Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
Senatorial Papers
U.S. Senate, 1973-2009
The University of Delaware Library has acquired the senatorial papers of Joseph R. Biden, Jr., who was elected to a seventh term in the U.S. Senate in 2008, but resigned in January 2009 when he was sworn in as the 47th vice president of the United States. More than 1,850 boxes of archival records from the Vice President's Senate career arrived at the Library on June 6, 2012. The collection, which also includes extensive electronic records, will be remain closed during processing for a period no sooner than two years after the donor retires from any public office. For information about the collection, please contact L. Rebecca Johnson Melvin, Librarian and Head, Manuscripts and Archives Department.
When Biden was sworn in on January 3, 1973, he was the sixth youngest senator in the history of Congress. When he resigned, Biden had served longer than all but fourteen of the 1,931 members of the Senate since 1789. Eleven of those fourteen long-serving senators were colleagues of Biden's, reflecting the depth of understanding scholars may hope to find in areas of leadership, legislation, and public policy. The Biden senatorial papers join other archival collections related to policy and government at the University of Delaware Library, notably the congressional papers of several former members of Congress.
News about the gift of the Biden senatorial papers is available from several sources:
Biden papers arrive (including time lapse view of the delivery)
UDaily, June 11, 2012
Photograph album of the arrival on Flickr
University of Delaware Library on Flickr
Biden's senatorial papers find a new home
WDEL video short of the arrival
Biden papers delivered to UD LIbrary
Newark Post Online, June 14, 2012
Biden, a U.S. Senator from Delaware for 36 years until his
election as vice president in 2008, and a 1965 graduate of UD, was on
campus to donate his Senatorial papers to the University Library and to
deliver the inaugural James R. Soles Lecture on the Constitution and
Citizenship
UDaily, September 16, 2011
VP Biden donates papers to UD
WHYY Newsworks, September 16, 2011
