The Senatorial Papers of John H. Chafee (1976-1999) are divided into three sub-groups: Providence Office, Washington Office, and Multi-Media.  The records of the Providence Office subgroup were transferred to the University of Rhode Island from Senator Chafee’s offices in Providence, RI.  The records from the Washington sub-group were sent from his Washington, D.C. office.  Many of the same types of records are found in both sub-groups because of the close working relationship between the two offices.  The first shipments of the Chafee Senatorial Papers were transferred to the University of Rhode Island in the Spring of 1993 and continued to arrive periodically through March of 2001.  Chafee’s papers as Governor, Secretary of Navy, and for his campaigns are in Manuscript Group 114, Gubernatorial and Secretary of the Navy Papers, 1962-1975.

The senatorial papers contain 1,929 boxes of records and occupy approximately 1,088 linear feet of shelf space.  The Providence Office, Sub-Group 1, contains 220 boxes of records and occupies 155 linear feet of shelf space.  The Washington Office, Sub-Group 2, contains 1,642 boxes of records and occupies 873 linear feet of shelf space.  Multi-Media, Sub-Group 3, contains 67 boxes of records and occupies 60 linear feet of shelf space.

Records contained in the Multi-Media sub-group containing 16mm motion picture film, reel to reel audio tape, audio cassette tape, zip disks, floppy disks, CD-ROM, photographs, video cassettes, and video broadcast cassettes.  The electronic files consists of eight 100 megabyte Zip disks that contain files that were transferred from various staff member’s computers.  Four of the disks originate from the Providence office and four came from the Washington office.  The files were converted from an outdated version of the Macintosh WordPerfect program into the latest version of the Microsoft Word program in order facilitate greater accessibility.

This register provides series descriptions and folder title listings for the records of Senator Chafee and his staff from his Providence office, 1962-1999, and his Washington office, 1962-1999.  The records found in these papers that date to prior years when Chafee was Governor of Rhode Island, 1963-1969, Secretary of the Navy, 1969-1972, and Rhode Island law firm partner, 1973-1975 were most likely used as research materials during his Senatorial years and therefore are kept in this collection.

The Providence Office records consist of constituent case work files, memoranda, speeches, notes, bills, correspondence, publications, news articles, and photographs. Records also include artifacts such as citations, certificates, trophies, paintings, campaign bumper stickers, and buttons.

The Washington Office records consist of memoranda, speeches, notes, bills, correspondence, publications, news articles, maps, charts, and photographs.  Records also include artifacts such as campaign bumper stickers, buttons, as well as an American flag, and his office flag as Secretary of the Navy.

The Multi-Media records consist of 16mm motion picture film, reel to reel audio tape, audio cassette tape, zip disks, floppy disks, CD-ROM, photographs, video cassettes, and video broadcast cassettes. Records include films of campaign ads, Chafee radio show tapes, video of Chafee appearing on news programs, and digital copies of correspondence, memoranda, press statements.  The series were originally processed as part of the Providence and Washington Office records before being organized as the Multi-Media sub-group for enhanced access facilitation purposes.