The scrapbooks of Paul Michael Weyrich (1942-2008), conservative political activist, journalist and broadcaster, author and editor, span the years 1942-2009 with the bulk of the material dating from 1960 to 2008. The collection was compiled by Weyrich throughout his lifetime as a chronological scrapbook in 134 volumes. The scrapbooks contain representative items, rather than a comprehensive set of records, that document Weyrich’s political and church activities through newspaper clippings, correspondence, speeches and writings, reports, photographs, press passes, media scripts and programming guides, political cartoons, news releases and newsletters, agenda, conference schedules, programs, minutes of meetings, advertisements, posters and flyers, brochures and booklets.

Scrapbook volumes 1-3 document aspects of Weyrich’s childhood and youth in Racine, Wisconsin, and include records of his activities in the Roman Catholic church, copies of school newsletters he wrote and edited, debating awards, and radio programming records from his college years at the University of Wisconsin. Weyrich’s early interest in trains includes a grass-roots political campaign to save a cancelled train route from Milwaukee to Chicago.

Volumes 4-7 include mementoes from Weyrich’s work as a reporter and news director for radio and television stations in Wisconsin and Colorado. Volumes 8-19 include documentation from Weyrich’s work as a congressional aide and press secretary to Senator Gordon L. Allott, Republican from Colorado, and as consultant to Republican Senator Carl T. Curtis of Nebraska.

Scrapbook volumes 9-134 reflect Weyrich’s advocacy for conservative political and social values and document his efforts to mobilize cultural conservatives to political action over a span of forty years beginning in the mid-1960s and continuing until his death in 2008. Weyrich was known as an architect of the conservative movement, as a key strategist of the New Right, and as the political operative who taught conservatives to network. Citing the successful strategies of liberal members of Congress, Weyrich worked to establish conservative caucuses, think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation and the Free Congress Research and Education Foundation, and media outlets to advocate for conservative cultural and social issues and to elect like-minded political candidates. His coalition-building skills and position at the nexus of Catholic and evangelical Protestants, conservative activists, and the Republican Party contributed to the establishment of the Christian right as a political force. Highlights of these activities are documented in the scrapbooks. Correspondents include politicians and activists, especially those who attended the weekly luncheons Weyrich hosted at the Free Congress Foundation, as his organization was commonly known.

A regular on daily radio and television talk shows, including his own network, Weyrich also published policy reports, newsletters, and journals and contributed editorials to the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal. Samples of his prolific commentary are included in his scrapbooks along with media reports about him. They document his battle for the “soul” of America by advocating a limited government and the centrality of religion and morality in public as well as private life, and by opposing abortion, feminism, gay rights, union rights, and other issues or ideas characterized as liberal, progressive and secular.

Records of Weyrich’s activities in the Holy Transfiguration Melkite Greek Catholic Church are also included in the scrapbooks, including his ordination as a deacon in 1990. His work for the Krieble Institute in educating new political leadership in the former Soviet Bloc is documented in reports, brochures, photographs, and news clippings.

Weyrich’s lifelong interest in trains and promotion of passenger service is also documented throughout the scrapbooks including records of his service on the Amtrak Board of Directors and Amtrak Reform Council.