Born to Hugh and Sadie Chapin, Dorothy Jean Chapin (1924-2005) earned a B.A. in history from Baylor University in 1945 and married Terrell Blodgett (b. 1923) the next year. Following the birth of her three children, she began work in public relations for the 1956 Texas gubernatorial campaign of Price Daniel. Blodgett established the Texas Governor’s Conference on Libraries under Gov. John Connally in 1966 and worked in Gov. Preston Smith’s Division of Planning Coordination on the Texas Urban Development Commission in 1970. She also worked for governors Bill Clements and Bill White, consulting on the Governor’s Mansion renovation in 1979 and operations procedures in 1983.
Source:
Comprising correspondence, printed material, narratives, newspaper and magazine clippings, and press releases, the Dorothy Blodgett Collection, [ca. 1946]-2001, documents her career with the Texas Governor’s Office. The bulk of the collection illuminates Blodgett’s work under Governor Preston Smith on the Texas Urban Development Commission in 1970 and includes drafts of regional planning reports, correspondence with Dorman Winfrey, Smith’s press releases, and office publications. Information packets with pamphlets, schedules, correspondence, bibliographies, and speeches, 1976, concern the activities of the Texas Conference of Churches’ Value of Life Project, while correspondence and memoranda, 1967, pertain to her work on behalf of Governor John Connally with the Governor’s Conference on Libraries. Blodgett’s research files on J. J. Pickle include ephemera, magazines, and newspaper clippings. Additionally, printed material and publications, such as playbills, handbooks, and newsletters, document activities and rules of various organizations of the University of Texas at Austin.
This collection is open for research use.
Dorothy Blodgett Collection, [ca. 1946]-2001, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.
Basic processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with funds from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for the Briscoe Center’s “History Revealed: Bringing Collections to Light project,” 2009-2011.
Subsequent revisions were made by Evan Usler, April 2011.