The Research Postcards series highlights the scholarly adventures undertaken by department faculty when they’re away from the classroom. Our first postcard comes from Jeff Roche, a specialist in American history.
Haley Memorial Library
Roche’s latest research trip took him to Midland, Texas, where he mined the papers of conservative activist and historian J. Evetts Haley at the Haley Library, an independent research facility built to house his voluminous papers, library, and collections. Roche found less correspondence with national figures than expected, but he did find a trove of other helpful sources. These included the only surviving full run of the Jeffersonian Democrat, a shockingly vulgar Anti-New Deal newspaper edited by Haley, one of the earliest expressions of a style of conservatism that would dominate Texas and the west for decades.