Scope and Content Note
The papers of Bainbridge Colby (1869-1950) span the years 1863-1950, with the bulk of the material dated from 1912 when he assisted in organizing the Progressive Party in support of Theodore Roosevelt's presidential campaign. The collection contains correspondence, letterbooks, notebooks, scrapbooks, photographs, and other papers concerning national politics, the Progressive Party, and American foreign policy. The papers are organized in the following eight series: Notebooks , Correspondence , Addresses, Statements, and Articles , Press Releases , Scrapbooks , Miscellany , Additions , and Oversize .
The Correspondence series contains a few early family letters but mostly documents Colby's career from 1912 onward. Correspondence with Woodrow Wilson predominately pertains to foreign policy issues and personal affairs, and although it represents the most extensive correspondence in the series, there are also exchanges with other public figures including James M. Cox, Josephus Daniels, Samuel Gompers, William Randolph Hearst, Gilbert M. Hitchcock, Cordell Hull, David Lloyd George, Henry Cabot Lodge (1850-1924), Medill McCormick, Theodore Roosevelt, Alfred Emanuel Smith, John Spargo, and André Tardieu.
Colby was an effective speaker, and the Addresses, Statements, and Articles series includes copies of his many political addresses over a long period of time. The series contains several drafts of the 1912 convention call of the Progressive Party annotated and initialed by Theodore Roosevelt. Drafts of Colby's best-known and most significant state paper, the note of August 10, 1920, enunciating America's refusal to recognize the new Russian government following the revolution of 1917, is also included in the series. United States policy with respect to Russia stood until reversed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933.
A large series of Scrapbooks contains newspaper clippings concerning speeches, political campaigns, and trips. Correspondence originally enclosed in the scrapbooks has been removed and filed in the Correspondence series.
The Additions series supplements similar material and topics found in the main body of the papers. Although he was an early supporter of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Colby eventually became a critic of the New Deal, formed the anti-Roosevelt American Liberty League, and supported the Republican Party candidate Alfred M. Landon in the 1936 presidential election. Addition I contains various types of material relating to Colby's political reversal as well as to other topics.