Scope and Content Note
The papers of Henry Justin Allen (1868-1950) span the years 1896-1942, with the bulk concentrated in the period 1919-1942. The collection is organized in three series: Pre-Gubernatorial File, Gubernatorial File, and Post-Gubernatorial File . Letters concerning family affairs, including occasional letters to his wife, are scattered throughout the collection. Material relating to his business activities is located in both the Gubernatorial and Post-Gubernatorial Files.
Allen served four years as governor of Kansas, 1919-1923, and the achievements and controversies that marked these years are documented in the Gubernatorial File. Arranged in seventeen subseries, this series is composed primarily of correspondence and touches upon virtually all aspects of Allen's tenure as governor. The material concerning the Kansas Court of Industrial Relations and a subseries on labor relations is particularly complete, while the relatively small Presidential File is a good source of information for Republican Party politics in the months preceding the National Republican Convention in 1920. Other topics include the Ku Klux Klan, the Industrial Workers of the World, the National Nonpartisan League and Allen's debate over labor relations with Samuel Gompers. The extensive General Correspondence subseries relates to all aspects of Allen's tenure, and letters sent and received from prominent persons form the basis of the Special Correspondence. Prominent correspondents in the latter group include Will H. Hays, Harold L. Ickes, Alfred M. Landon, Arthur H. Vandenberg, William Allen White, and Leonard Wood.
The Post-Gubernatorial File chronicles Allen's public career after leaving the governorship, including his brief tenure as United States senator, 1929-1930, and is divided into thirteen subseries. The material in the Special Correspondence and General Correspondence subseries relates to all aspects of his career during this period, as does the material in the Publications and Speech Material files. The less-publicized facets of Allen's career, including his activities on behalf of Near East Relief, the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Tidewater Association, and Save the Children (U.S.), are also amply documented.