The Fred Thompson Papers (1993-2002) consist of 404 boxes (390.67 linear feet) of materials primarily covering Thompson's career as a United States Senator, representing the State of Tennessee from 1994 until 2002. Material from Thompson's two Senatorial campaigns (1994 and 1996) is also found in the Papers. Formats available in the collection include correspondence, notes, memoranda, reports, clippings, computer files, audio and video tapes, memorabilia, as well as many other formats of materials. In addition to the 404 boxes, also included are a number of oversized memorabilia pieces housed off-site in our storage facility.The Thompson Papers document the complete workings of the Thompson administration, from staff members' working files to the day-to-day administrative tasks of the Washington office to files and memorabilia from state offices in Nashville, Knoxville, and Memphis. The Papers demonstrate Thompson's involvement in a variety of legislative activities and topics. Included are files from the 1997 Campaign Finance Investigation as well as other work by Thompson as chairman of the Governmental Affairs Committee.The Papers are divided into five series: Legislative Files (Series I), Administrative Files (Series II), Press Files (Series III), Political/Campaign Files (Series IV), and Ephemera (Series V).

The bulk of the material can be found in the Legislative Files (173 boxes / 172.42 linear feet) and Administrative Files (100 boxes / 99.42 linear feet) series. The Legislative Files series documents the research, writing, and accomplishments of those members of Thompson's staff who were concerned with legislative activities, including committee workings. The Administrative Files series contains materials related to the work of maintaining the Senatorial offices, both in Washington and in Tennessee.

The Legislative Files series (173 boxes / 172.42 linear feet) contains the papers of Thompson's legislative aides and other staff members. These files, which are arranged by staff member, contain much of the background material and research used by the Thompson staff in making legislative decisions.To reflect the original order of the materials, each staff member's files constitute a subseries. Within these subseries, however, organization is dependent upon whether or not the original order of the materials could be discerned. In many of the smaller legislative subseries in which original order could not be determined, the files were simply arranged in alphabetical order. In others, subject areas were either maintained from the original order of materials or imposed during processing, reflecting the key areas in which the staff member worked. In all cases, the original folder titles were preserved. Because the Legislative Files are organized by staffer, subject-based research may require work in the files of a number of different legislative aides. Below is a list of some of the larger subject areas and the aides whose files contain materials related to those topics:

Budget-- Jones (I. B. 4.), Sistare (I. B. 11.), Wood (I. B. 13.) Campaign Finance Reform -- Ansell (I. B. 1.), Outhier (I. B. 7.), Wood (I. B. 13.) Copyright -- Ansell (I. B. 1.) Crime/Violence -- Ansell (I. B. 1.) Defense -- Russell (I. B. 9.) Energy/Oak Ridge -- Russell (I. B. 9.), Wood (I. B. 13.) Environment -- Jones (I. B. 4.), Martin (I. B. 5.), Russell (I. B. 9.), Wood (I. B. 13.) Finance/Bankruptcy -- Ansell (I. B. 1.), Hardy/Jain (I. B. 2.), Henning (I. B. 3.), Jones (I. B. 4.), Wood (I. B. 13.) Foriegn Affairs/Trade -- Henning (I. B. 3.), Roehl (I. B. 8.), Silvers (I. B. 10.), Wood (I. B. 13.) Health Care -- Ansell (I. B. 1.), Jones (I. B. 4.), Martin (I. B. 5.), Russell (I. B. 9.), Wood (I. B. 13.) Immigration -- Ansell (I. B. 1.), Hardy/Jain (I. B. 2.) Terrorism -- Ansell (I. B. 1.), Roehl (I. B. 8.) Transportation -- Martin (I. B. 5.), Russell (I. B. 9.), Wallace (I. B. 12.) Welfare -- Martin (I. B. 5.), Moxley (I. B. 6.)

The files of Legislative Director Libby Wood contain some items particularly useful when viewing the administration's legislative work as a whole. These materials span the entire administration and reflect a wide variety of legislative subjects, including campaign finance reform, energy, environmental concerns, health care, TVA, as well as other Tennessee issues. Additionally, Wood's papers contain many yearly or session-long reports on Thompson's legislative activities, including achievements, goals, statements, and committee assignments.

Also found in Series I: Legislative Files are papers from the Governmental Affairs Committee, which Thompson chaired from 1997-2001. Found in this subseries are the briefing books and other notebooks for the Committee's hearings as well as speeches made by Thompson as a member of the Committee. These books, which contain background information regarding the speech or hearing, often feature handwritten notes as well as memos and other insertions by Thompson or his staff.

The Governmental Affairs Committee files also contain the bulk of the material in the Thompson Papers regarding the 1997 Campaign Finance Investigation hearings. Correspondence, memoranda, and briefing books are among the unpublished materials found in this grouping. Many of these materials detail the beginnings of the hearings, including background information on the factual and legal issues involved, correspondence between Thompson's staff and other committee members, both Republican and Democrat, and briefing books documenting pre-hearing meetings. A large quantity of the materials is this sub-subseries, however, is either published volumes of the Senate proceedings or collections of newspaper clippings maintained by the Thompson office. More information on the hearings can be found in the papers of Press Director Alex Pratt Gorman (see Series III).

Likewise, the materials regarding the impeachment of President Bill Clinton in 1999 are primarily published volumes of the Senate proceedings. Some correspondence and memoranda are included, however, as is one folder of notes from Thompson and his staff. Administrative Files series (100 boxes / 99.42 linear feet) documents the daily work of the Thompson staff, outside of legislative activities. Many of these files were maintained by Thompson's assistants or other members of the administrative staff. Included in these papers are correspondence, daily schedules, speeches, project files, nomination files, and general reference material in working files. The original order of these materials has been retained in most cases.The correspondence found in this series includes both incoming and outgoing letters, and was maintained by Thompson's assistants. The division of each year's correspondence into the categories of Reader's File, Personal Correspondence and Senators/Governors/White House reflects the original organization scheme. Within the Reader's File category, FDT denotes letters referred to Thompson, while "BLS/MZ" denotes those read by his assistants.The project files subseries is primarily organized geographically by urban region, with TVA, Disasters, and Special Projects being the exceptions. This reflects the order imposed on the bulk of these papers by Thompson office. Others that were labeled simply by county or without geographic or categorical designation were assigned one. These project files document the Thompson office's work with its constituents. Many reflect grant proposals or projects, but others also contain requests for assistance from individuals or groups. The Special Projects files, a label given to these files by the Thompson office, contain many state-wide initiatives as well as military projects. The working files subseries contains the general reference material on key legislative topics. The majority of the material in this subseries dates from Thompson's first term in office. As such, the topics covered reflect Thompson's involvement in the Senate Judiciary Committee, and specifically the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Youth Violence, which Thompson chaired from 1995-1996.

Additionally, the files of both Chief of Staff Tom Daffron and Minority Staff Director Richard Hertling are found in the Administrative Staff Files subseries. Both of these groupings focus on the daily business of the Washington office. Daffron's files, in particular, contain project reports, weekly updates, and staff memoranda which document the work performed by the administrative staffs of the Washington office as well as the state offices.The Press Files series (106 boxes / 94.59 linear feet) documents the working of the press offices for both Thompson's 1994 and 1996 campaigns and his Senate office. Both materials sent to members of the press by Thompson's representatives and coverage by the media of Thompson's work are included.The publicity subseries consists of the work of the Senator's Washington office during his terms. Press releases, talking points, website files, and weekly columns to local newspapers demonstrate ways in which the office reached out to the media, both on national and local levels. Showing Thompson's stance on many important issues, these files represent the targeted messages that the office forwarded to the media. The media coverage subseries, on the other hand, reflects the media's reporting of Thompson's activities. Including both audio and video materials, this subseries contains materials from Thompson's 1994 through his final days in office.

Another way in which Thompson reached the public was through a weekly recorded radio show entitled Face Off, in which he and Massachusetts Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy would present opposing views on a variety of topics. The Face Off subseries contains transcripts and audio recordings of these shows. Additional material on Face Off can be found in the files of Thompson's two Press Directors.

The files of these two individuals who served as Press Director for the Thompson office -- Alex Pratt Gorman and Harry Valentine -- reflect the over-all work of the office. The files of Gorman, who served as Press Director from 1994-1998, include both campaign and Senate material. The bulk of her papers relate to the campaign finance investigation. In addition to clippings which demonstrate media coverage of the event, Gorman's files also include material used in planning the media relations aspect of the investigation. Valentine's files, covering his service from 1998-2002, consist primarily of subject files and issues files.

Composing a large portion of the Press Files is the backup files subseries. Materials in this subseries served as working files for the staff and demonstrate the goals and interests of the office. These files were transferred out of the office to storage in large groups, typically every year or so. The sub-subseries designations of the years indicate the dates of these transfers, not necessarily the date of the creation of the materials. Within each sub-subseries, the files are arranged alphabetically, reflecting the way in which the Thompson office maintained them.

The Political/Campaign Files series (2 boxes / 1.42 linear feet), the smallest of the five series, consists of materials from Thompson's 1994 and 1996 campaigns for the U.S. Senate. The bulk of the files relate to Thompson's 1996 campaign. Included are binders of newspaper clippings concerning both Thompson and Houston Gordon, his opponent, press releases, schedules, and lists of contact people both for the campaign and for media outlets. A small number of campaign ephemera pieces also are present.

Materials such as awards, plaques, cartoons, framed photographs and posters, and other memorabilia can be found in the Ephemera series (23 boxes / 23.0 linear feet plus materials in oversized storage). Due to the size of many items in this series, many of the ephemera pieces have been removed to oversized boxes or oversized storage. The Container List maintains an alphabetical ordering of these materials, but notes their removal and their current location. The Ephemera series is divided into five subseries: (A) Awards, (B) Cartoons, (C) Frames Photos/Photo Albums, (D) Memorabilia, and (E) State Office Ephemera. The first four subseries consist of material kept in Thompson's Washington office. The final subseries, State Office Ephemera, is divided into sub-subseries by city.