Senator William Proxmire Collection

Given here are 60 typescripts, tearsheets, and other copies of articles found in Proxmire's Senate office files (Box 146, folders 11-16, of his papers at the Wisconsin Historical Society). They were written between 1957 and 1989. Not included here are rough notes, correspondence, receipts, and miscellaneous jottings filed alongside these finished articles.

These files from Proxmire's Senate office (Box 206, folders 15 and 16) contain biographical notes, clippings, press releases, and marketing pieces from the first half of his Senate career. Although most are undated and unattributed, the file contains a 7-page autobiographical statement from 1958 (pages 112-119), a 28-profile in Ralph Nader's "Citizens Look at Congress" series from 1972 (pages 6-34), "The Proxmire Record" from 1970 (120-140), and Proxmire's Senate passport (35-48).

In March 1975, Wisconsin Sen. William Proxmire sent out his first press release identifying wasteful government spending. He called these monthly bulletins 'Golden Fleece Awards' and they became a popular feature of his Senate tenure. Given here are digital copies of the Golden Fleece press releases, 1975-1987, from Sen. Proxmire's papers. In this digital version, each year opens with his summary of the 12 awards. A handful of the monthly press releases are missing and none have survived from 1984, which contains only the annual summary. The whole series is preceded by a 12-page list of all 159 awards compiled by WHS staff in 2010, and two undated compilations compiled by Sen. Proxmire's office.