Collection ID: FA343

Collection context

Background

Scope and Content:

This series contains the personal and office files of Nelson A. Rockefeller specifically related to his family members and friends, dating from Rockefeller's birth in 1908 and continuing through 1973. Usually, the files comprise correspondence with or about these individuals, but newspaper clippings, publications, reports, inventories, notebooks, diaries, and photographs are also included (photographs have been transferred to the photo collection). There are also a number of folders of early materials on Nelson Rockefeller himself, which were most likely kept by his mother and then passed along to him at various times. These range from height charts from his infancy, to school work and bank statements from his adolescence, to clippings on his engagement in 1929. Also among this material are numerous photographs taken by Rockefeller, who in his adolescence had a passion for photography.

The series begins with alphabetically arranged files on Nelson Rockefeller's friends (19.5 boxes). These files include a few distant family members on both the Rockefeller and Aldrich sides. The series then continues with the Rockefeller family (111.5 boxes). The family files are arranged primarily by a combination of generation, chronology, and closeness of relationship. For example, general Rockefeller family materials come first, followed by files on paternal great-grandfather William Avery Rockefeller and then John D. Rockefeller, Sr. The next several boxes document Nelson's youth, adolescence, and college years, which are then followed by materials related to his parents, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. Nelson's stepmother, Martha Baird Rockefeller, comes next, and then his siblings and their children. After several boxes on Nelson during his adult years are materials on his two wives and descendants.

MATERIALS OF SPECIAL SIGNIFICANCE

Numerous sections of this series contain materials of special significance for research on Nelson Rockefeller, the Rockefeller family, and others. Among correspondents of note are Sherman Adams, Thomas Braden, Ralph Bunche, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Wallace K. Harrison, William and Oveta Hobby, General George C. Marshall, Roberto Montenegro, Eleanor Roosevelt, Edward Stettinius, Henry A. Wallace, and Earl Warren. Within the Rockefeller family portion of this series, the correspondence between Nelson and John D. Rockefeller, Jr., is substantial, dating from as early as 1917 and continuing until his father's death in 1960. In contrast, the series holds only a handful of letters from John D. Rockefeller, Sr.

Several female family members are well documented in this series. Foremost, Rockefeller's close relationship with his mother is evident in their letters, which begin in 1917 and go until 1941. Aunts on both the Aldrich and Rockefeller sides of the family are represented here, as is Martha Baird Rockefeller, his stepmother. Also, correspondence from Mary Todhunter Clark (whom Rockefeller married in 1930) begins in 1926, and among other things, provides insight into his years at Dartmouth College. Lastly, following her passing in 2015, 18 boxes of correspondence and clippings on Margaretta (Happy) Fitler, whom Rockefeller married in 1963, were opened to research. These files date from 1963 to 1972 and document her philanthropic, social, and political activities during her husband's second, third, and fourth terms as governor of New York, as well as her involvement in Rockefeller's campaigns for the Republican presidential nomination in 1964 and 1968.

Arrangement:

The series begins with files on Nelson Rockefeller's friends, arranged alphabetically by last name, and continues with his files on family members, arranged by generation.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Online content

Access

RESTRICTIONS:

Open for research with select materials restricted as noted. Brittle or damaged items are available at the discretion of RAC. Material in the Rockefeller family collections that provides the names, correspondence, or activities of living members of the Rockefeller family, and/or documents the net wealth of any Rockefeller family members, is restricted. Researchers interested in accessing digital media (floppy disks, CDs, DVDs, etc.) or audiovisual material (audio cassettes, VHS, etc.) in this collection must use an access surrogate. The original items may not be accessed because of preservation concerns. To request an access surrogate be made, or if you are unsure if there is an access surrogate, please contact an archivist.

TERMS OF ACCESS:

The Rockefeller Archive Center has title, copyright, and literary rights in the collection, in so far as it holds them, and has authority to grant permission to cite and publish archival material from the collection.

LOCATION OF THIS COLLECTION:
15 Dayton Avenue
Sleepy Hollow, NY 10591, United States
CONTACT: