Bert Lord papers, 1902-1939.
Collection Number: 1776

Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections
Cornell University Library


DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY

Title:
Bert Lord papers, 1902-1939.
Repository:
Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections
Collection Number:
1776
Abstract:
Political business, and personal papers consisting mainly of correspondence, but also including scrapbooks, loose newspaper clippings, pamphlets and other printed or mimeographed material, copies of speeches, legal documents, and accounts.
Creator:
Lord, Bert, 1869-1939.
Quanitities:
18 cubic feet.
Language:
Collection material in English

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Businessman, politician.
Bert Lord was born in Sanford, Broome County, New York, and attended public schools and the Afton Union School and Academy. He engaged in the mercantile business in Afton, New York, from 1863 to 1918, when he entered the lumber business and operated sawmills; served as supervisor of the Town of Afton, 1905-1915; member of the New York Assembly, 1915-1922 and 1924-1929; served as Commissioner of Motor Vehicles of the State of New York, 1921-1923; member of the state Senate, 1929-1935; was elected as a Republican to the Seventy-fourth, Seventy-fifth, and Seventy-sixth Congress, serving until his death in 1939.

COLLECTION DESCRIPTION

Political business, and personal papers consisting mainly of correspondence, but also including scrapbooks, loose newspaper clippings, pamphlets and other printed or mimeographed material, copies of speeches, legal documents, and accounts. Correspondence for the period when Lord was supervisor of the Town of Afton is concerned mainly with Chenango County politics, road construction, the Chenango County Tuberculosis Hospital, and the operation of the direct primary. Correspondence for the time during which Lord was was a member of the New York Assembly and the state Senate deals with the internal affairs of the legislature and also contains a considerable volume of letters from constituents and colleagues on farm abandonment, the shortage of farm labor, and other agricultural problems; milk quality and prices, oleomargarine production and sale, and other dairy industry issues; teachers' salaries and pensions, nurses' salaries, and veterans' benefits; the gasoline tax, highway construction, and motor vehicle legislation; banking and insurance legislation; forestry and fish and game laws; local option and prohibition; minimum wage and maximum hour, workmen's compensation, and other labor laws; movie regulation and censorship, Sunday observance, boxing regulation, women's prison reform, and public health; the exclusion of the five Socialists from the Assembly (1920); and numerous other matters of public concern.
Correspondence for the two terms Lord served as Congressman from the 34th New York District includes numerous letters from constituents concerning current economic conditions, federal tax policy, the Townsend Plan, the operation of the Wages and Hours Law (1938), Social Security, unemployment compensation, veterans' pensions, and tariff legislation, particularly that affecting imported shoes; the Agricultural Adjustment Act, Civilian Conservation Corps, Farm Security Administration, Home Owners Loan Corporation, Public Works Administration, Railroad Retirement Act, Resettlement Administration, Supreme Court reorganization plan, Tennessee Valley Authority, and various other aspects of the New Deal; United States naval power and other questions of national defense; immigration and naturalization policies, neutrality legislation, the situations in China, Ethiopia, and Spain, and other matters pertaining to American foreign policy. In addition, there are approximately four hundred letter (1914-1938) between Lord and members of the Republican Party organization, in which finances and support given candidates for various offices are discussed.
Lord's business papers (1902-1932) consist of correspondence and accounts of Lord & McHugh, general merchandise store at Afton, and letters concerning his timber land and lumber mill interests, especially the sale of railroad ties and mine props to the Hudson Coal Company and the Delaware & Hudson Railroad Company; personal correspondence concerns family matters and trips made to Europe and Florida. The Lord scrapbooks (8 vols., 1915-1937) contain clippings from newspapers and magazines, photographs, and other items pertaining to Lord's political career and to events on the state and national scene.
Correspondents include William H. Anderson, William G. Andrews, Robert L. Bacon, Frank W. Barnes, Nelson P. Bonney, John Boyle, Jr., Charles L. Carrier, Glenn F. Carter, Nelson W. Cheney, John D. Clarke, Marian W. Clarke, Roland L. Davis, Thomas E. Dewey, John J. Dillon, George R. Dutton, Edward R. Eastman, Melvin C. Eastman, Melvin C. Eaton, George W. Fairchild, George R. Frearon, James D. Flanagan, James F. Forman, Edward B. Furry, Archie D. Gibbs, Charles S. Gibson, John Hamilton, Fred Hammond, Charles A. Harnett, Oswald D. Heck, Charles J. Hewitt, Homer Higley, James P. Hill, William H. Hill, Harold J. Hinman, Harvey DeForest Hinman, W.O. Hintermister, Cordell Hull, Irving M. Ives, George F. Johnson, J. Kennard Johnson, Samuel A. Jones, Carl E. Ladd, Herbert H. Lehman, Alfred A. Lord, Seymour Lowman, Clayton R. Lusk, John T. McNeil, Edmund H. Machold, W. Kingsland Macy, Joseph Martin, Jr., Nathan Miller, Ogden L. Mills, Abbott Low Moffat, Henry Morganthau, Jr., Reuben B. Oldfield, Tom O'Rourke, Daniel A. Reed, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., E.F. Runnells, Alfred E. Smith, Louis W. Stotesbury, Thaddeus C. Sweet, Gage E. Tarbell, James W. Wadsworth, Jr., George F. Warren, Charles Seymour Whitman, and numerous others.
There are also letters from or concerning the New York State Agricultural Advisory Commission, American Defense Society, Anti-Saloon League, Civil Service Reform Association, Dairymen's League, W.H. Dunne Company, Magnolia Petroleum Company, New York Civic League, New York State Association of Real Estate Boards, New York State Women's Relief Corps Home (Oxford), Norwich Pharmacal Company, Otsego Forest Products Cooperative Association, Rock Royal Cooperative, South Coast and Northern Lumber Company, Wayne Lumber Company, and the Women's Christian Temperance Union.

INFORMATION FOR USERS

Cite As:

Bert Lord papers, #1776. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.

SUBJECTS

Names:
Anderson, William Hamilton, 1874-1959.
Andrews, William G.
Bacon, Robert L.
Barnes, Frank W.
Bonney, Nelson P.
Boyle, John, Jr.
Carrier, Charles L.
Carter, Glenn F.
Cheney, Nelson W.
Clarke, John Davenport.
Clarke, Marian W.
Davis, Roland L.
Dewey, Thomas E. (Thomas Edmund), 1902-1971.
Dillon, John J.
Dutton, George R.
Eastman, E. R. (Edward Roe), 1885-1970.
Eaton, Melvin C.
Fairchild, George W.
Fearon, George R.
Flanagan, James D.
Foreman, James F.
Furry, Edward B.
Gibbs, Archie D.
Gibson, Charles S.
Hamilton, John.
Hammond, Fred.
Harnett, Charles A.
Heck, Oswald D.
Hewitt, Charles J.
Higley, Homer.
Hill, James P.
Hill, William H., 1877-1972.
Hinman, Harold J.
Hinman, Harvey DeForest.
Hintermister, W. O.
Hull, Cordell, 1871-1955.
Ives, Irving McNeil, 1896-62.
Johnson, George F., 1857-1948.
Johnson, J. Kennard.
Jones, Samuel A.
Ladd, C. E. (Carl Edwin), 1888-1943.
Lehman, Herbert H. (Herbert Henry), 1878-1963.
Lord, Alfred A.
Lowman, Seymour.
Lusk, Clayton R.
McNeil, John T.
Machold, Edmund H.
Macy, W. Kingsland.
Martin, Joseph W., Jr.
Miller, Nathan L., 1868-1953.
Mills, Ogden Livingston, 1844-1937.
Moffat, Abbot Low, 1901-1996.
Morgenthau, Henry, 1891-1967.
Oldfield, Reuben B.
O\'Rourke, Tom.
Reed, Daniel A. (Daniel Alden), 1875-1959.
Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945.
Roosevelt, Theodore, 1887-1944.
Runnells, E. F.
Smith, Alfred Emanuel, 1873-1944.
Stotesbury, Louis W.
Sweet, Thaddeus C.
Tarbell, Gage E., 1856-1936.
Wadsworth, James Wolcott, 1877-1952.
Warren, George F. (George Frederick), 1874-1938.
Whitman, Charles Seymour, 1868-
New York (State). Agricultural Advisory Commission
American Defense Society
Anti-saloon League of America
Civil Service Reform Association (New York, N.Y.)
Dairymen\'s League Cooperative Association
W. H. Dunne Company
Civilian Conservation Corps (U.S.)
Delaware and Hudson Railroad Company
Home Owners\' Loan Corporation
Hudson Coal Company
Lord & McHugh
Magnolia Petroleum Company
New York Civic League
New York State Association of Real Estate Boards
New York State Women\'s Relief Corps Home (Oxford, N.Y.)
Norwich Pharmacal Company
Otsego Forest Products Cooperative Association
Republican Party (U.S. : 1854- )
Rock Royal Cooperative
South Coast & Northern Lumber Company
United States. Farm Security Administration
United States. Navy
United States. Public Works Administration
United States. Resettlement Administration
United States. Supreme Court
Wayne Lumber Company
Women\'s Christian Temperance Union
Places:
United States -- Public works -- Law and legislation.
United States -- Politics and government -- 1833-1945.
United States -- Foreign relations -- Spain.
United States -- Foreign relations -- Ethiopia.
United States -- Foreign relations -- China.
United States -- Economic policy.
United States -- Economic conditions.
United States -- Defenses -- Law and legislation.
New York (State) -- Politics and government.
Florida -- Description and travel.
Europe -- Description and travel.
Chenango County (N.Y.) -- Politics and government.
Afton (N.Y.) -- Politics and government.
Subjects:
Politicians.
Businessmen.
Socialists -- New York (State)
New Deal, 1933-1939.
Neutrality.
Lumber -- New York (State)
Agricultural laws and legislation.
Emigration and immigration law -- United States.
Transportation -- New York (State) -- Chenango County.
Transportation -- New York (State)
Tariff -- Law and legislation.
Taxation -- Law and legislation -- United States.
Public health laws -- New York (State)
Women prisoners -- New York (State)
Prisons -- Law and legislation.
Boxing -- Law and legislation -- New York (State)
Motion pictures -- Censorship.
Motion pictures -- Law and legislation -- New York (State)
Social security -- Law and legislation -- United States.
Unemployment insurance.
Workers\' compensation -- Law and legislation -- New York (State)
Wages -- Minumum wage -- Law and legislation.
Labor laws and legislation -- New York (State)
Liquor laws -- New York (State)
Prohibition -- New York (State)
Game laws -- New York (State)
Fishery law and legislation -- New York (State)
Forestry law and legislation -- New York (State)
Banks and banking -- Insurance business -- Law and legislation -- New York (State)
Banking law -- New York (State)
Road construction -- New York (State)
Automobiles -- Law and legislation -- New York (State)
Gasoline -- Taxation -- New York (State)
Veterans -- Law and legislation.
Nurses -- Pensions -- New York (State)
Nurses -- Salaries, etc. -- New York (State)
Teachers -- Pensions -- New York (State)
Teachers -- Salaries, etc. -- New York (State)
Margarine -- Law and legislation -- New York (State)
Dairy laws -- New York (State)
Agricultural labor -- New York (State)
Farms, Abandoned -- New York (State)
Politics, Practical -- United States.
Politics, Practical -- New York (State) -- Afton.
Politics, Practical -- New York (State)
Form and Genre Terms:
Scrapbooks.
Photographs.

CONTAINER LIST
Container
Description
Date