Scope and Content Note
The papers of Edwin J. Feulner, Jr., (1941- ) span the years 1934-2014, with the bulk of the material dating from 1966 to 2012. The papers are organized into the following series: Personal File, Chronological File, Heritage Foundation, Organizations, Other Professional Files, Speech and Trip Files, Writings, and Digital Files. The collection documents Feulner's career devoted to conservative public policy and the rise of the Heritage Foundation as the leading conservative think tank and public policy research organization during Feulner's presidency.
The Personal File series is a compilation of material relating to Feulner's personal life and interests, his education, and other records documenting his life and accomplishments. A section of family papers includes Feulner's correspondence with his parents, siblings, children, and several uncles who were Catholic priests, with the largest portion being copies of letters and notes sent by him. A general correspondence file contains his correspondence with friends, associates, businesses, and organizations spanning over forty years. Diary entries for the years 1980-1982 offer Feulner's reflections on his work on the presidential transition team and his meetings and interactions during the early years of the Ronald Reagan administration. A grouping of appointment books and daily schedule card files is most extensive for Feulner's time at the Heritage Foundation, although there are gaps in coverage. Biographical information files and a collection of press clippings and other items mentioning Feulner help to provide an overview of his life and activities.
The Chronological File series consists of correspondence spanning the years 1965-2013 that provides an in-depth look at Feulner's personal and professional endeavors before and during his years at the Heritage Foundation. A majority of the copies of this outgoing correspondence appears on pink paper.
The Heritage Foundation series constitutes the bulk of the papers and documents the work of the this conservative public policy think tank promoting a strong national defense, tax cuts and reform, welfare reform, free trade, free enterprise, free markets, less government, and traditional values. Folders for this series are stamped with the letters THF, the abbreviation used by Heritage Foundation staff to indicate the foundation. Highlights include the Board of Trustees files, correspondence, reports, financial records, meetings, notebooks, administrative memoranda, and a people file. The Board of Trustees files provide insight into the policy- and decision-making processes of the foundation and includes budget proposals, committee meeting files, correspondence shared with the board, financial reports, and memoranda sent to the board members by Feulner. The committee meeting files are largely comprised of briefing booklets prepared for individual meetings. Feulner's memoranda to the members is a chronological file of individual memoranda that in some instances has other material attached. Correspondence shared with the board consists of letters and copies of letters that Feulner passed on to board members. Actual correspondence relating to the Board of Trustees is part of the Heritage Foundation's main correspondence file that is arranged into Board of Trustees, general, internal memoranda, members of Congress, miscellaneous, and White House. The correspondence file covers a myriad of conservative issues and policies and documents the internal workings of the Heritage Foundation. The general correspondence, arranged chronologically by year and therein alphabetically, was designated by Feulner's staff as "whites" because his replies appeared on white paper. Providing further insight into the foundation are the annual, quarterly, and weekly reports. The 2011 annual report is absent. Some of the quarterly reports are incomplete, and the weekly reports for the years 1980-1995, 2007, and 2011-2013 are absent. The financial records, consisting mostly of cash reports and monthly reports, are incomplete. The meetings file consists mostly of agendas, some with attached material or short notes penned by Feulner, for the senior management, weekly management, and other meetings of the Heritage Foundation. The weekly management meetings are often designated as MMM referring to Monday management meetings. Contained in Feulner's notebooks are further notes on these and other meetings. The administrative memoranda, miscellaneous correspondence, and miscellany were created from unfiled material found in the papers.
The Heritage Foundation's people file is comprised of correspondence, clippings, speeches, and other material concerning prominent conservatives as well as Heritage Foundation board members. It is a compilation of overlapping files originally grouped under the headings people, very important persons, and board members. Correspondents include Richard V. Allen, Belden Bell, William J. Bennett, David R. Brown, William F. Buckley, Jr., George Bush, Joseph Coors, Philip M. Crane, Shelby Collum Davis, Midge Decter, Milton Friedman, Newt Gingrich, Jack Kemp (1935-2009), Russell Kirk, Friedrich A. von Hayek, Robert Henry Krieble, Ernest W. Lefever, Lewis E. Lehrman, Donald J. Lipsett, Clare Boothe Luce, Edwin Meese, John William Middendorf, Ronald Reagan, Henry Regnery, J. Frederic Rench, Thomas Anderson Roe, Donald Rumsfeld, Thomas A. Saunders, III, Richard M. Scaife, Frank J. Shakespeare, William E. Simon (1927-2000), Margaret Thatcher, and Paul M. Weyrich. Arrangement is alphabetical by name of person and therein chronologically.
The Organizations series contains files relating to Feulner's membership in various organizations, boards, councils, commissions, and committees outside of the Heritage Foundation. Featured in this series are the Aequus Institute, Alpha Kappa Psi, Clare Boothe Luce Program of the Henry Luce Foundation, Council for National Policy, Credit International Bank and Sequoia National Bank, George Mason University, Institute for European Defence & Strategic Studies, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, National Commission on Economic Growth and Tax Reform, Philadelphia Society, Regis University, Sarah Scaife Foundation, and the United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. Included in this material are board and committee reports, memoranda, meeting documents, financial records, correspondence, legal records, and other general information regarding these organizations and Feulner's involvement in them.
The Other Professional Files series is comprised of files pertaining to Feulner's professional employment in the years prior to 1977 and assignments in later years outside of the Heritage Foundation. The earliest material pertains to Feulner's initial work relating to conservative public policy, as a public affairs fellow, first at the Center for Strategic Studies at Georgetown University and then assigned to the staff of Melvin R. Laird, head of the House Republican Conference, in the United States House of Representatives. Other sections focus on his years as legislative assistant and administrative assistant for Representative Philip M. Crane and his time as president of the Schuchman Foundation Center for the Public Interest. The largest portion of this series concerns Feulner's years as executive director of the Republican Study Committee, a conservative caucus in the United States House of Representatives, from 1974 to 1977. Included are briefing books for members, material relating to the Republican Study Committee's Campaign Fund for 1976 Congressional elections, files pertaining to policy issues, and a chronological grouping of work papers that document the work of the group. This Republican Study Committee material is closely related to documents pertaining to Feulner's doctoral dissertation and subsequent book on the Republican Study Committee located in the Writings series. Other files relating to assignments Feulner undertook during breaks from his Heritage Foundation duties cover his work on Ronald Reagan's presidential transition team and two White House consultancies during the Reagan administration as well as his work as staff director and counselor to Republican vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp during the 1996 presidential campaign. A subject file is comprised mainly of research files on issues of interest to political conservatives, that Feulner compiled during the years he was working as a public affairs fellow and in Congressional staff positions with the House Republican Conference and the Republican Task Force on East-West Trade. There are also files related to other projects and topics of interest. Individuals featured in this series include Richard V. Allen, Philip M. Crane, Jack Kemp, and Melvin R. Laird.
A Speech and Trip Files series combines several overlapping speech, trip, and event files. The series covers various speaking engagements, trips, and other activities Feulner attended as president of the Heritage Foundation and as a member of numerous other organizations. Many of the events and engagements occurred in the Washington, D.C. area, but Feulner also traveled extensively around the United States and internationally. On his international trips, he generally traveled to multiple cities and countries. Feulner's focus on Asia is recorded by his many trips to South Korea, Hong Kong (China), Taiwan, Japan, China, and Thailand. Some speeches and conference files can be found in the Organizations series.
The Writings series is comprised of articles and columns, book reviews, books, essays, manuscripts, and a dissertation written by Feulner. Topics include conservative public policy, Congress, the United Nations, China, South Korea, the Soviet Union, foreign trade, economics, national defense, and the Republican Study Committee. By far the largest amount of material consists of Feulner's research and drafts for his doctoral dissertation "Evolution of the Republican Study Committee" that evolved into his book Conservatives Stalk the House: The Republican Study Committee. Most of the research material for the dissertation and book was pulled from Feulner's files as executive director of the Republican Study Committee. The bulk of the committee's files are located in the Other Professional Files series.
The Digital Files are comprised of audio files, video files, and text files largely relating to Feulner's speeches and speaking engagements and the 1996 vice presidential campaign of Jack Kemp.