Julia Butler Hansen (1907-1988) represented citizens of southwest Washington in both the State Legislature and in Congress. Born Julia Carrie Butler in 1907 in Portland, Oregon, she spent most of her childhood in Cathlamet, Washington. Hansen graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle in 1930, (In college she changed her middle name to Caroline). Her political career began with involvement in the local Democratic Party; Hansen sat on the Democratic State Executive Committee from 1936-1940. In 1937, Hansen became the first woman to serve on the Cathlamet city council (1937-1946).
In 1938, Hansen was elected to the Washington State House of Representatives, representing the 18th district (then including Wahkiakum and Cowlitz counties). She was a member of the House until 1960, and was speaker pro tempore from 1955 to 1960. Hansen served on a variety of House committees, notably the Education Committee, of which she was a member from 1939-1960, and was four times chair. However, Hansen’s major work was in developing Washington’s legislative highway program. She became the first woman to chair the House Roads and Bridges committee in 1949. She served on and chaired the House Highways Committee and the Highways Interim Committee (1949-1953). She chaired the Interim Joint Fact-Finding Committee on Highways, Streets and Bridges from 1951-60. She was also Chairman of the eleven-state Western Interstate Committee on Highway Policy Problems from 1951 to 1960.
Throughout this time Hansen remained a leader in the Democratic Party. From 1940-1960, she was chair of the Wahkiakum County Democratic Central Committee and was Democratic Minority leader of the House in 1953.
In 1960, Hansen won a special election to the 86th Congress, held to fill a vacancy in Washington’s 3rd congressional district (covering most of southwestern Washington) caused by the death of Russell V. Mack. At the same time she was also elected to the 87th Congress. Hansen was reelected to the six succeeding Congresses and served consecutively in the House of Representatives from November 8, 1960 until her resignation, December 31, 1974.
Hansen’s early committee assignments included the Veterans Affairs Committee (1960-1961); the Education and Labor Committee (1961-1962); and the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee (1961-1963). In 1963 she was assigned to the Appropriations Committee, which became the primary focus of her congressional activities. As a member of the Appropriations Committee she sat on the Foreign Operations Subcommittee, the Transportation Subcommittee and the Interior and Related Agencies Subcommittee, which she chaired from 1967 to 1974. These committees served to manage congressional business, approve budgets, and authorize and enable legislation.
Hansen was also an active member of the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission (1970-1974) and served on the Democratic House Caucus Organization Study and Review Committee (1970-1972), which reviewed the seniority system and made other significant reforms in the Democratic Caucus.
After her retirement from Congress in 1975, she was appointed to a six-year term on the Washington State Toll Bridge Authority and State Highway Commission. She was also chairman of the Washington State Transportation commission from 1979 to 1981.
Julia Butler Hansen was a resident of Cathlamet, Washington, until her death there on May 3, 1988.
Organized into 8 accessions.
Correspondence, reports, legislation, scrapbooks, subject series, campaign files, writings, clippings, ephemera, oral history transcript, and other papers from the career of Julia Butler Hansen.
Open to all users, but access to portions of the collection is restricted. Contact Special Collections for details.
Some material stored offsite; advance notice required for use.
Restrictions may exist on copying, quotation, or publication. Contact Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries for details.
Julia Butler Hansen papers. Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries, Seattle, Washington.
Composite guide by Michelle Hajder, 2001.
The bulk of the collection is arranged chronologically by Congress (87th - 93rd), then into five primary types of records -- General Files, Miscellaneous Correspondence, Legislation, Subject Files and Projects. Speeches, writings and press releases also exist for most sessions. Within the Subject Files, papers are arranged alphabetically according to subject; personal names which appear as file headings are correspondence with those individuals; names which appear as subjects are noted parenthetically.
Papers documenting Hansen’s work on various committees are arranged by committee in the Committee Records series; papers within subseries are arranged chronologically. Miscellaneous materials are arranged in the last series by type of record.
General Files include correspondence, reports and publications on a wide variety of legislative issues of national concern such as abortion, civil rights, education and social security.
Much of the Miscellaneous Correspondence was discarded; however, what remains is not strictly correspondence. Included are newsletters and press releases from other offices, questionnaires, tributes and itineraries. Legislation includes bills specifically introduced by Hansen or those which had a direct impact on the Third Legislative District of Washington. The Subject Files include correspondence and ephemera about events, programs and organizations of special interest to Hansen. A subject may sometimes be found under two headings; for example, similar material can be found under the headings "Interior" and "Departments -- Interior." The researcher should be aware of this when searching for material on a particular topic.
Projects include correspondence and reports about federal appropriations for construction of dams, bridges or roads in Washington State and the Pacific Northwest.
Papers from Hansen's various committees are arranged in the Committee records series. These include the Appropriations Committee and its Foreign Operations and Interior subcommittees; the Education and Labor Committee; the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee; the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission; and the Democratic Caucus Organization Study and Review Committee. Records for committees include correspondence, reports, speeches and writings, legislation and testimony.
A series of miscellaneous materials follows the Committee Records series. Hansen Personal consists of correspondence with family and friends. Media includes two films and one reel to reel tape. The Address Cards are filed alphabetically. The approximately 6000 cards record the dates and topics of letters and where they were filed. It is partly for this reason that Hansen's original file order was retained. The Cases file includes correspondence regarding constituent concerns.
Records stored offsite; advance notice required for use.
Users must agree in writing to preserve the anonymity of persons represented in the records.
The original filing order of the papers was retained; however, because the filing was not consistent, the researcher must review the inventory for all relevant material. For example the Democratic Study Group is filed for one Congress as a subject series under "Politics -- Democratic Study Group"; in another year it is in the General Files.
Bills, whip notices, copies of the Congressional Record, clippings and routine correspondence (requests, acknowledgments, invitations, congratulatory messages) were discarded. Unannotated government documents were discarded or sent to the government documents section of the University of Washington Libraries.
The papers of the Interior Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee span the time period from 1963 to 1974, with the bulk of the material dating from 1969-1972. Besides Hansen’s own papers, this subseries also includes the official records of the Subcommittee, such as correspondence with elected officials and interest groups, budget justifications from agency officials, commentary on drafts of bills, internal reports, hearing schedules and floor actions. Normally, these records would have been retained by Congress, but in this case the full body of materials generated by this Subcommittee remained in Hansen’s papers. Consequently, these are believed to be the only collection of official documentation of the activities of this Subcommittee during this time period.
This accession consists of three reels of microfilm that contain images of correspondence and scrapbooks dating from 1948-1970. This material was filmed on loan from Hansen’s office, and after her death some of the original materials were donated to the Library. Accession #1501-3 includes the original scrapbooks, which contain clippings, ephemera, memorabilia, campaign materials and some correspondence from the years 1948-1970.
The correspondence files date from 1951 to 1960 and are organized by subject. The Western Policy file is correspondence from Hansen’s work in the Western Interstate Committee on Highway Policy Problems. Clark and Cowlitz County files relate to campaigns and constituent concerns in those areas. Much of the correspondence in the Democratic Central Committee file is written to Hansen as chair of the Wahkiakum Country Democratic Central Committee and concerns party activities.
The scrapbooks in the Personal and Political Papers series make up the bulk of the material in this accession. These contain clippings, campaign ephemera, and some correspondence and memorabilia. Most of the scrapbook material relates to Hansen’s political career. One scrapbook of Julia Butler Hansen's early life and early political career is of special interest. This accession also includes some papers not in scrapbooks, including two folders of family and personal photos that are not listed on the inventory (found in Box 2).
Papers contain correspondence from constituents and colleagues, newsletters, speeches, telephone logs, and various records and ephemera from Hansen’s political career. The Biographical Features file is a transcript of an oral history interview conducted in 1974 by Katie Louchheim. The General Correspondence and Newsletters series contain many items dating from Hansen’s earlier years in the Washington state legislature; materials from this period occur only sparsely elsewhere in Hansen’s papers.
Scrapbooks are very fragile. Photocopies of scrapbooks should be made from the microfilm in accession no. 1501-002. Copies may not be made from scrapbooks for which there is not a microfilm copy.
Records stored offsite; advance notice required for use.
Scrapbooks are very fragile. Photocopies of scrapbooks should be made from the microfilm in accession no. 1501-002. Copies may not be made from scrapbooks for which there is not a microfilm copy.
Minimally processed.
These papers include Campaign Files from the 1960 to 1972 elections, which consist of correspondence, clippings, newsletters, and campaign ephemera. Parts of this series are files on Hansen’s opponents in the 1968 and 1970 elections. The accession also includes drafts, largely handwritten, of her children's book
The United States House Appropriations Committee, Interior and Related Agencies Subcommittee series contains copies of government publications rather than original or unique materials.
This vertical file includes a few incoming letters from the 1930s and 1940s, a personal letter from 1988, a newsletter from Hansen’s office dating from 1952, and an undated program from “Julia Butler Hansen Day”.