Lawrence, Joseph D. Papers

Examiner, Federal Farm Board and Farm Credit Administration, 1930-1936; Deputy Cooperative Bank Commissioner, Farm Credit Administration, 1936-1944; Director of Finance and Accounts, Farm Credit Administration, 1945-1948

The papers of Joseph Lawrence consist of correspondence, diaries, newspaper clippings, and photographs pertaining to Lawrence’s work with the Federal Farm Board and the Farm Credit Administration. A loan guide and legislation affecting the Farm Credit Administration are also included in the collection.

Size: 1 linear foot, 4 linear inches (approximately 2400 pages).
Access: Open.
Copyright: The donor gave to the United States all copyrights in his writings in this or any other collection of papers at the Truman Library. Documents created by U.S. government officials in the course of their duties are in the public domain. Copyright interest in other documents presumably belongs to the creators of those documents or their heirs.
Processed by: Erwin J. Mueller (1974)
Updated by: Lucia Flaim (2008) as part of the Truman Library Internship Program.
Supervising Archivists: Randy Sowell and David Clark.

The papers of Joseph D. Lawrence consist of correspondence, diaries, newspaper clippings, and photographs related to Lawrence’s work with the Federal Farm Board and the Farm Credit Administration (FCA). Also included in the collection are a loan guide and legislation affecting banks for cooperatives and the Farm Credit Administration.

The correspondence includes letters written to Lawrence by contemporaries in the banking and cooperative fields. Most of these letters contain greetings or congratulations and some mention of Lawrence’s work or current news regarding cooperatives. Also included are a summary of the activities of the U.S. Department of Agriculture from January 19, 1954, and a resolution from the Texas Federation of Cooperatives honoring Lawrence along with others for their appearance at a convention in 1954.

The bulk of the collection consists of diaries beginning in 1932 and ending in 1936. The diaries are comprised of daily entries that describe what Lawrence did while he was an examiner for the Federal Farm Board and Farm Credit Administration. Everything from meetings to writing reports to sick days is recorded, along with the time Lawrence left the office each day.

Legislation affecting the Farm Credit Administration in the collection consists of various public laws and amendments that directly affected the FCA. A loan guide to banks for cooperatives consists of a series of subjects and exhibits, which outline legislation affecting the FCA. There are also a number of public laws affecting banks for cooperatives.

The papers contain many publications and newspaper clippings, as well as several programs that deal with farm cooperatives, the FCA, and Joseph Lawrence. Programs and newsletters from assorted agricultural cooperatives record current issues and events from the time. Several of the articles were written by or about Lawrence.

The collection also contains thirteen photographs relating to Joseph Lawrence. While several of these photos are family-related, most are of participants in various meetings or conferences.

Related collections at the Truman Library include the Records of the Cooperative League of the United States of America, and the papers of Ivy W. Duggan, Secretary of Agriculture Clinton Anderson, and his successor as Secretary, Charles Brannan.