MG-342. GEORGE H. EARLE PAPERS, 1932-1939, 1949, 1966 and undated.
Born in Devon, Chester County, George Howard Earle III was Democratic governor of Pennsylvania from 1935 to 1939. He served in the Second Pennsylvania Infantry during the 1916 Mexican Border Campaign and in the U.S. Navy during World War I. He distinguished himself in a number of businesses in Philadelphia, including the Flamingo Sugar Mills and the Pennsylvania Sugar Company. During the 1930s, he entered politics, supporting Franklin Roosevelt in the 1932 presidential election. He was appointed as U.S. Minister Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Austria in 1932, which post he resigned to run for governor of Pennsylvania in 1934. During his gubernatorial term, Earle secured passage of the 1935 Equal Rights Act, which prohibited racial discrimination in hotels, restaurants, and places of amusement. After an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate in 1938, he served as U.S. minister to Bulgaria in 1940 and assistant naval attaché to Turkey and assistant governor of Samoa from 1940 to 1945. He returned to private life in 1945 and died on December 3, 1974. The collection consists of Earle’s official gubernatorial files and of personal papers belonging to him and his wife.
OFFICIAL PAPERS
Subject File, Campaign Data 1938. Includes an "Itinerary for George H. Earle-Thomas A. Logue" (Thursday, September 22, 1938, to Saturday, September 24, 1938) which lists a scheduled appearance at the "Regional Colored Picnic" to be held at Mt. Gretna Park.
Speeches File. Contains the "Address of George H. Earle, Governor of Pennsylvania, at Olympic Celebration, Friday Evening, September 6, 1935, 8 P.M. (DST) at Philadelphia Municipal Stadium." In this address Governor Earle made several general comments about the racial prejudices of Hitler’s Nazi government and suggested that the United States ought to consider boycotting the games.