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Peter H. Dominick
Senator Dominick with his family
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Collection
Overview
Creator: Dominick, Peter H. (Peter Hoyt), 1915-1981
Title: Senator Peter H. Dominick
Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1940-1976
Size: 238 linear ft.
Processed By: Marcia Kehl, December,
2004
Peter H. Dominick served as U.S. Senator from Colorado from 1963 to January 1975. His papers consist primarily of materials from his years in the U.S. Senate and include record vote analyses, correspondence, photographs, newsletters, radio scripts, press releases, newspaper clippings, reports, audio cassette tapes, 16 mm. films, voicewriter tapes, a dictaphone recording, and L. P. sound recordings
Scope
and Content
The Peter Dominick Collection at the University of Denver primarily
pertains to his years in the U. S. Senate. Dominick's staff varied
their filing system during his tenure. The system used during his
final years was recorded in a file manual; this system was generally
followed by University archivists in organizing the collection.
Each congressional session represents a separate series. Each of
these series contains material pertaining to the functions and activities
performed and subjects covered during the session, filed in a set
order. The order begins with Administrative and personal information.
This is followed by Political Affairs, which includes both local
and national political information. Public Relations is the next
category, which includes messages from colleagues and constituents,
condolences and congratulations, publicity material, correspondence
with friends and constituents about visits to Washington, D.C.,
and thank you letters. The next category is Domestic Policy, followed
by Foreign Policy. These two categories were very large in the early
years of Dominick's tenure in Washington, and contain policy statements
on a number of issues. Unlike many senators, Dominick did not limit
his correspondence to his own constituents, and thus this correspondence
contains opinions and commentary from all over the United States
and abroad. In the later years, this correspondence was contained
mainly in other correspondence until finally, in the 1973-74 congressional
term, the correspondence to Dominick was no longer saved, and only
his statements on certain policies were saved as paragraphs to be
added to letters on the subjects.
These general categories are followed by Departments -- government
departments, correspondence with them and with constituents who
were concerned with the workings of the departments. In this category
are found Constituent Agency Contacts (C.A.C.) files. These files
contain requests from constituents for information or help in dealing
with departments. There is a fine line between some of the C.A.C.s
and Cases, but in general the C.A.C.s are items that can be handled
by a letter or decision, while the Cases are more personal and contain
more private information needed to work with a particular agency
-- usually the military or benefits agency.
Agencies comprise the next category, and generally include correspondence
and information similar to the Departments, but directed to specific
agencies within the federal government. |
| A small category of the State of
Colorado follows, containing correspondence with the State and with
constituents who want Dominick's help in influencing the State.
This is followed by the District of Columbia category, which contains
information about the running of the District government. This category's
size varies, reflecting Dominick's involvement with the Senate oversight
committee.
The Legislation category concludes the filing system for each session.
Bills and Resolutions sponsored or co-sponsored by Dominick are
listed first. The legislation files contain correspondence and work
files on the legislation that was being considered in a given congressional
session.
The other series in the collection cover other aspects of Dominick's
work, generally divided by material type. Series 1 includes all
material from Dominick's life prior to his election to Congress
in 1962. Series 2 through 7 cover the congressional terms. Series
8 comprises the Record Analysis of voting during Dominick's years
in Congress. Series 9 contains photographs. Series 10 covers Public
Relations, which includes newsletters, press releases, and multi-media
items. Finally, Series 11 contains cases on which Dominick worked
on behalf of individuals. Because of the personal nature of much
of the material in these case files, access is available only with
permission of the Curator. |
