“He was a senator for our time and for all time. He was an original” (the late Ted Kennedy).

The University of Rhode Island Pell Archive contains constituent correspondence, administrative files, and numerous other records. They include speeches, correspondence, memorandum, reports, articles, press statements, audiotape, audiovisual materials and photographs. The collection also contains Pell’s pre-senate records consisting of correspondence, memorandum, and personal papers that cover the years from 1937 through 1959, during which time Pell was a student at Princeton and then an officer in the United States Guard during World War II. Other records include “Pell Family Papers” (1890-1998) consisting of correspondence, drawings, and photographs from Senator Pell’s immediate family, relatives, friends, and colleagues. The series also contains records from Pell’s childhood as well as correspondence between members of his mother’s family dating back to the late nineteenth century.

The first accession of the Senatorial Papers of Claiborne Pell to the University of Rhode Island’s Special Collections Unit began in 1974 and continued through 2006.