Russell W. Peterson

A Register of His Papers in the Library of Congress

Prepared by Laura J. Kells with the assistance of Tammi Taylor

Manuscript Division, Library of Congress

Washington, D.C.

2006

Contact information: http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/mss/address.html

Finding aid encoded by Library of Congress Manuscript Division, 2006

Finding aid URL: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms006032

Table of Contents

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

Names:

Subjects:

Occupations:

Administrative Information

Provenance:

Transfers:

Copyright Status:

Security Classified Documents:

Preferred Citation:

Biographical Note

Scope and Content Note

Organization of the Papers

Description of Series

Container List

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically therein.

Administrative Information

The papers of Russell W. Peterson, environmentalist and governor of Delaware, were given to the Library of Congress by Peterson in 2004.

Sound recordings have been transferred to the Library's Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division where they are identified as part of these papers.

Copyright in the unpublished writings of Russell W. Peterson in these papers and in other collections of papers in the custody of the Library of Congress has been dedicated to the public.

Government regulations control the use of security classified items in this collection. Manuscript Division staff can furnish information concerning access to and use of classified material.

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Russell W. Peterson Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Biographical Note

Scope and Content Note

The papers of Russell Wilbur Peterson (1916- ) span the years 1917-2004, with the bulk of the material dating from 1973 to 2002. They focus primarily on Peterson's career following his term as governor of Delaware, particularly his leadership in the national and international environmental movement. The collection has been arranged in the following series: General Correspondence, Subject File, Trips and Events, Speeches and Writings, Oversize, and Classified.

The General Correspondence series is comprised of letters sent and received by Peterson from 1973 until 1999. Correspondents include colleagues, friends, and fellow governors from the state of Delaware, government officials, and leaders of local, national, and international environmental organizations.

The Subject File highlights Russell Peterson's professional and organizational affiliations and the issues and topics of concern to him. Most pertain to his post-gubernatorial life. Records and papers from earlier years, particularly those from his term as governor of Delaware, are located at the Historical Society of Delaware in Wilmington. A finding aid of that collection is in the Subject File folder for the Historical Society of Delaware. Files relating to the E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. contain employment records from the 1940s and photographs from his research laboratory. A section on Delaware includes items relating to Peterson's volunteer work on behalf of prison reform in that state and some material on his governorship, including campaign literature and documents relating to the establishment of the cabinet form of government. While governor, Peterson worked to pass the Coastal Zone Act, which banned heavy industry along a two-mile stretch of the entire Delaware coastline. Files on this legislation focus on Peterson's efforts to fight challenges and amendments to the law following its passage in 1971. Transcripts of Peterson's oral history conducted in the 1980s provide his account of these events.

Peterson's appointed positions in the federal government are covered in files on the Council on Environmental Quality, where as chairman he worked to advance the national environmental policy of the Gerald R. Ford administration, and the U. S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment, where he served as director. Files on the National Audubon Society comprise the largest segment of the Subject File series and chronicle Peterson's leadership of the organization from 1979 to 1985. Other files pertain to organizations that he helped to establish and lead such as New Directions, a lobbying group devoted to global issues, and the Better World Society, an organization devised by Ted Turner to use television to inform people about population stabilization, the prevention of nuclear war, protection of the global environment, and reduction of world poverty. Files under the heading of “politics” detail Peterson's endorsement and campaign activities on behalf of Democratic presidential candidates Michael S. Dukakis in 1988 and Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996. Also under this heading is material on his decision to change his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat in 1996.

The Trips and Events series documents speaking engagements, conferences, board meetings, congressional hearings, fund-raising trips, and other events Peterson attended from 1973 to 1999, including meeting with President Ford as head of the Council on Environmental Quality. Files from September 1974 cover Peterson's attendance at regional conferences on economic inflation as well as a presidential summit on inflation in order to discuss the effect of environmental regulations on the economy. Extensively documented is the United Nations World Conference on Population held in Bucharest, Romania, in August 1974, where Peterson served as vice-chair of the United States delegation. Peterson's growing involvement in global issues during this period is recorded in files from 1976 on a trip to Asia and his participation in the United Nations World Conference on Human Settlements in Vancouver, British Columbia. Files from his tenure as president of the National Audubon Society treat his participation in regional and national meetings, his testimony at the confirmation hearing of James G. Watt as secretary of the interior, and his participation in birdathon fund-raising events. Files from his work with the Better World Society relate to board meetings in the USSR in 1987 and in Costa Rica in 1988.

The Speeches and Writings series contains texts of speeches and statements delivered by Peterson from 1973 to 2000. Topics include crime prevention, criminal justice standards and goals, the evolution of the environmental movement, quality of life, the impact of science and technology, energy, the environmental record of the Ronald Reagan administration, population and the environment, prospects for the global environment, and Delaware's Coastal Zone Act. A grouping of earlier speeches dates from his time at E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. and also includes campaign speeches, his acceptance speech at the Delaware Republican convention, and his inaugural address as governor of Delaware. A large portion of the writings pertains to Peterson's memoir, Rebel With a Conscience, which includes significant reference files supplementing the research and subject material in other parts of the collection. Other writings include his journal articles and newspaper editorials spanning sixty years.

Organization of the Papers

The collection is arranged in six series:

• General Correspondence, 1973-1999
• Subject File, 1934-2003, n.d.
• Trips and Events, 1973-1999
• Speeches and Writings, 1917-2004, n.d.
• Oversize, 1974-ca. 1990
• Classified, 1974

Description of Series

Container List