A Guide to the Armistead L. Boothe Papers 1948-1969
A Collection in
The Special Collections Department
Accession Number 8319 &
8319-a
Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections LibraryUniversity of Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4110
USA
Phone: (434) 243-1776
Fax: (434) 924-4968
Reference Request Form: https://small.lib.virginia.edu/reference-request/
URL: http://small.library.virginia.edu/
© 2002 By the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia. All rights reserved.
Funding: Web version of the finding aid funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Processed by: Beth Wray
Administrative Information
Access Restrictions
There are no restrictions.
Use Restrictions
See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.
Preferred Citation
Armistead L. Boothe Papers, Accession # 8319 & 8319-a, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.
Acquisition Information
The main accession (#8319) was a gift of Mr. John Hundley on May 20, 1967. Mr. Hundley served as Boothe's office manager for the campaign in the Charlottesville-Albemarle area. Mr. Boothe gave the second collection of his papers which were received on July 25, 1973.
Biographical/Historical Information
Armistead L. Boothe was born in Alexandria, Virginia on September 23, 1907. He attended Episcopal High School and the University of Virginia where he received his A.B. in 1928. He was chosen as a Rhodes scholar in 1929 and received a B.A. in Jurisprudence from Oxford University in 1931.
In October, 1931, Boothe commenced the practice of law in his father's firm in Alexandria, Boothe, Dudley, Koontz, Blakenship & Stump. He served as a lawyer for the Department of Justice 1934-1936, and Alexandria City Attorney 1938-1943. After serving in the Untited States Naval Reserve, 1943-1945, as an Air Combat Intelligence Officer, he returned to private practice.
In 1934 Boothe married Elizabeth Ravenel Peelle of Washington, D.C. and they have three daughters, Julie Perry, Eleanor Smith and Elizabeth Davis.
Boothe was elected to his first term in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1948 to which he was re-elected until 1955 and from 1956-1963 he represented Alexandria in the State Senate. A life long Democrat, Boothe aided the Kennedy-Johnson campaign effort in Virginia in 1960, served as chairman of the Tenth Congressional District Democratic Committee from 1964-1968, in 1968 he headed Robert Kennedy's campaign in Virginia. In 1961 he made an unsuccessful bid for Lt. Governor on the ticket with A. E. S. Stephens and T. Munford Boyd and he lost a 1966 bid for the United States Senate to Harry F. Byrd, Jr. by a very small margin. While in the legislature Boothe was classified as a militant moderate and is best remembered for his consistent fight after 1954 to keep open the public schools of Virginia.
After his loss to Byrd, Boothe retired from the active political arena, although he continued to help in state campaigns through the 1969 election. At the present time, the former politician is Director of Development for Virginia Episcopal Seminary in Alexandria.
Scope and Content Information
This collection consists of material from two accessions, 8319 & 8319-a, and includes political correspondence, campaign material, speeches, papers of his work on legislative committees and special sessions, and copies of book reviews.
The main collection (8319) consists of campaign material and clippings related to Boothe's campaign for the United States Senate in 1966. There is also a small amount of material directly related to this campaign in the later accession (8319-a).
The later accession is the larger of the two and included all the other political papers mentioned above. Although pertinent correspondence is sparse, the papers relating to the various campaigns give the best details of Boothe's early career in Alexandria or his service in the House of Delegates. Another excellent source of information on Boothe's career are the papers pertaining to the legislative committees on which he served and his papers of the special sessions on school integration in which he tried to effect a compromise that would both keep Virginia's public schools open and satisfy the Supreme Court order of Brown v. Board of Education. Again pertinent correspondence is scarce, but other files relating to constitutional questions and education supply a great deal of relevant material.
The correspondence files run from 1951-1962, but there are large spans of time for which there is no correspondence, and many others for which there are only a few letters. The only time span with a relatively complete file runs from April 1960 through December 1962. The nature of all correspondence in the collection is political.
The photographs, speeches, and clippings found within the papers are also of a political nature. Some of the papers deal strictly with fund raising and general political activities to aid the Democratic party. The only personal papers of any sort are the book reviews written for a Washington newspaper, a certificate awarded to his mother, Mrs. Gardner Boothe's estate, and several speeches.
The papers may be disappointing to a researcher because of the lack of continuity in correspondence and general information on Mr. Boothe's activities during regular legislative sessions, or his relations with other legislators. The researcher may find his only aid for this information would be the extensive collection of clippings included in the papers. However, any research on the educational problems introduced in Virginia by the Brown v. Board of Education decision of the Supreme Court should be greatly aided by the collection, as it was of primary interest to Boothe.
Arrangement
The main accession and the additional accession have been kept as separate collections. The first group of papers were left in the order in which they were received. The clippings had been placed together, information on Byrd is in the same file with campaign materials such as photographs, list of precinct organization, sample ballots and advertisements. The last items are correspondence and the paper work of the campaign.
As much as possible, the additional group of papers have also been left in the order in which they were received. The files have been placed in alphabetical order; the material within each folder has been left in chronological order as it was received. Where there are several files under the same headings, the files are placed in chronological order within the file, i.e. all campaign files are placed together, but in the chronological order in which they took place.