Biography: Homer E. Capehart, 1969-1973
A Guide to the Collection of Oral History Interviews at
Indiana University Bloomington
Finding aid prepared by the staff of the Center for the Study of History and Memory with a grant from the National Endowment
for the Humanities Division of
Preservation and Access, 2000-2002
Overview of the Collection
Repository
Indiana University Center for the Study of History and Memory
Indiana University
400 North Sunrise Drive
Weatherly Hall North, Room 122
Bloomington, IN 47405
Phone: 812/855-2856
Fax: 812/855-0002
E-mail: ohrc@indiana.edu
http://www.indiana.edu/~cshm
Creator
Indiana University Center for the Study of History and Memory
TitleBiography: Homer E. Capehart, 1969-1973
Project No.
ohrc015
Interviews
1 interview.
Audiotapes, transcripts, and collateral materials.
Physical Location
Interviews are housed in Weatherly Hall North, Room 122. Copies are also housed at the Indiana University Archives in Herman
B Wells Library E460. For other locations housing the interviews from this project, please contact the Center for the Study
of History and Memory office.
Language
Materials are in English
Abstract
This project is comprised of interviews regarding Homer E.
Capehart and in particular, his political career as a Republican United States
senator from the state of Indiana from 1944 to 1962. Often emphasized in the
interviews is Capehart's organization of the Cornfield Conference in 1938 which
served to rejuvenate the Republican Party in Indiana. Also much discussed is
Capehart's legendary business acumen and status as a wealthy self-made man,
proud of his humble origins. Many of the interviews also deal with national
politics, Capehart's friends and political opponents, his impact and influence
in Congress (through the Senate Banking and Currency Committee and the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee), his personal characteristics, communism, and the
reasons for his unexpected defeat in 1962 at the hands of Birch E. Bayh,
Jr.
Scope and Content Note
This collection contains one interview, lasting nintey-five minutes. The interview consists of 2 reels and a typed transcript,
as well as collateral materials.
Administrative Information
Acquisition Information
Oral history interviews conducted by the Indiana University Center for the Study of
History and Memory from 1968 to the present, with particular focus on the history of
twentieth-century America and the Midwest.
Usage Restrictions
The archive of the Center for the Study of History and Memory at Indiana University is open
to the use of researchers. Copies of transcript pages are available only when such copies
are permitted by the deed of gift signed by the interviewee. Scholars must honor any
restrictions the interviewee placed on the use of the interview. Since some of our earlier
(pre-computer) transcripts do not exist in final form, any editing marks in a transcript
(deletions, additions, corrections) are to be quoted as marked. Tapes may not be copied for
patrons unless the deed of gift permits it, and a transcript is unavailable for that
interview. The same rules of use that apply to a transcript apply to the taped interview.
Interviews may not be reproduced in full for any public use, but excerpted quotes may be
used as long as researchers fully cite the data in their research, including accession
number, interview date, interviewee's and interviewer's name, and page(s).
Preferred Citation
[interviewee first name last name] interview, by [interviewer first name last name], [interview date(s)], [call number], [project
name], Center for the Study of History and Memory, Indiana University, Bloomington, [page number(s) or tape number and side
if no transcript].
Interview List
Interviewee
Billings, Claude
July 29,
1972
Call Number
73-006
Physical Description
39 pages; 2 reels, 3 3/4 ips, 95 minutes; no
index
Interviewer
Pickett, William B.
Access Status
Open
Scope and Content Note
Claude Billings, formerly a prominent member of the Republican
Editorial Association, recalls and discusses the political career of Homer E.
Capehart. Billings speaks of Capehart's rise to political power in the context
of the Indiana state political framework, the organization of the Indiana state
Republican Party, national and international politics and events, and he
discusses other politically powerful individuals and groups in Indiana.
Billings recalls his relations with Ralph F. Gates, William E. Jenner, and
Wendell L. Willkie, and how Homer Capehart was associated with each of these
Indiana political figures.
-
Keywords
-
-
Corporation Names
- Republican Party
-
-
Personal Names
- Bobbitt, Arch N.
- Emison, Ewing
- Gates, Ralph F.
- Jenner, William E.
- Willkie, Wendell L.
-
-
-
Subjects
- Indiana politics
- Cornfield Conference
- national politics
