Scope and Content Note
The papers of Mississippi lawyer and politician Ross A. Collins (1880-1968) span the years 1906-1967, with the bulk of the material concentrated between 1920 and 1963. Collins served as attorney general for Mississippi and through the 1920s to the 1940s as a representative in Congress for the fifth district of that state. While serving as chairman of the House Subcommittee for War Department Appropriations he advocated for and helped fund the mechanization of the army and the B-17 heavy bomber. In 1934 he ran unsuccessfully for the Senate against Theodore Gilmore Bilbo.
The collection is organized into five series: General Correspondence , Subject File , Miscellany , Theodore Gilmore Bilbo , and Scrapbooks (Oversize) . The General Correspondence is mainly with constituents and admirers and covers topics such as Mississippi government and politics, mechanization of the army, military aviation, and citizenship in the Choctaw Indian tribe.
Most of these topics are elaborated on in the Subject File . The C. J. H. MacKenzie-Kennedy file contains material relating to the development of the B-17 heavy bomber. The John Lick and Arnold v. Collins cases involved Choctaw Indian citizenship disputes. While serving in the United States House of Representatives, Collins was instrumental in funding the Library of Congress acquiring the Otto Vollbehr Collection of Incunabula that included a Gutenberg Bible.
The Miscellany includes Collins's speeches and articles by and about him. The Theodore Gilmore Bilbo series relates to the Mississippi politician's career from his earliest days in public life, terms as governor, and service in the House of Representatives and Senate.
The Scrapbooks (Oversize) series relates to specific topics such as the mechanization of the army and the Otto Vollbehr collection and includes volumes of clippings from the Congressional Record and other publications.