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Courtesy U.S. Senate Historical Office
WILEY, Alexander (1884-1967)
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Senate Years of Service: 1939-1963

WILEY, ALEXANDER, a Senator from Wisconsin; born in Chippewa Falls, Chippewa County, Wis., May 26, 1884; attended the public schools, Augsburg College, Minneapolis, Minn., and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor; graduated from the law department of the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1907; admitted to the bar the same year and commenced practice in Chippewa Falls, Wis.; district attorney of Chippewa County 1909-1915; unsuccessful Republican candidate for governor in 1936; engaged in agricultural pursuits and banking; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1938; reelected in 1944, 1950 and 1956 and served from January 3, 1939, to January 3, 1963; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1962; chairman, Committee on the Judiciary (Eightieth Congress), Committee on Foreign Relations (Eighty-third Congress), resided in Washington, D.C., until a few days before his death, May 26, 1967, at High Oaks Christian Science Church Sanitarium in Germantown, Pa.; interment in Forest Hill Cemetery, Chippewa Falls, Wis.

Columbia University
Oral History Project
New York, NY
Oral history: 1964. 63 leaves. Reminiscences including childhood, education, political experience, election to Senate, World War II, and Senator Joseph McCarthy.
Michigan State University
University Archives and Historical Collections
East Lansing, MI
Papers: Correspondence in John Charles Beukema papers, 1920-1961.
Milwaukee Public Library
Milwaukee, WI
Papers: Correspondence in Irving G. Rhodes papers, 1921-1977.
Princeton University
Dulles Oral History Project
Princeton, NJ
Oral history: 1966. 24 pages.
State Historical Society of Wisconsin
Archives Division
Madison, WI
Papers: 1913-1967. 164.2 cubic feet. Legislative and personal papers including constituent correspondence; legislative and committee files, especially relating to antitrust legislation and the Bricker amendment; biographical clippings on microfilm; speeches; news releases and other writings; audiovisual materials; and scrapbooks chiefly relating to Senate career. Well documented are support of Saint Lawrence Seaway, the Chicago-Lake Michigan Water Diversion case, advocacy of Wisconsin dairy industry, anticommunist beliefs and activities, and the censure of Joseph McCarthy. Finding aid.
Papers: Correspondence in William Nagorsne papers, 1941-1951; Walter Brovald papers, 1938-1990; Thomas E. Coleman papers, 1914-1964; Merle Eugene Curti papers, 1917-1988; Warren P. Knowles papers, 1910-1964; Edwin Emil Witte papers, 1905-1967; Wisconsin Farmers' Union records, 1924-1969; Wisconsin Federation of Conservation Clubs records, 1948-1957, on 3 microfilm reels; Harry Charles Brockel papers, 1954-1968; Penokee Veneer Company records, 1939-1967; interview in Gunnar Back "Cross Fire'' broadcasts, 1930-1979; and speeches in Republican Party of Wisconsin records, 1938-1988.
State Historical Society of Wisconsin
Milwaukee Area Research Center University of Wisconsin
Madison, WI
Papers: 1 box of correspondence, articles, and speeches in Harold Wilde papers. Wilde was Wiley's secretary. Finding aid.
University of Michigan
Bentley Historical Library
Ann Arbor, MI
Papers: Correspondence in Wilber M. Bruckner papers, 1877-1968.
Yale University Libraries
Manuscripts and Archives
New Haven, CT
Papers: In Arthur Bliss Lane papers, 1904-1957.

  • Wiley, Alexander. "The Committee on Foreign Relations.'' Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 289 (September 1953): 58-65.
  • ___. Laughing with Congress. New York: Crown Publishers, 1947.