Collection Summary

Creator: McFarland, Carl
Title: The Papers of Professor Carl McFarland
Accession: MSS 85-3
Description: 25 boxes; 16 linear feet
Location: Special Collections
Photograph Collection: View 42 digitized photographs
Digitized Content: 42 objects
Addenda
Use Restrictions: There are no restrictions.

Collection Description & Arrangement

The papers of Carl McFarland, contained in 25 boxes (16 linear ft.), were deposited at the Law Library by his widow, Pat McFarland, on February 1, 1985. Most of the collection had been stored in file cabinets in his study at home.

These papers which are almost entirely professional have been arranged in groups corresponding to the stages of McFarland's career. The earliest records originated during his tenure at the Department of Justice in the 1930's and contain valuable information concerning the Wagner Act, the Agricultural Adjustment Act, and other New Deal legislation. McFarland's work as chairman of the American Bar Association's committee on administrative law, which resulted in the 1946 passage of the Administrative Procedure Act, is fully documented, as is his brief term as chairman of the Civil Service Commission's Hearing Examiner Board. While there is little material documenting his term as president of the University of Montana, there are records of his activities on the Hoover Commission, the President's Conference on Administrative Law, and the Virginia Code Commission. McFarland's role as literary executor for former Attorney General Homer S. Cummings is documented in detail.

Later files include many drafts of a proposed casebook, Legislation and Administrative Law, as well as much teaching material, primarily notes and exams from courses taught at the University of Virginia. These files contain many folders of research notes and clippings relative to his various professional interests. A list of published material found in the collection is enclosed in the control folder.

McFarland's correspondents include Griffin Bell, Raymond Bice, William J. Brennan, Mortimer Caplin, Tom Clark, Homer S. Cummings, Hardy Dillard, Northcutt Ely, Paul Freund, William Harbaugh, Frank Hereford, William Leuchtenberg, Miles Lord, Pat McCarran, Frank Murphy, Allan Nevins, Monrad Paulsen, Stanley Reed, Jack Ritchie, Franklin Roosevelt, Emerson Spies, Robert F. Wagner, Henry A. Wallace, and Sumner Welles.
McFarland's papers will be of interest to scholars of administrative and legislative law as well as the New Deal era.

There are no restrictions on the use of the Carl McFarland papers.

Biographical & Historical Information

Born in Seattle, Washington, in 1904, Carl McFarland received his B.A. (1928), his M.A. (1929), and his LL.B. (1930) from the University of Montana. In 1932 he earned an S.J.D. from Harvard Law School, and a year later his dissertation, Judicial Control of the Federal Trade Commission and Interstate Commerce Commission, was published. Returning to Montana in the fall of 1932, McFarland joined the law firm of Toomey and McFarland in Helena. Early in 1933 he accepted the Montana State Supreme Court's offer to act as Commissioner of the codification of the Montana statutes. He had barely begun this work when he left to join the Department of Justice in Washington. First employed as a special assistant anti-trust attorney, McFarland was later appointed assistant attorney general. In charge of the vast Lands Division, he was instrumental in drafting much New Deal legislation. Also during this period McFarland co-wrote Federal Justice with Attorney General Homer S. Cummings. He received the American Bar Association’s first Ross Award in 1934.

By 1939 both men had left the Justice Department. McFarland joined Cummings in private practice at the latter's Washington firm of Cummings and Stanley (later called McFarland and Sellers). Beginning in 1940 McFarland was active in American Bar Association committees, chiefly the Legislation and Administrative Law Committee. In this capacity he was the principal draftsman of the Administrative Procedure Act, the federal statute which provides for the governing of more than one hundred governmental agencies and which was voted into law in 1946 without a single dissent in either house. For his contributions to this legislative achievement, McFarland was awarded the American Bar Association's Gold Medallion. Following the passage of the bill, he served a brief term as Chairman of the Civil Service Commission's Hearing Examiner Board in 1948-1949. Leaving private practice in 1951, McFarland began an eight-year stint as president of the University of Montana. He joined the faculty of the University of Virginia Law School in 1959. His courses included Administrative Law and Legislation. An authority on legislative and administrative law, McFarland served on the Hoover Commission, the President's Conference on Administrative Procedure in 1954-1955, and the Virginia Code Commission. He was consultant to the Virginia Commission on Constitutional Revision and chairman of the 1968 United States Public Land Law Revision Commission. He died in 1979.

Acquisition Information

Date Received 1985
Donor Information This collection was given to the Law School by Pat McFarland in February of 1985.

Content List

Department of Justice Files

Box 1:

  • 1936, Agricultural Adjustment Act
  • 1938-89, General correspondence
  • 1937-79, Lands Division: Orders
  • 1937-79, Lands Division: Weekly reports [2 folders]
  • 1937-38, "Little Cabinet"
  • 1935-36, Miscellany
  • 1943-44, National Association of Manufacturers
  • 1934-37, Official correspondence [2 folders]
  • 1978, Official history 1935, Petroleum legislation
  • [1935?], Research outline: Public Lands Division
  • 1935, "Wagner Labor Bill" [NLRB]

Administrative Procedure Act

Box 2:

  • 1944, Articles and pamphlets
  • 1945, S. 7 -- Committee prints
  • 1945, S. 7 -- Committee reports
  • 1946, Congressional Record debates
  • 1938-41, Homer S. Cummings
  • [1943?], Drafts of Bill
  • 1945-47, Drafts
  • 1945, Legislative history of S. 7

Box 3:

  • 1941, Walter-Logan and other bills: Articles
  • 1937-41, Walter-Logan and other bills: Documents
  • 1964-67, Revision of APA: Board of Consultants
  • 1964-65, Revision of APA: Committee hearings
  • 1964-65, Revision of APA: Text of bill
  • 1946-55, Uniform Administrative Rules: APA (S. 17)

Private Practice - Cummings and Stanley

Box 4:

  • 1929-46, Mexican Treaty: Boulder Dam
  • 1944-45, Reader's Digest
  • 1942-44, Stanolind Oil and Gas Co.

Civil Service Commission Hearing Examiner Board

Box 4:

  • 1946-47, Advisory Committee
  • 1946-47, Advisory Committee: Correspondence
  • 1949, Agency files, A - I [3 folders]

Box 5:

  • 1948, Appointment
  • 1950, Board associates
  • 1950, Board forms and associates
  • 1950, Clippings
  • 1948, Congress
  • 1948, Department of Justice
  • 1949, First report
  • 1949-50, General correspondence
  • 1949, Grading chart of agency
  • 1948, Incumbents
  • 1949, Labor department
  • 1948, McFarland's notes
  • 1948-49, Maritime Commission
  • 1948-49, Matthew's cases
  • 1948-49, Miller's cases
  • 1948, Minutes of meetings
  • 1949, National Labor Relations Board
  • 1948-49, Outside applicants
  • 1942-46, Predecessors of the CSC
  • 1949, Proposed rules of practice
  • 1949, Rating factors
  • 1945-50, Regulations and releases
  • 1949, Second report and resignation
  • 1948-49, Securities Exchange Commission
  • 1948-49, Treasury

Virginia Administrative Procedure Act

Box 6:

  • 1974, Annotated draft and committee minutes
  • 1974, Annotation [2 folders]
  • 1971-72, Code Commission
  • 1974, Code Commission: Changes
  • 1972-73, Committee correspondence
  • 1973, Committee to Revise AAA
  • 1974, Drafts and revisions [2 folders]

Box 7:

  • 1974-79, General
  • 1974, Review actions
  • 1972, Similar state and federal statutes
  • 1972-73, Virginia Register: Correspondence
  • 1975, Virginia Register: Notes [3 folders]
  • 1972, Virginia Register: Public access

Box 8:

  • 1975, Virginia Register: Publication of regulations

Miscellaneous Projects

Box 8:

  • 1962-64, Administrative Conference of the U.S. [2 folders]
  • 1949-53, Administrative Court [2 folders]

Boxes 8, 9:

  • 1969, Administrative Procedure and the Public Lands [2 folders; copies of Report to Congress]

Box 9:

  • 1968-69, Commission on Constitutional Revision 1973, Delaware APA Drafting Project [2 folders]
  • 1955, Hoover Commission: Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch [3 folders]

Box 10:

  • 1953-54, President's Conference on Administrative Procedure [1 folder + Committee Hearing Transcripts]
  • 1951-52, "Simplification of Order Procedure and Administration" (Milk Industry)
  • 1971-78, Virginia Bar Association: Administrative Law Committee [3 folders]

Miscellaneous Correspondence

Box 11:

  • 1977, Griffin B. Bell 1960, Britannica Encyclopaedia

Box 11, cont'd:

  • ca. 1930-70, Clippings (Personal)
  • 1947-66, Contracts for Cases, Text, and Materials on Legislative and Administrative Law
  • 1977, Cosmos Club
  • 1975-76, Homer S. Cummings: Alderman Library
  • 1956-69, HSC: Inquiries to McFarland
  • 1937-58, HSC: Letters, readings
  • n.d., HSC: Miscellany
  • 1942-59, HSC: Pinehurst Golf Tournament
  • 1969-72, Thomas S. Currier
  • 1972, District of Columbia Bar
  • 1966-74, William D. Ferguson
  • 1970-77, John S. Field
  • 1973, A.E. Dick Howard
  • 1969-78, Stephen Koslow
  • 1976-77, Dan Meador
  • 1975, John McCoid
  • 1949-69, Miscellaneous correspondence (Dillard, Reed)
  • 1975, Montana Bar
  • 1962, NYU: Administrative workshop
  • 1971-72, Myron Nordquist
  • 1970-76, Monrad Paulsen
  • 1974-76, Recording for the Blind
  • 1965-66, Review of Cooper's State Administrative Law
  • 1963, Review of Friendly's Holmes Lectures

Box 12:

  • 1971-76, Antonin Scalia
  • 1963-77, J.G. Sourwine (Senate Judiciary Committee)
  • 1976, Student Assistants
  • 1971-75, University of Virginia Center for Oceans Law and Policy
  • 1948-75, U.Va.: Correspondence (mostly F.D.G. Ribble)
  • 1960-76, U.Va.: Faculty
  • 1949-78, U.Va.: Former students
  • 1974-75, U.Va.: Honor system
  • 1967-68, U.Va.: Loans
  • 1974, U.Va.: Oceanic Education Committee
  • 1970-78, U.Va.: Parking
  • 1958-76, U.Va.: Professorship
  • 1976, U.Va.: Publications Committee
  • 1977, U.Va.: Recommendations for clerkships
  • 1971-72, U.Va.: School of Public Affairs
  • 1964, U.Va.: Self-study
  • 1964, U.Va.: Size Committee
  • 1977, Virginia Law Review
  • 1967-77, Virginia State Bar [2 folders]
  • 1970-71, "The Unique Role of Discretion in Public Land Law"

Teaching Material

Boxes 13, 14:

  • 1959-74, Administrative law [12 folders]

Boxes 15, 16:

  • 1958-75, Miscellaneous [14 folders]

Casebook

Boxes 16-22:

  • 1959-75, n.d., Legislation and Administrative Law: Drafts [40 folders] 2 boxes of indexed note cards

Research Notes and Clippings

Box 23:

  • 1950-70, n.d., Administrative law [4 folders]
  • [1971?], "Analyses of Others"
  • n.d., Annotations
  • 1963-64, 1971, Bibliography [2 folders]
  • 1959-70, Case lists [2 folders]
  • 1986, 1953, Clippings -- annotated
  • n.d., Colonial statutes
  • 1961, Constitutions
  • [1970's], Contract and property
  •  n.d., Early administrative regulation
  • 1970, Federal Register
  • n.d., Hughes and other opinions
  • 1971-72, "Independent work"

Box 24:

  • n.d., Land cases
  • 1950-70, Legal usage
  • 1950-75, Legislation [5 folders]
  • n.d., Legislative history of the Safety Appliance Act
  • n.d., "Miscellaneous" [3 folders]
  • n.d., Non-legislative functions
  • 1971, "Notes" [group research project]
  • 1971-72, Private remedies

Box 25:

  • 1960-75, "Readings" [5 folders]
  • n.d., Statutory construction [2 folders]
  • n.d., Statutes in litigation
  • n.d., Justice Joseph Story
  • n.d., Virginia cases

Photographs

  • n.d. Clark Hall (oversize)
  • n.d. Cummings Golf Tournament, Pinehurst, N.C. (8)
  • 1937, 1940, n.d. Cummings, Homer [7 -- 5 oversize]
  • n.d. Department of Justice (5)
  • 1931-32 Harvard Law School Graduate Students [oversize]
  • n.d. Helena, Montana, State Capitol building [?]
  • 1937 Justice Department's Chief Officers: Robert H. Jackson, Stanley Reed, Homer Cummings, Joseph Keenan, James Morris, Joseph Jackson, Charles Whitaker, Brian McMahon, [Golden?] Bell [5 oversize]
  • 1938 Justice Department luncheon honoring Stanley Reed [oversize – autographed]
  • ca. 1950 Law School faculty
  • n.d. McFarland, Carl (12)
  • n.d. McFarland, Carl before a new construction [4 -- 3 oversize]
  • [1932] McFarland law office in Helena, Montana n.d. McFarland's snapshot of unidentified luncheon
  • 1946 McFarland, Harry Truman, John W. Gwynne, Charles E. Long, Ashley Sellers, Pat McCurran, Tom Clark, Hatton W. Sumners at signing of Administrative Procedure Act (21)
  • n.d. Sellers, Ashley (law partner of McFarland)
  • n.d. [Stephens?], Harold M.
  • n.d. University of Wyoming Library and School of American Studies (2)

Oversize Items

  • 1930, 1933, 1948 Bar Admission certificates (3)
  • [ca. 1945] Administrative Procedure Act text
  • n.d. Department of Justice seal
  • 1928-1973 Diplomas and certificates (26)

Associated People

Use Policy

Access There are no restrictions.
Use Restrictions There are no restrictions.
Preferred Citation
Unless otherwise stated, digital materials in our collections are available for use under a Creative Commons BY 4.0 License (CC-BY-4.0). For Use and Citation guidelines, see Special Collections Use Policy.