Scope and Content Note
The papers of Jesse Holman Jones (1874-1956) span the years 1916-1960, with the greater part concentrated in the period 1926-1945. The papers contain eleven series: General Correspondence , Presidential File , Reconstruction Finance Corporation File , Federal Loan Agency File , Secretary of Commerce-Reconstruction Finance Corporation File , Department of Commerce File , Subject File , Speech File , Miscellany , Clippings , and Scrapbooks . Featured are Jones's role as financial advisor, fund-raiser and leader in the Democratic Party, and as head of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and later as secretary of commerce. Other emphases include Texas and national politics and Jones's long years of service to four presidents, Republican and Democratic, from World War I through the Depression and to the end of World War II.
In addition to almost thirty years of correspondence, 1930-1959, the Jones Papers contain extensive volumes of newspaper clippings documenting all phases of his personal and public life. The series documenting Jones's positions with the Reconstruction Finance Corporation , Federal Loan Agency , and Department of Commerce include reading files of letters sent as well as monthly and quarterly reports and press releases. Among the topics treated in the Subject File are personal matters, Democratic Party affairs, the centennial of Texas statehood, and supply issues pertaining to national defense during World War II.
The Presidential Files contains correspondence with Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Other correspondents include Bernard M. Baruch, James A. Farley, John Nance Garner, Carter Glass, Harry L. Hopkins, Howard Hughes, Cordell Hull, Will Rogers, Charles M. Schwab, Alfred Emanuel Smith, John W. Snyder, and Henry A. Wallace.