Elizabeth Hanford Dole U.S. Secretary of Transportation Papers, 1983-1987
| Robert and Elizabeth Dole Archive and Special Collections
Arrangement
Original order has been preserved and reconstructed wherever possible. The Speeches, Newsclippings, and Correspondence series largely arrived organized and labeled by the creator. Speeches and newsclippings are arranged chronologically; correspondence is arranged alphabetically.
The Administrative series is comprised of the remainder of the files that pertain to Dole’s time at the Department of Transportation that did not fit in the other series. The processing archivist applied the Administrative label to classify this grouping of material that encompasses the beginning and end of Dole’s time at the DOT, as well as policy decisions and initiatives.
Administrative/Biographical History
Elizabeth Hanford Dole was born Mary Elizabeth Alexander Hanford on July 29, 1936, in Salisbury, North Carolina. She graduated from Duke University in 1958, earned a master’s degree in education from Harvard in 1960, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1965.
Dole began her career in administration at the age of 29, when she began working for the Department of Health, Education and Welfare during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration and for the Office of Consumer Affairs. She was promoted under the Nixon administration to Executive Director of the President’s Committee for Consumer Interests, and in 1973, appointed to the Federal Trade Commission. On December 6, 1975, she married Senator Bob Dole. The following year, Dole took a leave of absence from the FTC to campaign for her husband, who was running on the Republican presidential ticket with Gerald Ford. She served as a Federal Trade Commissioner until 1979, when she resigned to campaign for Bob Dole’s 1980 presidential bid.
She served as Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison 1981-1983, when she was nominated and confirmed as the U.S. Secretary of Transportation. Dole is the first woman to have served as Cabinet Secretary of two federal departments under two different presidents (Transportation 1983-87, Ronald Reagan; Labor 1989-90, George H.W. Bush). She served as the second female President of the American Red Cross from 1991 to 1998, the first woman to hold the position since founder Clara Barton in 1881.
A presidential candidate herself for the 2000 election, Dole was later elected to the U.S. Senate as the first female Senator for the state of North Carolina in 2002. She served until 2008. In 2012, Dole founded the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, which empowers, supports, and honors America’s military caregivers.
Dole served as the eighth United States Secretary of Transportation, and was the first woman to do so. Appointed by President Ronald Reagan, she served from 1983 until 1987. At the time, the United States Coast Guard was located within the Department of Transportation, making her the first woman to head a branch of the United States military. The current mission of the DOT is to, “…ensure our nation has the safest, most efficient and modern transportation system in the world; that improves the quality of life for all American people and communities, from rural to urban, and increases the productivity and competitiveness of American workers and businesses.” Established by an act of Congress on October 15, 1966, the Department’s first official day of operation was April 1, 1967. The Secretary of Transportation is the principal adviser to the President in all matters relating to federal transportation programs.
Administrative Information
The Elizabeth Hanford Dole U.S. Secretary of Transportation Papers, which date 1982 – 1998, consist primarily of correspondence, newsclippings, briefing books and other policy documents, schedules, subject files, and speeches. This collection documents Dole’s time as head of the Department of Transportation, and as such, a Republican Party campaign surrogate and member of President Reagan’s cabinet. To a lesser extent, her personal and professional relationship with Senator Bob Dole and his position in Congress are also represented in the collection.
The majority of the collection was created while Dole served as Secretary of Transportation; however, some later files (dating through the late-1990s) following up on initiatives and projects from her tenure are present. Predominant topics reflect Dole’s main initiatives while she served at the DOT: safety, renovating D.C.’s Union Station, the government sale of Conrail, transferring control of D.C. airports, regulation and deregulation, and the promotion and support of women and minorities within the Department. Safety comprises many subjects involving all transportation modes – airplane, car, railroad, trucking – like drunk driving and the nation-wide 21 drinking age, random drug testing, and new regulations involving safety belts and air bags in cars.