Harry S. Truman Papers Staff Member and Office Files: David H. Stowe Files

Deputy to the Assistant to the President, 1947-1949; Administrative Assistant to the President, 1949-1953

The files of David H. Stowe consist of correspondence and other materials relating to Stowe's position as Administrative Assistant to the President. The collection is comprised of a variety of documents relating to different aspects of the Truman Presidency, from agriculture and Alaskan transportation to White House furniture. Included are several telegrams (one from Congressman John F. Kennedy), fiscal statements, a handwritten note from President Truman, a resolution from the American Federation of Labor, and a lengthy report on the recommendations of the President's Commission on Migratory Labor.

See also Oral History and Papers

Size: Less than one linear foot (about 1600 pages).
Access: Open.
Copyright: President Harry S. Truman donated his copyright interest in any of his writings in this collection to the people of the United States. In addition, documents prepared by United States government employees in the course of their official duties are also in the public domain. Copyright interests in documents that do not fall into these two categories are presumed to remain with the authors of the documents, or their heirs.
Processed by: Philip D. Lagerquist (1956) and reprocessed by Aimee Sexton (2000) as part of the Internship Program at the Truman Library
Supervising Archivists: Randy Sowell and Amy Williams

The David H. Stowe Files mostly consist of correspondence, memoranda, reports, printed material and other documents accumulated by Stowe during his service as an administrative assistant to President Harry S. Truman from 1949 to 1953. The Stowe Files are part of the Staff Member and Office Files of the Harry S. Truman Papers, which Mr. Truman donated to the U.S. government after the completion of his Presidency.

The documents in the Stowe Files are dated from 1946 to 1953, with a majority dated from 1950 to 1952. The folders in this collection are arranged alphabetically by title in a single series, the Subject File. The collection consists of less than one linear foot (about 1600 pages) of material.

Included in the collection are documents concerning the involvement of Stowe and the Truman administration in a wide variety of matters, ranging from agriculture to White House furniture. Much of the material in the Stowe Files relates to the activities of such special presidential commissions as the President's Commission on Migratory Labor, the President's Committee on Religion and Welfare in the Armed Forces, and the President's Materials Policy Commission. There are also folders for such agencies as the National Security Resources Board, the Public Health Service, and the Veterans Administration.

The collection contains several interesting items. For instance, in the folder on military research, there is a letter written by Stowe to Dr. Robert Oppenheimer requesting a review of the military significance of scientific research. In the folder on labor, (an area of particular interest to Mr. Stowe and one in which he worked closely with Dr. John Steelman, the Assistant to the President) there is a letter from Robert Denham to Stowe. This document addresses the matter of Lake City Malleable, Inc., a case in which steelworkers, not qualified to participate in a union election, attempted to prevent it by filing numerous charges of unfair labor practices. There are many memoranda concerning Alaskan transportation, including a handwritten note from President Truman regarding airline problems in Alaska in 1950. The folder on housing and rent control fcontains a telegram from Congressman John F. Kennedy regarding public hearings on a general rent increase in eastern Massachusetts in 1949.

Other relevant holdings of the Harry S. Truman Library are the David H. Stowe Papers and oral history interviews with Stowe (O.H. # 405, 427, 463, and 464).