LaRC announces acquisition of large collection of Huey P. Long papers

Papers from Long's personal office and files are among the highlights of the Jack B. McGuire Collection of Huey P. Long Papers, recently donated to the Louisiana Research Collection (LaRC) at Tulane University. The collection includes speech drafts; Long’s agreements with the Old Regulars political organization and Standard Oil; papers on his Share Our Wealth program; dossiers on his enemies; original illustrations for his autobiography with captions in his handwriting; documents showing that he always intended to name the Huey P. Long bridge after himself; documents relating to the Win or Lose Oil Company; campaign files, and more.

With the donation, Tulane now holds one of the most important collections of papers related to the famous Louisiana governor and senator to come to light in the last 30 years.

The donor, Jack B. McGuire, 70, is a vice president of Union Savings and Loan Association. He was Mayor Victor Schiro's press secretary and is the son of David McGuire Jr., one of the seven staffers of The Daily Reveille, LSU's student newspaper, who were expelled for standing up to Long. The elder McGuire and the other six were thrown out of school because they refused to accept a policy of censorship designed to keep anything that might offend Long out of the paper.

"The documents in this donation were hidden from history for more than 75 years, and to have the privilege of making them available to the international research community is tremendously exciting," said Leon Miller, head of LaRC.

LaRC expects to make the collection available to the public within about three months.

We're excited that this collection has received such significant national attention, with mentions in the San Francisco Chronicle and USA Today. Numerous local media outlets have also picked up the story:

NOLA.com
WWL 
Q93 
The Advocate
KATC (Lafayette)
Tulane New Wave 

Posted by Eira Tansey.