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Papers of Matthew Neely, a politician who had a long career as senator, congressman, governor, and Democratic political boss. Collection includes speeches, business and personal correspondence, pamphlets, legal papers, photographs, and copies of the Congressional Record. There are also newspaper clipping scrapbooks covering the years 1928-1954 (on five reels of microfilm). Neely had a long career, including law student at West Virginia University, Marion County lawyer, mayor of Fairmont, United States Congressman (1913-1921, 1945-1947), United States Senator (1923-1929, 1931-1941, 1949-1958), and Governor of West Virginia (1941-1945).

Newspaper clippings on Neely's controversy as a law student at WVU, and his subsequent career as a lawyer, Mayor of Fairmont, Congressman, and United States Senator.

The two volumes of newspaper clippings cover the years 1913-1916, and 1922-1927 and are concerned with Neely's activities as Congressman and Senator, including his abortive attempt to have Judge A. G. Dayton impeached. There are also two volumes of speeches (clippings from the Congressional Record) for years 1926-1928, and 1931-1932.

Papers of P. D. Strausbaugh, former head of the Department of Botany, author of a biology textbook, and professor of Botany at WVU.

This collection includes the records of the West Virginia Labor Federation (WVLF), AFL-CIO as a singular organization, established in 1957, and the records of its predecessor organizations prior to their merger, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Congress of Industrial Organization (CIO).

Series 1 comprises records related to the West Virginia State Labor Federation, AFL's internal operation and initiatives, including presidents' files, secretary-treasurers' files, general office files, Department of Education files, and financial materials.

Series 2 comprises the records related to the West Virginia State Industrial Union Council, CIO's internal operation and initiatives, including executive secretary-treasurers' files, central office mailings, and records of the Political Action Committee.

Series 3 is reflective of the organization's operations and initiatives after the AFL-CIO merger, including files of various presidents, various secretary-treasurers, central office files, convention files, political materials, legislative files, assorted programs, and financial materials.

Series 4 is a 1978 addendum to this collection that includes additional files of the WVFL, AFL-CIO after the merger, largely featuring records of initiatives like the Political Action Committee and Women's Activities Department.

Series 5 is a 1981 addendum including mostly internal materials, like the notebooks of former organization leaders, photo albums, and copies of AFL-CIO publications.

Organizers featured prominently in the collection include Tom Cairnes, E. A. Carter, and Volney Andrews (series 1); Miles Stanley (series 3 and 5); Ben Skeen (series 1 and 3); Glen Armstrong (series 1, 3, and 5); and Pat Sleeth (series 3). WVLF initiatives featured prominently in the collection include the Committee on Political Education (series 3 and 4) and the Women's Activities Department (series 3 and 4), the Appalachian Council (series 3), the Manpower Development and Training Act (series 3), and others. There is a small amount of audiovisual material in this collection in the form of audio recordings created by the WVLF and some photographs that have been digitized for remote access. However, much of this collection is comprised of paper records, ledgers, photographs, printed correspondence, and notebooks.