The collection consists of scrapbooks Irma Callahan made over the years and contain political memorabilia, invitations to inaugural balls, and Christmas cards from various VIPs. The collection contains political materials from the late 1940s to the late 1960s covering national and state politics.  The scrapbooks contain letters from hopeful presidential nominees and telegrams from presidential nominees such as Adlai Stevenson.  The majority of the material is letters, telegrams, flyers, and newspaper or magazine clippings.  The scrapbooks show how the political process works on the state and national levels and how the candidates vie for support among the delegates.  Also, they show the building up of contacts over the years as evidenced by the numerous letters and Christmas cards Callahan received.  The collection of letters and other material from Callahan's time, as an active participant in politics, shows the transformation of the convention and nominating system.  She kept "score" of the various attempts to nominate a presidential candidate.  The process took several ballots and no one knew who would win whereas today everyone knows or can make a good prediction of who is going to win.  The collection is divided into two series: Scrapbook and Memorabilia.  Sixty-seven photographs were removed from the collection and can be found in Photo 2064.

The Scrapbook Series contains a wide variety of information.  The original scrapbooks were the highly acidic magnetic photo albums.  Therefore, the contents were removed from each one and placed in archival folders, yet retaining the original order within the albums.  The magnetic albums were discarded.  Some cover the Democratic National Convention, which contains ticket stubs for the convention, literature distributed to the delegates, and some of the perks (free entrance to a double header at Wrigley Field and Disneyland) the delegates received.  Others contain information relating to the State Democratic Convention.  These scrapbooks contain editorials from the Forum and newspaper speculation on who would receive the nomination.  One scrapbook details Irma Callahan's campaign for the State's Auditor's office.  This scrapbook contains great information on how a state campaign is run.  There are letters she sent out , State and City of Fargo documents stating Callahan was a candidate in the up-coming election, expense reports so she could be reimbursed for her personal expenses, and other campaign material such as flyers and pamphlets.  All the scrapbooks provide insight for the behind the scenes political activity.  The letters and telegrams sent out by the hopeful presidential nominees are asking for support and explain their position on the some of the issues.  There is also some campaign literature and advertisements in the scrapbooks.

The Memorabilia Series is a small but good collection of invitations, Christmas cards, correspondence and other political material.  The invitations are to the inaugural balls of President John F. Kennedy in 1961 and Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey in 1965.  There are other invitations to other events that were pre-inaugural.  The Christmas cards are from various VIPs in the Democratic Party: Hubert H. Humphrey (U. S. Senator and Vice President), Averell Harriman (Governor, New York), Robert B. Meyner (Governor, New Jersey), John F. Kennedy (U. S. Senator and President), and Quentin Burdick (U. S. Senator).  Also there are programs for the Democratic National Convention and other gatherings Callahan attended.  There is a copy of Democratic Digest from January-February 1961.  This issue details Kennedy and his proposed governing plan and gives biographies of his selected staff. 

Photograph Collection (Photo 2064) 
 

Irma Callahan Papers  |  Politics and Government  Women