Overview
Material documenting the political career, presidency, and times of Richard Nixon collected by David Shneidman.
Dates
- Creation: circa 1928-1995
- Creation: Majority of material found in 1968-1973
Condition Description
Most material is in good condition; binders in some cases show evidence of past mildew.
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research.
This collection is shelved offsite. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine what material is offsite and retrieval policies and times.
Restricted: fragile; consult curatorial staff (recordings series, glass slides).
Extent
20 linear feet (20 boxes)Collection chiefly concerns the years of Richard Nixon's presidency but also earlier campaigns, elections, social and political issues, the Watergate Affair, and the resignations from office of both Richard Nixon and the vice president, Spiro T. Agnew.
People represented in the collection include Pat Nixon, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Spiro T. Agnew, Hubert Humphrey, George S. McGovern, John F. Kennedy, and many other politicians, world leaders, staff, cabinet members, friends, and supporters.
Materials present include: photographs; slides; correspondence; press releases; memorabilia including campaign buttons and bumper stickers; recordings; files on campaigns, inaugurations, trips, and GOP (Republican Party) conventions; posters; manuals for advance men; and notes of the donor as well as of sources about specific items.
Some material, including the advance man manuals, previously belonged to advance man Jon Foust.
Greater detail on some of the contents of this collection may be found in its curatorial file; consult Public Services staff.
Biographical / Historical
Richard Nixon was elected the 37th President of the United States (1969-1974) after previously serving as a U.S. Representative and a U.S. Senator from California. After ending American fighting in Vietnam and improving international relations with the U.S.S.R. and China, he became the first President ever to resign the office as a result of the Watergate scandal. (source: White House website, https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/richard-m-nixon/, accessed 2021 December 18)
Jon Foust, previous owner of some material in the collection, was an advance man for Nixon from August 1970 until spring of 1972. Advance men make arrangements and handle publicity for a politician in advance of scheduled events or trips.
Arrangement
Collection is arranged physically as received but has been reboxed.
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Custodial History
Collection is comprised of material acquired by David Shneidman from various sources over a period of nine years; in some cases information about the source may be found with the material.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2022M-43. Gift of David Shneidman, 2021 December 16.
Processing Information
This collection was processed to a basic level with minimal rehousing, organization, and preservation. (Melanie Wisner, 2021)
Subject
- Nixon, Richard M. (Richard Milhous), 1913-1994 (Person)
- Agnew, Spiro T., 1918-1996 (Person)
- Humphrey, Hubert H. (Hubert Horatio), 1911-1978 (Person)
- Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeevich, 1894-1971 (Person)
- Foust, Jon (Person)
- Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963 (Person)
- Title
- Shneidman, David, collector. David Shneidman collection on Richard Nixon, circa 1928-1995 (MS Am 3384): Guide
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard University
- Date
- 2021 December 17
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- hou03427
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.
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