Thomas S. Foley was born at Spokane, Washington, in 1929. He practiced law and worked for the Spokane County Prosecutor from 1957 to 1961, following his education at the University of Washington. From 1961 through 1964 he was on the staff of the Interior Committee of the United States Senate, a position he was introduced to by Senator Henry Jackson. In 1964, Foley won election as the Representative for Washington's Fifth District. Between then and 1994 he won fourteen more elections, ultimately serving in Congress for thirty years. He left Congress after the election of 1994, in which he was unsuccessful.
Foley became Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee in 1974, Majority Whip in 1981, Majority Leader in 1987 and Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1989. He also held other Democratic Party leadership posts in the party caucus and its Steering and Policy Committee. In 1997, he was appointed United States Ambassador to Japan.
This collection contains papers of Thomas S. Foley, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and later Ambassador to Japan. The collection primarily consists of correspondence, professional and financial papers, photographs, and scrapbooks.
Preliminary Inventory:
Box 1: Papers and photographs connected to Thomas Foley's time as Speaker of the House and Ambassador to Japan, including correspondence, schedules and meeting agendas, as well as scrapbooks of Foley's visits to the Nagoya Aerospace Systems Works (1999), the 61st Black Ship Festival (2000), the Asyst Technologies Inc. Asyst Japan Inc. Reception (2000), and the Harry Winston Ginza Flagship Store grand opening (2000).
Box 1: Papers related to Thomas Foley and his immediate family, including financial records, correspondence, newspaper clippings, poems, photographs, and memorabilia, 1962-2000.
Box 1: Correspondence of Thomas and Heather Foley, 1990-2001.
This is an unprocessed collection. Any arrangement reflects either a pre-existing order from the records' creators or previous custodians, or preliminary sorting performed by staff. MS.2012.28 has been organized in folders.
This collection is open and available for research use.
Copyright restrictions may apply.
[Item description]
Preliminary Guide to the Thomas S. Foley Papers, 1962-2001 (MSSM.073)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
Heather Foley donated two installments of these materials to the Washington State University Libraries in 2007 (MS.2007.08; MS.2007.13), and the WSU Foley Center donated an additional installment in 2012 (MS.2012.28).
Thomas S. Foley Congressional Papers, 1964-1997
Thomas S. Foley Photographs, 1905-1995
Kenton Bird Papers, 1950s-2003
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.