Special Collections Department
403 Parks Library
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011-2140

Henry A. Wallace Portrait

RS 21/7/5
Henry A. Wallace
Collection, 1910-[ongoing]


Descriptive summary

creator:

Henry A. Wallace (1888-1965)

title:

Collection

dates:

1910-[ongoing]

extent:

2.1 linear feet (5 document boxes)

collection number:

RS 21/7/5

repository:

University Archives, Special Collections Department, Iowa State University.

 

Administrative information

access:

Open for research;
Bulk of Henry A. Wallace's papers are held by the University of Iowa. They also offer a microfilm version.

publication rights:

Consult Head, Special Collections Department

preferred citation:

Henry A. Wallace Collection, RS 21/7/5, Special Collections Department, Iowa State University Library.

 

Historical note

Henry Agard Wallace was born on October 7, 1888 in Orient, Iowa, son of Henry Cantwell and May (Brodhead) Wallace.  His father and grandfather ("Uncle Henry") owned and edited Wallace's Farmer, a prestigious Iowa farming journal.  His father was also on the staff of Iowa State College for a few years as well as serving as secretary of agriculture under Warren G. Harding.  While his father taught in Ames, Henry A. became friendly with George Washington Carver, to whom he attributed his love of plants.

Wallace attended Iowa State College, graduating in 1910, when he joined the family journal as an associate editor.  During the next twenty-three years he made his reputation as editor of one of the leading farm journals, through developing strains of hybrid corn, and as founder of what is now Pioneer Hi-bred International, Inc., seed company. 

In 1933, Wallace was appointed Secretary of Agriculture under Franklin D. Roosevelt and served for two terms, throughout the Great Depression.  In this capacity he was responsible for the administration of the Agricultural Adjustment Acts and other relief measures for the nation's farmers.  During World War II and Roosevelt's third term, Wallace was vice-president.  In Roosevelt's fourth term, Wallace was appointed Secretary of Commerce, a position he held until 1946.  In 1948, Wallace ran for president as head of the Progressive Party.  He lost to Harry Truman.

After leaving public service Wallace retired to a farm near Salem, N.Y. and edited the New Republic for two years.  He died at his home on November 18, 1965, leaving his widow, Ilo Browne Wallace, and three children.

For more information regarding Henry A. Wallace, please visit Iowa Public Television's web site on his life: http://www.iptv.org/wallace/ .

 

Collection description

This collection (1910-[ongoing]) contains publications by and about Henry A. Wallace; reminiscences of him by fellow students and agriculturalists; some correspondence (mainly after his retirement); newspaper articles concerning his life, his work both for the federal government and after his retirement, and memorials to him after his death; photographs; published and unpublished historical papers relating to his significance; a transcript of an oral history; and miscellaneous documents detailing his undergraduate and alumnus career at Iowa State College.

The information addresses Wallace's undergraduate career and personality, and his friendships with other famous agriculturalists such as George Washington Carver.  It also documents his professional endeavors with publications, newspaper articles, and unpublished material on his corn breeding as well as his administrative career in Washington, D.C.  Much of the collection is retrospective, being written either late in Wallace's life or after his death.

Other material in the collection relates to the surveillance of Wallace in 1947-1948 during his campaign for president at the head of the Progressive Party.  This section contains letters regarding the acquisition of the FBI records together with copies of the records themselves and newspaper articles concerning the investigation.

The collection also contains material compiled by Miss Mary Huss, Wallace's personal secretary, including correspondence, ephemera, a manuscript, news clippings, a dollar bill inscribed by Wallace and photographs.

For additional resources, see the Henry A. Wallace Papers at the University of Iowa Libraries: http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/wallace/.

 

Organization

The collection is arranged in alphabetical order.

 

Container list

Box

Folder

Title

Dates

1

1

Academic Transcript, Iowa State College (University)

1910

1

2

Address: "Address by Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace Over a National Radio Network of N.B.C.," re: United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)

1933

1

3

Address: "Christianity in a World of Force"

1954

1

4

Address: "Corn and the Midwestern Farmer"

1956

1

5

Address: "Corn Breeding Experience and Its Probable Eventual Effect on the Technique of Livestock Breeding"

1938

1

6

Address: "The Dairy Dilemma"

1934

1

7

Address: "The Department as I Have Known It," re: United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)

1961

1

8

Address: "The Evolution of United States Agriculture as Related to Changes in Economic and Institutional Patterns"

1962

1

9

Address: "The Uniqueness of George Washington Carver"

1956
5 25 Address: "Six Decades of Corn Improvement and the Future Outlook" 1934

1

10

Biographical Information: News Clippings and Iowa State University Alumni Records

1910-1987

1

11

Centennial Project: News Clippings and Congressional Tribute

1988

1

12

Correspondence: Memoranda from Franklin Delano Roosevelt (photocopies)

1933-1934, n.d.

1

13

Correspondence: Handwritten Draft of a Telegram to Honorable Charles L. McNary, Salem, Oregon

n.d.

1

14

Correspondence: Iowa State College Statistical Laboratory re: Blood Typing (photocopies)

1954-1957

1

15

Correspondence: Miss Mary Huss, Wallace's Personal Assistant

1933-1977, n.d.

1

16

Correspondence: Nils Olsen, Chief of Bureau of Agricultural Economics (photocopies)

1931-1935

1

17

Correspondence: Reminiscences of Wallace by Former Classmates and Peers

1964-1967

1

18

Correspondence: to Wallace

1934, n.d.

1

19

Correspondence: Tom Knudsen with Government Agencies requesting Wallace Surveillance Documents

1981-1985

1

20

Correspondence: Wallace Following Retirement

1959-1965

1

21

Correspondence about Wallace: Richard H. Osborne

2000

1

22

Ephemera, Washington, D.C.: Postcards and Programs, Compiled by Mary Huss

1932-1966, n.d.

1

23

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Surveillance Documents

1947-1948

2

1-6

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Surveillance Documents

1947-1948

3

1-2

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Surveillance Documents

1947-1948

3

3

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Surveillance Records of the Progressive Party

1949-1955

3

4

Henry A. Wallace Country Life Center: Publications and Newsletters

1999-2006

3

5

Henry A. Wallace Monument Dedication, Orient, Iowa: News Clippings and Photograph (1 5x7 B&W photograph)

1976

3

6

Henry A. Wallace Papers at the University of Iowa Libraries: Brochure

n.d.

5

23

Henry A. Wallace Program (Iowa Public Television): Program Script and Interviews about Wallace

2003

3

7

Iowa Award Presentation: Correspondence and Remarks

1966-1967

3

8

Manuscript: Handwritten Notes on Finnish Peace Terms

1940

3

9

Memoirs of Traveling on Franklin D. Roosevelt's Funeral Train

1974

3

10

Newspaper Clippings: Before Political Career

1930-1933

3

11-12

Newspaper Clippings: Political Life

1933-1975

3

13

Newspaper Clippings: Washington D.C. Politics, Compiled by Mary Huss

1933-1936, n.d.

3

14

Newspaper Clippings: Secretary of Agriculture, First Term

1933-1936

3

15

Newspaper Clippings: Secretary of Agriculture, Second Term

1937-1940

3

16

Newspaper Clippings: Vice President of the United States

1940-1944

4

1

Newspaper Clippings: Secretary of Commerce

1945-1946

4

2

Newspaper Clippings: Resignation as Secretary of Commerce

1946

4

3

Newspaper Clippings: Following Political Career

1946-1965

4

4

Newspaper Clippings: Death and Funeral

1965

4

5

Newspaper Clippings: Following Death

1981-2005

4

6

Newspaper Clippings: Following Death

1965-1980

4

7

One Dollar Bill Inscribed "A Token of the New Deal. Henry A. Wallace" (photocopy)

n.d.

4

8-9

Oral History Transcript: "The Reminiscences of Henry Agard Wallace," Columbia University Oral History Project

n.d.

4

10

Oral History Transcript: Interview with Wallace by Dorothy Kehlenbeck During Visit to Iowa State University for 50th Class Reunion

1960

4

11

Photographs of Wallace, President Roosevelt, and Staff Members, Compiled by Mary Huss (31 8x10, 3 5x7, 3 4x5 B&W photographs)

1933-1952, n.d.

4

12

Publication: America Must Choose

1934

4

13

Publication: "Correlation and Machine Calculation"

1925

5

1

Publication: "Farm Unity Can – and Must – Grow Stronger"

1937

5

2

Publication: "Gardens Against Famine," The Land, A Quarterly Magazine

1946

5

3

Publication: "Jobs, Peace, Freedom" editorial in New Republic

1946

5

4

Publication: Our Job in the Pacific

1944

5

5

Publication: Paths to Plenty

1938

5

6

Publication: The Price of Freedom, photocopies of cover and title page only

1940

5

7

Publication: Sixty Million Jobs

1945

5

8

Publication: "An Urgent Letter from Henry A. Wallace on a Matter of Life and Death to You and Your Children"

ca. 1948

5

9

Publications about Wallace: "Centennial of a Farm Paper, Wallaces' Farmer and Iowa Homestead," The Palimpsest, Donald R. Murphy

1956

5

10

Publications about Wallace: Chapters from The War Years, 1939-1945 by I. F. Stone

1988

5

11

Publications about Wallace: Draft of First Chapter of Book by Richard S. Kirkendall

1988-1989

5

12

Publications about Wallace: "Henry A. Wallace and Agriculture's Next Century," address by John Hyde

1997

5

13

Publications about Wallace: "Henry A. Wallace and the General Welfare," Samuel E. Wood

1941

5

14

Publications about Wallace: Honorary Issue of El Campesino: Organo Oficial de la Sociedad Nacional de Agricultura, Chile

1943

5

15

Publications about Wallace: "On Growing Up in Iowa, An Oral History Memoir by Henry A. Wallace," The Palimpsest

1977

5

24

Publications about Wallace: "Wallace Family Legacy: 124 Years of Shaping, Challenging and Inspiring I.S.U."

2007

5

16

Reminiscences of Wallace by R. K. Bliss, H. H. Knight, H. D. Hughes, and Wayne Darrow

1965-1972

5

17

Selected Bibliography on Henry A. Wallace

1973

5

18

Transcript of Radio Broadcast by Leon Pearson Regarding Vice President Wallace

1941

5

19

Transcript of the University of Chicago Round Table Radio Discussion with Wallace about Sixty Million Jobs

1945

Vide 001 219

 

VHS Video: "Henry Agard Wallace: Uncommon Champion of the Common Man," from the Henry A. Wallace Centennial Project

1988

5

20

Wallace House Foundation: Newsletter

1998

5

21

Workshop, "Henry A. Wallace Series on Agricultural History and Rural Studies" at Iowa State University: Programs and Brochure

1983, n.d.

5

22

Workshop, "Henry A. Wallace, Hybrid Corn, and the Great American Agricultural Revolution," Papers and Essays on Wallace

1987