The Post-Gubernatorial Series consists of architectural drawings, articles, booklets, cards, clippings, correspondence, invitations, memoranda, notes, photographs, a poem, postcards, press releases, schedules, speeches, statements, tax forms, telegrams, and transcripts.

The files in this series date from 1946 to 1976, with the bulk of the material covering the period from Byrnes’ retirement in January 1955 until 1968, four years before his death on April 9, 1972.

Materials in this series are arranged alphabetically by folder title and correspondence files within the series are arranged alphabetically by surname. Photographs and oversize items have been removed to photograph and oversize storage. See the Photographs Series for photographs removed from this series.

Much of the correspondence in the series concerns family, financial, and personal matters of both James F. and Maude Byrnes such as anniversaries, birthdays, Christmas festivities, the deaths of friends and colleagues, illnesses, invitations, trips, and tributes. A 1958 anniversary folder contains an original wedding invitation from the 1906 Byrnes-Busch wedding. There is also material relating to James and Maude Byrnes’ health problems in the 1960’s. The correspondence with the Byrnes, Fuller, and Miner families includes some Byrnes family genealogy. Files concerning the Byrnes’ trips to Europe can also be found here, including their 1961 visit to Stuttgart, West Germany where Byrnes made his famous speech while Secretary of State. Tributes documented in the series include the naming of Byrnes High School in Duncan, SC and Byrnes Crossing (a bridge linking Hilton Head Island with mainland South Carolina) after Byrnes, the celebration of “Byrnes Day” in 1961, and the dedication of the Byrnes Room at Clemson University in 1966. And there is material related to the writing of All in One Lifetime, Byrnes’ second autobiography, which was started in 1955 and published in 1958.

The business and financial correspondence relates to banking, bills, estate planning (including James F. Byrnes’ will), the Byrnes home in Columbia and rentals on the Isle of Palms, insurance, leases on offices Byrnes used, the purchase and sale of a boat, stocks and other investments, and taxes. Byrnes served on the boards of directors of the Georgia Pacific Corporation and the Newmont Mining Corporation and there is documentation of that in the series. There is also material concerning Willie Byrd, an African American employee for the Byrnes’ who acted as their chauffer, cook, and general handyman.

There is also material relating to Byrnes’ involvement in economic development, particularly the Parr, SC nuclear power plant project in the period 1956-1962 (it opened in 1962 and closed 1967). Other files in the series concern his interest in education: he was a trustee of Clemson and Winthrop Universities, as well as Converse College, and there is material relating to his service on all three boards of trustees. The files on Clemson include correspondence on the controversy between the University and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over the construction of a dike to protect the University’s lands from being flooded by Hartwell Dam. In addition there is information on the Byrnes Foundation which gave scholarships to young men and women who had lost one or both parents.

Of particular interest in this series is material relating to Byrne’s career, foreign policy, politics, and segregation. Many individuals were interested in his relationship with Presidents Roosevelt and Truman and there is a set of interview transcripts done by Byrnes for a television show on Roosevelt in the series. Byrnes retained his interest in foreign policy and there are numerous letters concerning both current (1955-1968) policy and on American foreign policy while he was Secretary of State.

The topic of segregation is discussed in many letters in the correspondence files. There are also files specifically on segregation in the series. Segregation is also covered in material relating to Clemson College (now Clemson University); this includes attempts to enforce desegregation in an Atomic Energy Commission contract in 1957, the integration of the school by Harvey Gantt in 1961-1963, and changes in College policies due to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in 1965. There are also comments about statements and articles by Byrnes on various topics, including segregation, with many of the relating to his 1956 article in U.S. News and World Report on the Supreme Court’s role in integration entitled “The Supreme Court Must Be Curbed.”

Although Byrnes retired from active politics once his term as governor concluded, he still remained both interested and active in the political questions of the day. Information on the presidential elections of 1956, 1960, 1964, and 1968 and the South Carolina gubernatorial campaign by Donald Russell in 1962 can be found in this series. Correspondence on politics can be both in the regular correspondence files and a set of “political letters” files that cover the period 1960-1964 and 1968. There are also specific files relating to the Independent Electors Project in 1956 which was an attempt to elect Southern members of the Electoral College who would not be pledged to either party, thus holding the balance of power in the election and enabling the South to negotiate the best deal on civil rights. Finally, there is material relating to the successful effort to gain federal judgeship on the U.S. Court of Appeals in 1956 for Clement Haynsworth and a little material on the failure of his nomination as a Supreme Court justice in 1969.

Correspondents include businessmen Bernard Baruch, Walter Brown, Charlie Daniels, James H. Hammond, Francis Hipp, Roger Peace, Paul Quattlebaum, Fred Searls, and Jim Self; cartoonist Jim Berryman; Cassie Connor , who was Byrnes’ secretary; portraitist Grace Du Pré; Allen Dulles, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency; Secretary of State John Foster Dulles; Clemson University President Robert C. Edwards and Trustees R. M. Cooper and Frank Jervey; Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Richard Nixon; lawyer Robert Figg, educator Wil Lou Gray; judge Clement Haynsworth; Ruth Jones; Senators Olin Johnston and Strom Thurmond; Porter McKeever, who was an author, foreign policy expert, and publicist; and South Carolina Governor Donald Russell.

SEPARATION LIST

In Removed Oversize Box 2:

• Byrnes residence second floor plan, August 30, 1954
• “A Personal Statement By James G. Stahlman,” Nashville Banner (Tennessee), March 7, 1955
• “Residence for Gov. and Mrs. James F. Byrnes: Dressing Table Bath No. 1” (drawing) Sheet 22 by Lyles, Bisset, Carlisle and Wolf, Architects-Engineers (Columbia, SC), March 25, 1955 (2 sheets)
• “Residence for Gov. and Mrs. James F. Byrnes: Planting Plan” (legend and plan) by Lyles, Bisset, Carlisle and Wolf, Architects-Engineers (Columbia, SC), May 17, 1955 (2 sheets)
• “Summary of Supreme Court’s Segregation Hearing,” The State (Columbia, SC), May 19, 1955
• “Editorial Page,” Richmond News Leader (Virginia) [folder 910(4)], November 21-23 and November 28-29, 1955
• “Front Elevation [of Byrnes residence],” undated, [circa 1954-1955]
• Augusta Courier (Georgia) [folder 910(4)], June 4, 1956
• “Planks of Democratic Platform Presented to Convention,” Washington Post and Times Herald (Washington, D.C.) [folder 846(2)], August 16, 1956
• Southern School News (Nashville, TN) [folder 910(3)], January 1957
• “Integration Called Miracle of Social Adjustment Here” by Richard L. Lyons and Eve Edstrom, Washington Post and Times Herald (Washington, D.C.) [folder 900(2)], February 11, 1957
• “To the People of New York City[:] The Position of the South on Race Relations” (advertisement) by the Joint Legislative Committee, State of Louisiana, New York Herald Tribune [folder 898(1)], February 17, 1958
• Galley (annotated) for “I Worked With F.D.R.” by James F. Byrnes, Look (October 28, 1958) [folder 938], [1958]
• “For Governor Donald Russell” (advertisement) [folder 944(2)], [1958]
• “My Life with Truman” by James F. Byrnes, Look [folder 1066(2)], [1958]
• “Second Carleton Putnam Letter Analyzes Psychological Reasoning of High Court,” News and Courier (Charleston, SC) [folder 1026], March 22, 1959
• “Internal Revenue Collections Fiscal Year 1936” (chart), Treasury Department, 1936
• “The President Speaks” (advertisement), Patriotic Democrats of Charlotte, Charlotte Observer (North Carolina), March 9, 1937
• “Bernard Baruch’s Own Story” by Bernard Baruch, Saturday Evening Post, October 1 and 8, 1960
• “James Byrnes: Happy Philanthropist” by Robert McHugh, Pacific Stars and Stripes [folder 1039(2)], [circa 1961]
• “Being married to a Negro is … just different” by Eva Hodges, Sunday Denver Post (Colorado) [folder 1081], March 18, 1962
• “Preliminary Sketch for Mr. James F. Byrnes: Plans and Elevation [for residence]” (drawing) Sheet 1 by Lyles, Bisset, Carlisle and Wolf, Architects-Engineers (Columbia, SC), March 8, 1963
• “Truman-Byrnes Estrangement: Issues Domestic or Foreign?” by Dr. George Curry, The State and Columbia Record (South Carolina) [folder 1111], November 15, 1964
• “‘Levelers’ and the Constitution of the United States” by Barney A. Hamilton [folder 840(2)], undated
• “The Constitution Speaks” by Lucia Ramsey Maxwell [folder 861(4)], undated

In Map Case:

• “Study, Hartwell Dam Site” (blueprint map) by H. H. White [folder 890(5)], September 28, 1953
• “Topographic Map prepared for Maude B. Byrnes, Columbia, S.C.” by William Wingfield, July 6, 1954
• “Residence for Gov. and Mrs. James F. Byrnes” (first floor plan, elevations details) Sheet No. 3 by Harry D. Hedgepath of Lyles, Bisset, Carlisle and Wolf, Architects-Engineers (Columbia, SC), October 20, 1954
• “Office Partitions For Security Federal Savings and Loan Association, Columbia, SC, LaFaye, Fair, LaFaye, and Associates, Architects” Sheet No. 4 (blueprint, fifth floor plan) [folder 817(2)], January 19, 1955
• “Residence for Gov. and Mrs. James F. Byrnes: Curtis Kitchen Cabinets” (drawing) Sheet No. 20 (1) by Lyles, Bisset, Carlisle and Wolf, Architects-Engineers (Columbia, SC), February 9, 1955
• “Residence for Gov. and Mrs. James F. Byrnes: Curtis Kitchen Cabinets” (drawing) Sheet No. 20 (2) by Lyles, Bisset, Carlisle and Wolf, Architects-Engineers (Columbia, SC), February 9, 1955
• “Residence for Gov. and Mrs. James F. Byrnes: Powder Room Cabinet and Alsynite Screen Frame” (drawing) Sheet No. 23 by Lyles, Bisset, Carlisle and Wolf, Architects-Engineers (Columbia, SC), March 25, 1955