Included in the Coolidge-Consumerism collection are selections from twelve collections of personal papers and two collections of institutional papers from the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress that trace the economic life of the decade as it played out in various spheres. In politics, there are selections from the papers of Calvin Coolidge (INTRO NOTE Coolidge Presidency) and James Couzens, until 1915 Henry Ford's right-hand man and Republican senator from Michigan in the 1920s. Speeches by Coolidge are provided in the papers of two of his private secretaries, Edward T. Clark and Everett Sanders. The recently-opened papers of Joel T. Boone, the president's physician, provide rare and tantalizing glimpses into President Coolidge's personal life.
The experience of consumers and homemakers is represented by the papers of Anna Kelton Wiley, a consumer activist involved in the Housekeepers' Alliance, the Home Economics Association and the Washington, D.C. Thrift Committee (INTRO NOTE Thrift); the papers of social commentator and critic of consumerism Stuart Chase (INTRO NOTE Critiques); and by selections from the institutional papers of the National Consumers League.
Selections from the long-awaited, newly available papers of Edward L. Bernays, considered the founder of the field of public relations, open many windows onto the world of advertising and corporate publicity campaigns. (INTRO NOTE Advertising)
The economic experience of African Americans (INTRO NOTE African Americans) during the 1920s is represented by selections from the papers of Booker T. Washington, founder of the National Negro Business League; from the papers of Robert R. Moton, the League's president during the 1920s; and by selections from the institutional papers of the National Urban League.
The papers of Federal Reserve Board Governor Charles S. Hamlin represent the world of finance and banking.
The papers of Middletown author Robert S. Lynd reflect developments in the newly emerging social science disciplines, particularly as they bear on consumption and leisure.
While space and topical limitations did not permit reproduction in their entirety of personal papers from the Manuscript Division, material selected from each of the personal papers included in the Coolidge-Consumerism collection sheds light on aspects of the economy that had an important impact on consumers during the 1920s. Within each collection of personal papers, relevant file folders are represented sometimes in their entirety, more often by selections, depending upon the content of the items. Readers should note that when file folders selected for inclusion have been renamed for clarity, the new titles are recognizably similar to the originals. The bibliographic record indicates how many of the total number of pages in the file were selected for inclusion, as well as whether the material included is offered in the form of page images only or in the form both of word-searchable text and page images.
The quality of these reproductions depends upon the physical condition of the original material in the Manuscript Division. Some facsimile page images appear skewed because they were skewed or unevenly bound in the original. In other cases, the imprint of the type on the page may be unclear because the originals are mimeographs or carbon copies, or were typed with blue typing ribbon that has faded with time, or because the paper has yellowed significantly or been creased. Generally speaking, the quality of the page image can be improved by printing it out at the computer; computer print-outs of page images that are indistinct generally offer higher resolution and thus greater clarity than the same images displayed at a computer monitor.