Scope and Content Note
The papers of John Daniel Miller Hamilton (1892-1973) span the years 1935-1972 and consist of correspondence, speeches, interviews, subject files, and other papers relating primarily to Hamilton's career in the Republican Party. Main topics include Herbert Hoover, Alfred M. Landon, the Republican National Committee, Robert A. Taft, William Allen White, and Wendell L. Willkie. Hamilton was chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1936 until 1937. He was from Topeka, Kansas, and was a delegate to the 1936 and 1940 Republican national conventions. The collection is arranged by type of material, including groupings of political files, subject files, and speeches by Hamilton.
From 1936 through 1952, Hamilton was at the center of Republican national politics. Contained in the political and subject files is correspondence and other material relating to party leaders throughout the country, including diary-type confidential memoranda in which he recorded conversations with party representatives and important events such as the Republican national conventions of 1936 and 1940. The memoranda treat conversations with Hebert Hoover; Douglas MacArthur and the 1944 nomination; the nomination of Charles Linza McNary for vice president in 1940; Republican congressional successes in 1938; and the balloting in the 1940 convention.
The correspondence in the papers is entirely political, relating most prominently to the campaigns of 1940, 1944, and 1952. Included are communications with newspaper editors and columnists. Miscellaneous items include news clippings and a few photographs. A file of speeches contains copies of political addresses by Hamilton.