Theodore R. McKeldin papers

Theodore Roosevelt McKeldin was born in south Baltimore in 1900 and graduated from the University of Maryland Law School with a bachelor's degree in law in 1925. McKeldin's political career in Maryland spans five decades, beginning with his political appointment as executive secretary to Mayor William F. Broening of Baltimore in 1927. McKeldin was mayor of Baltimore himself from 1943 to 1947. As governor of Maryland from 195l to 1959, McKeldin launched a vigorous program of reform and reconstruction, which included the Sobeloff Commission on State Government and Bureaucratic Administration and a twelve year plan for state highway construction. He achieved nationwide prominence at the 1952 Republican Convention when he was selected to nominate Dwight D. Eisenhower for the presidency. During McKeldin's second term as mayor, which lasted from 1963 to 1967, he embarked upon a wide ranging program of urban renewal, which included the beginnings of the redevelopment of Baltimore's Inner Harbor, construction of a new municipal building, and the planned elimination of the city's slums. McKeldin also continued to support the civil rights movement by hosting a meeting of the Congress of Racial Equality in July 1966. After his retirement from the Baltimore political scene, McKeldin's interests and activities remained varied. In 1967, President Johnson appointed him to a panel of American observers chosen to supervise the September elections in South Vietnam. In 1968, McKeldin testified in opposition to capital punishment before the United States Congress. He was a vocal supporter of the state of Israel, founder and president of the America-Israel Society, and he assisted with the sale of Israeli war bonds throughout the 1960s. McKeldin retired in 1968 and died on August 10, 1974, at the age of seventy-three. The Papers of Theodore Roosevelt McKeldin include speeches (largely delivered during his gubernatorial years); appointment books; office files (mostly gubernatorial); papers from national conferences which he attended; books, programs, pamphlets, brochures; and other miscellaneous materials. There are also scrapbooks of newspaper articles pertaining to his career, audiotapes of various speeches, photographs, and memorabilia