Theodore Francis Green papers (MS.2012.026)

The Theodore Francis Green papers contain personal and political correspondence, financial records, legal documents and numerous topical files relating to his tenures as Governor of Rhode Island (1933-1937) and as United States Senator (1937-1961). The papers also contain correspondence, financial, legal and personal documents relating to his father, the lawyer Arnold Green (1838-1903). The papers date from 1821 through 1961, with the bulk of the material from 1915 through 1961.

The papers are organized in four series:

Series I, Arnold Green papers (1821-1903), is arranged in four subseries: Correspondence (Boxes 7, 74), Financial (Boxes 5 and 6), Legal (Boxes 56A-B, 58A-B, 62) and Personal (Boxes 72 and 73). The personal papers include an eight-volume collection of Welcome Arnold Burgess's notes from Litchfield Law School dating from 1821-1823 (Box 72); Burgess (1801-1828) was Theodore Green's maternal grandfather.

Series II, Correspondence (1899-1961) is arranged in four subseries: Brown University, invitations, personal and political. The Brown University subseries (1899-1961) is a collection of letters on a wide variety of topics relating to Green's alma mater, including commencement, honorary degrees, statuary, committee membership and funding. It reflects Green's lifelong involvement with Brown as a student, faculty member and alumnus. The second subseries, Invitations (1933-1937) is housed in five boxes (Boxes 45 to 49) and dates from Green's term as Governor of Rhode Island. The third subseries, Personal (1899-1954) comprises correspondence that dates mostly from 1900 to 1920, and 1949 to 1954. Most of the correspondence in the fourth subseries, Political, dates from the 1940's; a large portion of this subseries consists of material relating to the Democratic National and State Committees, and the Democratic National Convention of 1948 (Box 2, folders 19 to 31).

Series III, Financial records (1900-1937) comprises an alphabetically-arranged collection of reports and correspondence, largely related to investments (Boxes 36 to 39). There are also several files of additional personal and professional financial records dating from 1900 through 1933 (Box 55; Box 68, folders 10-12) and a ledger detailing the estate of his father Arnold Green (Box 68, folder 9)

Series IV, Professional papers (1872-1960) is divided into two subseries: Legal records and Subject files. Within the first is a collection of legal cases and portfolios that are arranged numerically by case number (Boxes 8 to 35); the case numbering was apparently an internal system devised by Green's law firm. The early dates (1872-1927) suggest that this material may have been handled by both Theodore Francis Green as well as by his father Arnold Green. The remainder of the subseries includes client correspondence, copies of estate settlements, wills, deeds and leases; most of this material dates from 1890 to 1910. The second subseries, Subject files, includes correspondence, newspaper clippings, reports, speeches, and printed matter on a wide variety of political, personal and legal topics, such as Providence Public Library (Boxes 4, 54), American Citizenship Campaign (Box 71), War Savings Committee (Boxes 67, 69) and other local and national concerns.