Thanks to a $32,700 grant from the National Archives, DLS wil be working with the Libraries’ Preservation and Special Collections departments to digitize the microfilm edition of the Henry A. Wallace Papers.

Iowa native Henry A. Wallace (1888-1965) was a geneticist, author, economist, businessman, U.S. vice president, and third-party presidential candidate. A wartime V.P. under Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Wallace had more involvement in administrative and foreign policy than any of his predecessors; according to the Senate Historical Office, he was a forerunner of the modern vice president, who now fill a role as the president’s executive assistant and international representative.

Wallace’s socially liberal ideals — he advocated universal government health care, an end to segregation, and cooperation with the Soviet Union — sometimes branded him as a crackpot, as shown in this editorial cartoon from our Ding Darling digital collection. But to the million citizens who voted for him during his unsuccessful 1948 bid for president as the Progressive Party’s candidate, this visionary politician was the best choice to lead the way in post-war America.

By putting Wallace’s correspondence and related papers online and full-text searchable, DLS is pleased to increase access to primary source material on this important and controversial figure.

–Jen Wolfe
Metadata Librarian, Digital Library Services