Clapp, Gordon R. Papers

Chairman, Board of Directors, Tennessee Valley Authority, 1946-1954

The papers of Gordon R. Clapp include correspondence, printed materials, speeches and speech drafts, transcripts, and other documents relating to Clapp's service with the Tennessee Valley Authority and the U.N. Economic Mission for the Middle East.

Size: 1 linear feet, 9 linear inches.
Access: Open.
Copyright: The donor gave to the U.S. government the copyrights in this material and in any other material received by the U.S. government and maintained in a depository administered by the National Archives and Records Administration. Documents created by U.S. government officials in the course of their official duties are in the public domain. Copyright interest in other documents presumably belongs to the creators of those documents, or their heirs.
Processed by: Harry Clark (1964); Jan Davis and David Clark (2016).
Updated by: Amaya Estes (2026) as part of the Truman Library Internship Program.
Supervising Archivist: Randy Sowell.

Gordon Rufus Clapp was born on October 28, 1905 in Ellsworth, Wisconsin. He received an A.B. degree from Lawrence College in Appleton, Wisconsin in 1927 and an A.M degree from the University of Chicago in 1933. He then went to work for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) as assistant director of personnel, and later served as its director of personnel from 1936 to 1939 and as general manager from 1939 to 1946, In October 1946, President Truman appointed him Chairman of the Board of Directors of the TVA, succeeding David Lilienthal. In 1949, Clapp also served as chairman of the United Nations Economic Survey Mission for the Middle East. When his term of office as TVA Chairman ended in 1954, Clapp was appointed deputy city administrator of the City of New York. In 1955, he joined Lilienthal in forming the Development and Resources Corporation, and served as president of that firm until his death in New York City on April 28, 1963.

The papers of Gordon R. Clapp include correspondence, printed materials, speeches and speech drafts, transcripts, and other documents relating to Clapp's service with the Tennessee Valley Authority and the U.N. Economic Mission for the Middle East. The papers are arranged in three series. The first series, the Tennessee Valley Authority File, 1933-1962, contains documents pertaining to his involvement in the Tennessee Valley Authority as general manager and chairman of the board. There is also information about the Dixon-Yates Contract, the Tennessee Valley Public Power Association, the Atomic Energy Commission, and the National Power Policy. This series contains correspondence with David E. Lilienthal, Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, Ken G. Whitaker, and Harry S. Truman.

The second series, the United Nations Economic Survey Mission for the Middle East File, 1949-1962, contains documents pertaining to Clapp’s involvement in the U.N. Economic Survey Mission. This series includes information concerning the development of the Middle East and its waterways, humanitarian aid to Palestinians, the Point 4 Program, Near East Relief and Rehabilitation Programs, Israeli economy and immigration, and Syrian and United States relations. Included is correspondence with Arthur Z. Gardiner, Desmond Morton, Dean Acheson, Alfred M. Lilienthal, David E. Lilienthal, and Marguerite Owen.

The third series, the General Correspondence File, 1936-1963, contains documents pertaining to Clapp’s association with the American Society for Public Administration and his thoughts on civil service, decision making, leadership, intellectualism, education, natural resources, and the development of rural areas. This series contains speeches, articles, and book reviews, as well as correspondence with Louis Brownlow and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

More information on the T.V.A. can be found in the Charles F. Brannan Papers, Official File 42 of the Harry S Truman Papers, Jerome K. Walsh Papers, John B. Blandford Papers, C. Girard Davidson Papers, and Edward H. Foley Jr. Papers.