Carl Thomas Durham Papers, 1938-1960.

Summary

Creator:
Durham, Carl Thomas, 1892-1974.
Abstract:

Carl Thomas Durham (1892-1974) was a Democratic United States congressman, 1939-1960, representing the Sixth North Carolina District (Orange county, Durham county, Guilford county, and Alamance county). The collection includes office files of Durham's terms in Congress, where he was a member of the House Armed Services Committee and chairman of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, and was particularly interested in the development and regulation of atomic energy and government stockpiling of strategic materials. He was also involved in the reform of the Army court martial system and government regulations concerning non-narcotic drugs. The files include papers from his committee work as well as correspondence with constituents and papers on other subjects. Volumes are compilations of mimeographed materials produced for committee members as information files. There are also a few photographs, mostly of Carl Thomas Durham, one with Dwight D. Eisenhower and others.

Extent:
60,000 items (47.5 linear feet)
Language:
Materials in English
Library Catalog Link:
View UNC library catalog record for this item

Background

Biographical / historical:

Carl Thomas Durham (1892-1974) was born in Orange County, N.C.; studied pharmacy at the University of North Carolina, 1915-1917; served as pharmacist's mate in the United States Navy, 1918; held town and county offices in Chapel Hill and Orange County, N.C., and was pharmacist at Eubanks Drug Store when elected to United States Congress in 1938. He represented the Sixth North Carolina District, which included Alamance, Durham, Guilford, and Orange counties, in the United States House of Representatives, 1939-1960.

During the period of his Congressional service, Durham, in addition to attending to the immediate interests of the Sixth North Carolina District, concentrated particularly on the armed services, the development and regulation of atomic energy, and government stockpiling of strategic materials.

Durham was first assigned to the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads, but soon sought and gained membership in the House Committee on Military Affairs, which was subsequently combined with Naval Affairs to form the House Armed Services Committee. Durham initiated an investigation in 1943 which led to the reform of the Army Court Martial system.

Durham was also a member of the House Committee on Atomic Energy, was sponsor of the original Atomic Energy Act which put Atomic Energy under civilian rather than military control, served as chairman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy, United States Representative on the International Atomic Energy Agency set up by 52 nations to explore peaceful uses of Atomic Energy, and delegate to the Atoms-for-Peace Conference in Geneva in 1954.

Scope and content:

The collection includes office files, 1938-1960, of Carl Thomas Durham as a Democratic Representative to the United States Congress from the 6th North Carolina district, where he was a member of the House Armed Services Committee and chairman of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, and was particularly interested in the development and regulation of atomic energy and government stockpiling of strategic materials. He was also involved in the reform of the Army court martial system and government regulations concerning non-narcotic drugs. He took a special interest in bills relating to pharmacy and drug dispensing, and health service measures. The Durham-Humphrey bill gave the Federal government the authority to regulate the dispensing of certain non-narcotic drugs. The files include papers from his committee work as well as correspondence with constituents and papers on other subjects. Volumes are compilations of mimeographed materials produced for committee members as information files. There are also a few photographs, mostly of Carl Thomas Durham, one with Dwight D. Eisenhower and others taken in Germany, 1945, waiting for the Russian army to go into Berlin.

Acquisition information:

Received from Carl Thomas Durham of Chapel Hill, N.C., 1960 and 1963. Additional material received, July 1975.

Processing information:

Processed by: SHC Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Kate Stratton and Jodi Berkowitz, February 2010; Dawne Howard Lucas, May 2021

This collection was rehoused and a summary created with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This finding aid was created with support from NC ECHO.

Diacritics and other special characters have been omitted from this finding aid to facilitate keyword searching in web browsers.

Sensitive materials statement:

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Access and use

Restrictions to access:

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to use:

No usage restrictions.

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], in the Carl Thomas Durham Papers, #3507, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Location of this collection:
Louis Round Wilson Library
200 South Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27515
Contact:
(919) 962-3765
wilsonlibrary@unc.edu