ROLAND L. ELLIOTT FILES, 1974-77

Roland L. Elliott became a special assistant to President Nixon and director of the Correspondence Office in 1971. He continued those duties through the end of the Ford Administration. As director of the Correspondence Office, he supervised the flow of mail to and from the White House, including presidential correspondence. One exception was correspondence between President Ford and his friends and family, which was handled by Personal Assistant to the President Mildred Leonard.

This collection documents Mr. Elliot’s work during the Ford administration. Although many of the materials relate to routine administrative tasks of the Correspondence Office, of particular importance is a survey of the week-to-week concerns of ordinary citizens tallied in regular reports counting the volume of mail by subject.

Two series consist of chronological files of all of the letters sent out by the Correspondence Office over the signature of either President Ford or Elliott, on behalf of the President. Another series contains thank you letters related to trips of President or Mrs. Ford and White House social events.

Also included are copies of form letters and cards that were mailed out to the public relating to a wide variety of topics, from the Nixon Pardon to the Equal Rights Amendment to Mrs. Ford’s dessert recipes; presidential cards related to Christmas, birthdays, weddings, and other acknowledgements; and photographs and publications used as attachments to responses.

Related Materials (April 2007)
The White House Central Files Subject Files contains both incoming and outgoing correspondence, arranged by subject. The White House Central Files Name File provides name access to this correspondence.