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BARKLEY, Alben William

BARKLEY, Alben William
Library of Congress
BARKLEY, Alben William
1877–1956

Office

Representative, Senator, Vice President

State/Territory

Kentucky

Party

Democrat

Congress(es)

63rd (1913–1915), 64th (1915–1917), 65th (1917–1919), 66th (1919–1921), 67th (1921–1923), 68th (1923–1925), 69th (1925–1927), 70th (1927–1929), 71st (1929–1931), 72nd (1931–1933), 73rd (1933–1935), 74th (1935–1937), 75th (1937–1939), 76th (1939–1941), 77th (1941–1943), 78th (1943–1945), 79th (1945–1947), 80th (1947–1949), 81st (1949–1951), 84th (1955–1957)

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Biography

BARKLEY, Alben William, a Representative and a Senator from Kentucky and a Vice President of the United States; born near Lowes, Graves County, Ky., November 24, 1877; attended the public schools and graduated from Marvin College, Clinton, Ky., in 1897; attended Emory College, Oxford, Ga., and the University of Virginia Law School, Charlottesville, Va.; admitted to the bar in 1901 and commenced practice in Paducah, McCracken County, Ky.; prosecuting attorney for McCracken County, Ky. 1905-1909; judge of McCracken County Court 1909-1913; elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-third and to the six succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1913-March 3, 1927); did not seek renomination in 1926, having become a candidate for United States Senator; elected to the United States Senate in 1926; reelected in 1932, 1938, and again in 1944, and served from March 4, 1927, until his resignation on January 19, 1949; majority leader and Democratic caucus chairman 1937-1947; minority leader and Democratic caucus chairman 1947-1949; Democratic Policy Committee chairman 1947-1949; elected Vice President of the United States on the Democratic ticket with President Harry S. Truman in 1948; inaugurated January 20, 1949, for the term ending January 20, 1953; again elected to the United States Senate and served from January 3, 1955, until his death in Lexington, Va., April 30, 1956; interment in Mount Kenton Cemetery, on Lone Oak Road, near Paducah, Ky.

View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress

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External Research Collections

Alben W. Barkley Museum

Paducah, KY
Papers: Miscellaneous items (1933-1966) including Tennessee Valley Authority scrapbook with letters from Barkley about the dam, 1932-1949; in John E. Kirksey scrapbook of clippings, 1937-1979; Grace Magruder scrapbook, 1933-1954; and Laura Norris Hinton scrapbook of clippings; and photographs.

American Jewish Historical Society

Waltham, MA
Papers: Correspondence in Charles Schwager papers, 1909-1948.

Dakota State University
Karl E. Mundt Library

Madison, SD
Papers: Correspondence in Karl Earl Mundt papers, 1927-1972. Finding aid.

Eastern Kentucky University
Special Collections and Archives

Richmond, KY
Papers: Correspondence in the Keen Johnson papers, 1870-1970; Herman Lee Donovan papers, 1922-1943; and Minor Edward Clark papers, 1935-1978.

Emory University
Robert W. Woodruff Library

Atlanta, GA
Papers: Correspondence in the Mildred Seydell papers, 1842-1978.

Filson Club Historical Society

Louisville, KY
Papers: 1916-1955. 25 items. Miscellaneous collection, including personal, business, and congressional correspondence, and memorabilia. Finding aid.

Indiana State Library

Indianapolis, IN
Papers: Correspondence in the Hugh A. Barnhart papers, 1891-1964.

Kentucky Historical Society

Frankfort, KY
Papers: 2 broadsides (1948) from campaign for vice president; 1 broadside (1952) from campaign for presidential nomination; and 1 invitation (1942) to Truman-Barkley inaugural.

Library of Congress
Manuscript Division

Washington, DC
Papers: Correspondence in Robert Worth Bingham papers, 1879-1974. Finding aid.

Paducah Public Library

Paducah, KY
Papers: Newspaper clippings.

Radcliffe College
Schlesinger Library

Cambridge, MA
Papers: Correspondence in the Emma Guffey Miller papers, 1887-1970; and in the Mildred Buchanan Flagg papers, 1878-1955.

Franklin D. Roosevelt Library

Hyde Park, NY
Papers: Correspondence in the Lowell Mellett papers, 1938-1944.

State Historical Society of Wisconsin
Archives Division

Madison, WI
Papers: Correspondence in the Raymond Z. Henle papers, 1883-1973.

State Historical Society of Wisconsin
Milwaukee Area Research Center University of Wisconsin

Milwaukee, WI
Papers: Correspondence in the Charles E. Broughton papers, 1916-1953.

Harry S. Truman Library

Independence, MO
Papers: 1944-1945. 1 microfilm reel. Copies of correspondence with President Truman. Originals held by University of Kentucky. Also in 1949 Inaugural Committee Records, 1948-1949.
Oral History: 1953. Transcripts of 22 taped interviews with Sidney Shalett.

University of Arkansas
Special Collections

Fayetteville, AR
Papers: Correspondence in Clyde Taylor Ellis papers, 1933-1976. Finding aid.

University of Iowa Libraries
Special Collections Department

Iowa City, IA
Papers: Letter (June 25, 1940) to Albert Baird Craig answering questions about speech writing; letter (June 3, 1916) to Harry P. Harrison concerning desire to give a series of lectures; and letter (September 13, 1948) to Rabbi Murray A. Alstet concerning nomination as candidate for vice president.

University of Kentucky Libraries
Modern Political Archives

Lexington, KY
Papers: 1900-1956. Ca. 167 feet and 5 microfilm reels. Correspondence, speeches, 100 scrapbooks, political papers, clippings, cartoons, recordings, photographs, and memorabilia. Includes general and political correspondence spanning his entire public career. Finding aid.
Additional Papers: Correspondence in the Frederick Moore Vinson papers, 1907-1953.
Oral History: Discussed in interviews with James A. Farley, Laura B. MacArthur, and Marian B. Truitt.

University of Michigan
Bentley Historical Library

Ann Arbor, MI
Papers: Correspondence in the Frank Murphy papers, 1908-1949; Stella Brunt Osborn papers, 1916-1983; Blair Moody papers, 1928-1954; Prentiss Marsh Brown papers, 1902-1973; and Homer Ferguson papers, 1939-1976. Finding aid.

University of Virginia
Alderman Library

Charlottesville, VA
Papers: Correspondence in various collections including Louis Arthur Johnson papers, ca. 1917-1918, 1930-1964; and Homer Stille1 Cummings papers, 1886-1856. Finding aid.

Western Kentucky University Library
Special Collections

Bowling Green, KY
Papers: 1934, 1954-1955. 10 items. Correspondence and photographs. Finding aid.

William Clark Market House Museum

Paducah, KY
Papers: 1948-1973. .2 cubic foot. Clippings and photographs relating to Barkley as vice president.
Research Libraries Information Network In addition to the institutions listed above, items are also cataloged in collections at: Yale University, Manuscripts and Archives, New Haven, CT.
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Bibliography / Further Reading

Barkley, Alben W. "The Majority Leader in the Legislative Process." In The Process of Government, by Simeon S. Willis, et al., pp. 36-48. Lexington: Bureau of Government Research, University of Kentucky, 1949.

___. That Reminds Me. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1954.

Barkley, Jane R. I Married the Veep. New York: Vanguard Press, 1958.

Clevenger, Theodore, Jr. "Alben W. Barkley's Use of Humor in Public Speaking." Western Speech 20 (Winter 1956): 15-22.

Davis, Polly Ann. Alben W. Barkley, Senate Majority Leader and Vice President. New York: Garland Publishing, 1979.

___. "Alben W. Barkley's Public Career in 1944." Filson Club History Quarterly 51 (April 1977): 143-57.

___. "Alben W. Barkley: Vice President." Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 76 (April 1978): 112-32.

___. "Court Reform and Alben W. Barkley's Election as Majority Leader." Southern Quarterly 15 (October 1976): 15 31.

Finch, Glenn. "The Election of United States Senators in Kentucky: The Barkley Period." Filson Club History Quarterly 45 (July 1971): 286-304.

Grant, Philip A. "Editorial Reaction to the Harrison-Barkley Senate Leadership Contest, 1937." Journal of Mississippi History 36 (May 1974): 127-41.

Grinde, Gerald S. "The Early Political Career of Alben W. Barkley, 1877-1937." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1976.

___. "The Emergence of the 'Gentle Partisan': Alben W. Barkley and Kentucky Politics, 1919." Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 78 (Summer 1980): 243-58.

___. "Politics and Scandal in the Progressive Era: Alben W. Barkley and the McCracken County Campaign of 1909." Filson Club History Quarterly 50 (April 1976): 36-51.

Hatcher, John Henry. "Alben Barkley, Politics in Relief and the Hatch Act." Filson Club History Quarterly 40 (July 1966): 249-64.

Hixson, Walter L. "The 1938 Kentucky Senate Election: Alben W. Barkley, 'Happy' Chandler, and the New Deal." Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 80 (Summer 1982): 309-29.

Leistner, Charley August. "The Political Campaign Speaking of Alben W. Barkley." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Missouri, 1958.

Libbey, James K. Alben Barkley: A Life in Politics. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2016.

___. "Alben W. Barkley: The Making of the 'Paducah Politician.'" Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 96 (Summer 1998): 249-68.

___. "Alben Barkley's Rise from Courthouse to Congress." Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 98 (Summer 2000): 261-78.

___. "Alben Barkley's Clinton Days." Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 78 (Autumn 1980): 343-61.

___. Dear Alben: Mr. Barkley of Kentucky. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1979.

Moremen, John S. "First Person History Alben W. Barkley: The End of a Speech." Filson Club History Quarterly 69 (October 1995): 421-6.

Neelley, Ewing Edward, Jr. "Alben W. Barkley: The Image of the Southern Political Orator." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1987.

Reichert, William O. "The Political and Social Thought of Alben W. Barkley." Master's thesis, University of Kentucky, 1950.

Ritchie, Donald A. "Alben W. Barkley: The President's Man." In First Among Equals: Outstanding Senate Leaders of the Twentieth Century, edited by Richard A. Baker and Roger H. Davidson, pp. 127-62. Washington: Congressional Quarterly, 1991.

Robinson, George W. "Alben Barkley and the 1944 Tax Veto." Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 67 (July 1969): 197-210.

___. "The Making of a Kentucky Senator: Alben W. Barkley and the Gubernatorial Primary of 1923." Filson Club History Quarterly 40 (April 1966): 123-35.

U.S. Congress. Memorial Services Held in the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, Together with Remarks Presented in Eulogy of Alben William Barkley, Late a Senator from Kentucky. 84th Cong., 2d sess., 1956. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1956.

U.S. Senate. Vice Presidents of the United States, 1789-1993, by Mark O. Hatfield with the staff of the U.S. Senate Historical Office. S.Doc. 104-26, 104th Congress, 2d sess., 1997.

Wallace, H. Lew. "Alben Barkley and the Democratic Convention of 1948." Filson Club History Quarterly 55 (July 1981): 231-52.

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Related Links

Office of the Historian: history@mail.house.gov
Office of Art & Archives, Office of the Clerk: art@mail.house.gov, archives@mail.house.gov