Livingston L. Biddle, Jr. papers, circa 1940-2002

Biographical materials consist of appointment books, architectural plans of Biddle's property, certificates, keys to the city, plaques, diplomas, genealogy records, resumes, material from Biddle's tenure in the art department of Fordham University, Princeton University reunion records, and material regarding Biddle's nomination for the National Medal of Arts. The file for Catharina Baart contains resumes and statements on her career as an artist.

Personal and professional correspondence is with Biddle's family; former NEA chairs and political figures including Jane Alexander, Presidnt Jimmy Carter, Armand Hammer, Nancy Hanks, Frank Hodsoll, Lady Bird Johnson, Edward Kennedy, John Murtha, Claiborne Pell, Roger Stevens, and Sidney Yates; and other notable figures such as Sandra Day O'Connor, Robert Rauschenberg, and Slava Rostropovich. The series also contains correspondence with the American Film Institute, Century Club, Drexel University, and Music Critics Association, Inc.

Interviews include transcripts, four sound recordings, and two video recordings of Biddle on CBS' Nightwatch and the Evening News with Bob Schieffer, WETA's Desert Island Discs with R.A. Davis, and other interviews with Bob Edwards, Louann Temple, Peter Jessup, and Susan King. Also found is an interview with Bobby Mitchell conducted by Marion O. Greene, Jr. and Kim McCullough.

The series is arranged chronologically by year.

Writings by Biddle include journals, drafts for articles, essays, plays, and short stories; poetry and songs; speech notes; one sound recording and two video recordings; drafts for the novels "Biddle Tales," Sam Bentley's Island , and "The Triptych"; and drafts for Biddle's book about his experiences with the NEA titled Our Government and the Arts: A Perspective from the Inside. Writings by others include one video recording of Barbara Rose's film "Art/Work/USA," one sound recording of a film introduction entitled "The Eagle," and writings by Claiborne Pell.

This series documents Biddle's lengthy involvement with the NEA from its creation in 1965 through his appointments as congressional liaison officer, deputy chairman, and his appointment by President Jimmy Carter as chairman from 1977 to 1981. Included are drafts by Biddle for the National Foundation of the Arts and Humanities Act of 1965 which led to the creation of the NEA and the National Endowment for the Humanities, files for agencies that worked closely with the NEA, conferences and events, briefing books that detail Biddle's travel agendas and provide background information on the arts of each locality, financial information, programs managed by the NEA, and reports. Additionally, three video recordings and one sound reel titled "Swearing-In of L.L. Biddle, Jr." are included.

This series consists of files, primarily accumulated after Biddle's NEA chairmanship, documenting his service as a prominent fundraiser and organizer for multiple committees and political campaigns. The files contain correspondence, meeting agendas and notes, solicitation letter drafts, and printed material for the American Council for the Arts, American Field Service Committee, Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, Corcoran Museum Board of Overseers Exhibitions Committee, Cosmos Club Arts Committee, Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, National Museum of Women in the Arts, various Washington, D.C. arts organizations, and the Catherine Bertini, Jimmy Carter, Judy Hancock, Walter Mondale, Claiborne Pell, and Sidney Yates campaigns. This series includes one sound recording.

This series is arranged as 2 subseries.

Found in this series are estate records for Biddle's mother, Eugenia Law Biddle, and his first wife, Frances Fenton Biddle; records for an investment partnership agreement facilitated by Michael T. Yao; real estate deeds, appraisal reports, and property agreements for multiple properties; and versions of Biddle's will.

Booklets, clippings, event invitations and programs, flyers, magazines and journals, newsletters, one sound cassette of National Public Radio's program Performance Today, and posters autographed by artists Jacob Lawrence and Fritz Scholder, and astronaut John Glenn are found in this series.

Two scrapbooks and loose scrapbook material with memorabilia from the NEA and Biddle's travels are in this series.

Photographs are of Biddle, his family, friends and colleagues at arts and political events, and of international travel to China, Tibet, Turkey, and many other places in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Africa. The series also includes six video recordings of Biddle's trip to Russia, his hometown of Bryn Mawr, and his ancestor, St. Katherine Drexel.

An ink drawing of singer Diahann Carroll, sketches by Ruth Asawa Lanier, watercolors by Barb Maxwell and Howard N. Watson, a cartoon by Pat Oliphant, and a silkscreen by James Rosenquist are in artwork.