Includes correspondence relating to the personal and political issues of Rush Holt's life.

Because of different original series of correspondence, in addition to maintaining this original order, the material of this series, as a whole, is not in chronological order.

Personal correspondence topics include Rush Holt's marriage to Helen Louise Froelich, family matters such as births and deaths, holidays, Rush Holt's illness, and general correspondence with family and friends, among others.

Political correspondence topics include an anti-lynching bill which is represented by letters between Rush Holt and Walter White, former secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; the United Mine Workers of America which is represented by correspondence between Rush Holt and Frank Miley, former president of the United Mine Workers of America, District 31; and the seating issue from when Rush Holt was first elected to the Senate; among others.

Other prominent correspondents/subjects of correspondence include Joe Alderson, former WPA Director in Lewis County, West Virginia; Van A. Bittner, former president of United Mine Workers Association District 12; James A. Farley, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee; and Frank Miley, former president of the United Mine Workers of America, District 31, among others.

Items of note include political-related correspondence with Spencer Bonaventure Tracey (located in box 229, folder 7), Louise B. Mayer (located in box 229, folder 8), Walt Disney (located in box 229, folder 9), and James Cagney (located in box 229, folder 11). Other items of note include a poem titled Rejected (not Holt's) that is set in Hell and portrays President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a sinner (located in box 238, folder 3), and a letter from President Harry S. Truman (located in box 357, folder 1).

For correspondence directly related to Rush Holt's campaigns, please see Series 1. Personal and Political Papers—Campaign Material.

For Utility Investigating Committee-related correspondence, please see Series 3. Legislative Records—West Virginia House of Delegates Utility Investigating Committee

For Government Costs Committee-related correspondence, please see Series 3. Legislative Records—West Virginia House of Delegates State Government Costs Committee.

For Interstate Cooperation Commission-related correspondence, please see Series 3. Legislative Records—West Virginia House of Delegates Interstate Cooperation Commission.

For Works Progress Administration-related correspondence, please see Series 3. Legislative Records—Works Progress Administration.

Includes invitations and cards retained by Rush Holt. Also includes a small subset of Holt's responses.

Invitations represent both public and private events including graduations, weddings, and dinners, among others.

Cards are inclusive of general greeting cards, sympathy cards for the deaths of Rush Holt's parents, and get-well cards.

Significant items include invitations to attend events at the White House (located in box 312, folder 10) and an invitation to attend the 1939 World's Fair (located in box 340, folder 5).

Included in this series are letters and telegrams that are interleaved with cards and that possess a similar theme.

Includes material representing Rush Holt's activities during his political campaigns for West Virginia and national offices.

Types of material include broadsides, correspondence, newspaper mats, publicity releases, and speeches, among others.

Items of note include certificates of election for the West Virginia House of Delegates (located in box 369, folder 1).

Includes Rush Holt's diploma from Weston High School and material from LaSalle Extension University Law and Practical Accounting courses in which Rush Holt enrolled.

Types of material include coursework, examinations, and records of final grades.

An item of note is Rush Holt's high school diploma (located in box 1, folder 6).

Includes bills for recordings, radio station receipts, and election expenditures information that Rush Holt retained.

For the sound recordings mentioned in this material in addition to other recordings by Rush Holt, please see Series 5. Press and Media Activity--Recordings.

Includes typescripts, newsletters, manuscripts, and photocopies of newspaper articles written by Rush Holt.

Typescripts include Facts and Figures (numbers 1-224) and Politics in West Virginia (numbers 1-118). These serial publications are also partially represented by the photocopied articles. Facts and Figures appears to be a regular column that Holt wrote from 1947 through 1953, though perhaps not continuously.

Copies of The West Virginia Taxpayer , a newsletter written and published by Rush Holt, are also included and span from December 1948 to November 1954. Correspondence regarding support for this publication can be found in Series 4. Constituent Services—General Constituent Mail.

Manuscripts by Rush Holt include Who's Who Among the War Mongers: Merchants of Death and Their Stooges (located in box 306, folders 1 and 2), The British Network: A Study of Fifth Column Activities in the United States (located in box 306, folders 3 and 4), and The President Moves Toward War (located in box 339, folders 4 and 5).

Includes publications such as magazines, newsletters, bulletins, brochures, and pamphlets, among other types of publications to which Rush Holt subscribed and collected.

Topics include neutrality, war propaganda, taxes, and utilities, among others.

Publications include Uncensored, Social Justice, Public Assistance, West Virginia utility reports, and tax publications from different states, among others.

An item of note is the photocopied section of Sherwood Anderson's Puzzled America that mentions Rush Holt (located in box 370, folder 10). A copy of the whole book is available through West Virginia University's Downtown Library (call number: E806.A652 1970).

Includes photographs that represent Rush Holt's personal life and political career. Photographs depict Rush Holt and his family, among other prominent individuals.

Personal life photographs include Rush Holt's and Helen Louise Froelich's wedding and photographs taken of Rush Holt and his family during holidays and other special occasions.

Political career photographs comprise the majority of this series and represent occasions such as sessions of the West Virginia Legislature, political conventions, and campaign events including Dwight Eisenhower's "Whistle Stop" presidential campaign through West Virginia (located in box 370, folder 13), among others.

Prominent individuals include James Farley, former postmaster general during the first two administrations of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (signed photograph located in box 1, folder 1); individuals involved with WCHS News, including Ron Edwards; and former Vice President John N. Garner (signed photograph located in box 370, folder 16), among other politicians.

For additional photographs of Rush Holt, please see the West Virginia & Regional History Center's digitized OnView collection.

Includes items collected by Rush Holt such as personal nameplates, political and historical ephemera, tickets to events, and personal items, among others.

Political and historical ephemera includes an "America First" ribbon (located in box 341, folder 2), a campaign ribbon from the 1840 Van Buren and Johnson election (located in box 341, folder 2), and a Confederate ten dollar bill (located in box 341, folder 2).

Tickets to events are representative of commencements and sporting events in West Virginia, the premiere of Disney's Fantasia in Washington, D.C., and the 1952 Republican National Convention, among others.

Personal items include material from a fraternity to which Rush Holt belonged, items (pictures, cards, licenses) from his wallets, and material from a Bible class Rush Holt taught.

The wallets from which the personal pictures, cards, and licenses were removed are located in Series 2. Artifacts.

Includes miscellaneous material collected by Rush Holt.

Types of material include newspaper clippings, reports, publications, and correspondence, and election-related records, among others.

Topics include other senators (e.g., Joe Guffey of Pennsylvania and H. D. Hatfield of West Virginia), labor, railroads, and the Supreme Court, among others.

Items of note include a certificate confirming Rush Holt's initiation into the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution (located in box 1, loose); maps that detail election results for different offices including governor, House of Delegates, etc. in West Virginia (located in box 147, folder 8); Rush Holt's diary (located in box 166, folder 1), material relating to John L. Lewis and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (located in box 151, folders 1 to 3); a list of individuals who have sat in the same Senate desk that Rush Holt did (located in box 369, folder 13); a prayer authored by Rush Holt (located in box 372, folder 7); and material relating to the Rush Holt Endowment at West Virginia University (located in box 372, folder 8).

Includes election material collected by Holt, such as facsimile abstracts of votes, primary election results, lists of voters, and more. The main geographical focus is Lewis County, WV.

Includes correspondence, reports, and clippings bearing primarily upon Rush Holt's activities as chairman of the Utility Investigating Committee

The material is representative of Rush Holt's interaction with and study of utility companies throughout West Virginia and the United States.

Topics include gas, electricity, fuel rates, and municipal-owned utilities, among others.

Material of note includes testimonies of utility representatives during special hearings to examine the costs of state utilities. These hearings were held in Charleston, West Virginia between February 6, 1933 and April 11, 1933 (located in box 177, folder 1 to box 180, folder 4).

Includes correspondence, statistics, reports, and transcripts relative to Rush Holt's activity with the Government Costs Committee.

Correspondence includes letters sent and received by Rush Holt regarding expenditures for West Virginia and other states.

Statistics and reports include information sent to and gathered by Rush Holt regarding state-owned cars in West Virginia.

Institutions and departments represented include the Department of Agriculture, West Virginia University, Huntington State Hospital, the Department of Mines, and the State Road Commission, among others.

The transcript document testimonies in the February 5 to March 1, 1943 hearings to investigate the cost of state government for which Rush Holt served as chairman. Entities represented by the testimonies include the Publicity Commission, the Bureau of Negro Welfare, the Road Commission, and the Labor Department, among others.

Includes financial records requested by and maintained by Rush Holt during his time as a member of the Interstate Cooperation Commission.

Types of records include correspondence, financial and payroll statistics, and budgetary reports, among others.

Entities represented include departments of state, governmental offices of state, educational institutions (including West Virginia University), and hospitals, among others.

Includes correspondence, payroll records, project records, and other miscellaneous material relative to the activities of the Works Progress Administration that Rush Holt gathered. It should be noted that while he was not an administrator of the Works Progress Administration, Rush Holt used his legislative position to discover and draw attention to the organization that he believed had been corrupted.

Correspondence is comprised of letters to and from Rush Holt concerning the status of projects in West Virginia counties. Also included are incoming letters from around the United States relating to Holt's speeches, actions, and beliefs concerning the Works Progress Administration.

Payroll records include copies of salaries received for positions of different projects in West Virginia counties. These records include location information, project numbers, position titles, and salary amounts.

Project records include information relating to the cost of rentals, supplies, and bids, among other project expenditures.

Includes typescripts, statistics, publications, reports, and other miscellaneous records pertaining to Rush Holt's legislative activity.

Topics represented by the material include municipal operations, education, neutrality, and immigration, among others.

Records of note include copies of the West Virginia Legislature Journal for the 1944 first extraordinary session of the state's House of Delegates and Senate (located in box 339, folder 14), a five-year plan for West Virginia highways (located in box 294, folder 6), and annual reports written and sent to the West Virginia Public Service Commission (located in box 296, folder 2 to box 297, folder 2).

Additional correspondence related to Holt's legislative activity, and more general political topics, can be found in Series 1. Personal and Political Papers—Correspondence and Miscellaneous.

Includes constituent mail received and sent by Rush Holt during his time in the West Virginia House of Delegates and the United States Senate.

Because of different original series of correspondence (including general correspondence, second copies, and correspondence sorted by topic), in addition to maintaining this original order, the material of this series, as a whole, is not in chronological order. It should also be noted that the letters that have been sorted by topic are not a complete representation of that subject.

Topics include World War II, neutrality, political issues (such as the Supreme Court proposed alteration, Rush Holt's age at the time of his election to the Senate, presidential third terms, etc.), state construction projects (such as roads and infrastructure), and state programs and relief efforts for issues such as the 1936 silicosis incident in West Virginia, among others.

General correspondence is arranged chronologically, then foldered by first letter of last name. It includes basic requests for material, facts, or brief opinions. Copies of typescript responses are stapled to the original constituent letter.

Second copies correspondence is arranged chronologically, but it contains only the typescript copies of Rush Holt's responses. For some, the first copy typescript and original letter are located in general correspondence; however, others are not.

Supreme Court correspondence is organized into two groups: Individuals for and against the proposed change. Attached to the initial letters from constituents is Rush Holt's response, and for those against the change, there are also form letters offering a publication commemorating the 150th anniversary of the first congressional meeting.

There are also a few boxes of West Virginia Taxpayer correspondence that include outgoing typescript copies of letters, mostly letters of thanks and solicitation for donations/subscription to support Holt's newsletter/publication, the West Virginia Taxpayer . There is a small amount of incoming correspondence as well. Copies of this publication can be found in Series 1. Personal and Political Papers, Publications.

For an example of a constituent mail log, please see Series 6. Administrative Files.

Additional constituent mail may also be found in Series 1. Personal and Political Papers—Correspondence.

Includes copies of correspondence between Rush Holt and constituents asking for the former's recommendation to the United States Military Academy (West Point) or Naval Academy (Annapolis).

Includes constituent letters asking for government publications and bulletins, copies of speeches, and educational material. The material is generally separated by date and state or correspondent.

Requests for government publications and bulletins include a mixture of educational and personal use requests for publications such as the Agricultural Yearbook and the Farmer's Bulletin . Also included are requests for publications about political topics (e.g. a presidential third term).

Requests for speeches include letters from constituents reflecting their opinions about Rush Holt's speeches in addition to asking for copies. Topics of speeches requested include World War II (particularly the "Youth Faces War" and "Keep America Neutral" speeches), the Works Progress Administration, the Supreme Court issue, the Conscription bill, and the Burke-Wardsworth bill, among others.

Requests for educational material are primarily from teachers and students asking Rush Holt for material to support curriculum activities. Subjects represented include vocational school topics and issues, West Virginia and United States geography, and United States commerce, among others.

Includes both original and photocopied articles from newspapers and similar publications retained by Rush Holt. Entire issues are also included in this series. Some clippings have been pasted into scrapbooks.

Topics represented are a combination of personal and political interests.

Personal topics include Rush Holt's wedding to Helen Louise Froelich, the Holt family, and the Rush Holt History Conference at West Virginia University (1998-2003), among others.

Political topics include Rush Holt's campaigns and elections, the Congress of Industrial Organizations, the Works Progress Administration, and neutrality issues, among others.

Includes copies of typed press releases regarding speeches delivered by Rush Holt, or those with similar opinions, throughout his political career.

Topics addressed include neutrality, foreign policy, social security, and the presidential third term issue, among others.

Includes pen and ink drawings by a variety of artists for political cartoons documenting news issues of the day including the West Virginia politics, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, World War II, and isolationism, among others.

Twenty-three of these cartoons were used for a campaign booklet advocating Rush Holt's candidacy for governor of West Virginia (1952).

To see digitized copies of these Holt political cartoons, please visit the Rush Holt Political Cartoons digital collection: https://holt.lib.wvu.edu/?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search_field=all_fields&q.