
congressional papers were originally deposited with the
Texas Collection at Baylor University at about the same time
Dowdy retired in 1972. At that time, these papers were
stored in 849 Hollinger boxes and an initial inventory was
made. These materials contained the basic series from a
typical congressional office: Agencies, Commissions,
Legislation, Subjects, Correspondence, and Case Files. There
were no personal materials, artifacts or memorabilia, only
correspondence and printed materials. After the initial deposit,
additional Dowdy materials were added to the collection
which documented his Court Reporter and District Attorney
years (1935 to 1952). Most of these materials were arranged
by Dowdy in a numerical sequence beginning with file one in
1935. The material in these files included court cases,
divorces, income tax files, wills, murder cases, farm
publications, and insurance policies. The numbered folders
ended in 1952 when Dowdy was elected to Congress. These have
been included under Legal Papers and the numbering system
has been retained. The final installment of the
Dowdy Papers came in 1995 when Dowdy died. Kent Keeth, the
Director of the Baylor Collections of Political Materials,
and Ben Rogers, Collections Manager, traveled to Athens,
Texas on two occasions to meet with Dowdy's children, Carol
Sue and John, Jr., to decide which materials were to be
depositted and which would be retained by the family.
Sixty-seven 10"x12"x15" archive boxes were transported to
Waco. These materials included many early personal papers
such as correspondence from family members beginning with
the death of Dowdy's first wife in 1943, framed photographs,
reel-to-reel tapes, cassettes, vinyl recordings, speeches,
and urban renewal correspondence. Missing files from Dowdy's
earlier numbered files were also found in this group along
with all of the materials Dowdy had collected related to his
trial and imprisonment in the early 1970s. With the addition of new
materials, the BCPM staff undertook the task of processing
the entire collection and of creating a box listing of all
file titles. This involved the sampling and discarding of
much of the materials filed under Ballots &
Questionnaires, Requests, and Invitations. During
processing, news clippings were photocopied, paper clips and
envelops discarded, and publications removed for cataloging.
Smaller publications were retained in the files and have
been listed individually in the Finding Aid. The materials received in 1972
were grouped in the following series: Agencies, Departments,
Legislation, Casework, Correspondence, General Subject
Files, and District Attorney files. The original Legislation
series has now been divided into two series: Committees and
Legislation. Casework has been moved to the end of the
collection since these materials will be discarded after
being listed in the Finding Aid. With the addition of the
new materials, a Personal series has been added which
includes General family information, Media
materials, Political Materials, and Speeches.
A Trial and Imprisonment series has also been added
and is divided into four sub-series: trial
Correspondence, trial Exhibits, General
court case files, and trial
Transcripts. When an item was removed from
the collection, a separation sheet including a photocopy of
the title page was inserted into the file. Another copy of
the separation sheet and title was placed in the Separation
Box. A BCPM book plate stamped "Dowdy Papers" was placed
inside each item before it was sent to
cataloging. When files were sampled, a
Sampling Sheet was filled out indicating the method used for
sampling and the number of items or files discarded. The
Sampling Sheet was then filed with the remaining sampled
items.