Richard Thurmond Chatham, Democratic congressman, industrialist, and philanthropist of Elkin, N.C., worked for the Chatham Manufacturing Company, owned by his family and the world's largest manufacturer of blankets, 1919-1955; served in the U.S. Navy, 1917-1919 and 1942-1945; and served in the U.S. Congress, 1949-1957, where he was a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The collection includes correspondence, bills and receipts, and other materials relating to Richard Thurmond Chatham, chiefly 1949-1956. Most materials touch on Chatham's legislative career only superifically; very few deal directly with legislation or other issues in which Chatham must have been involved. Files include a mixture of personal materials (clubs; travel, including hunting and fishing expeditions; some family materials; interests in birding, gardening, farming; life in Washington, D.C.), business materials (Chatham Manufacturing Company, land deals, and other investments), and legislative/political materials (mostly minor references to various issues and elections, except for 1954-1956 when there are files on foreign affairs).Included are a few letters of Thurmond Clarke, California Superior Court judge, and, later, U.S. District Court judge, about social affairs and his confirmation to the district court, and from H. Smith Richardson, a hunting companion of Chatham's whose letters sometimes touch on political issues. Items relating to foreign affairs, while not extensive, include materials about the House Committee of Foreign Affairs; the Foreign Service; and mutual defense and educational exchange legislation. There are also a few family photographs and several photographs of the flood of 1898, when part of the Chatham Manufacturing Company's plant floated away.
