Papers of Rutherford B. Hayes

(Microfilm Edition)

The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center

Additional Information at https://www.rbhayes.org/main/research-collections/.

Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822 –1893) was the 19th President of the United States (1877–1881). As president, he oversaw the end of Reconstruction, began the efforts that led to civil service reform, and attempted to reconcile the divisions left over from the Civil War and Reconstruction. Hayes, an attorney in Ohio, became city solicitor of Cincinnati from 1858 to 1861. When the Civil War began he left a fledgling political career to join the Union Army as an officer. Hayes was wounded five times, most seriously at the Battle of South Mountain; he earned a reputation for bravery in combat and was promoted to the rank of major general. After the war, he served in the U.S. Congress from 1865 to 1867 as a Republican. Hayes left Congress to run for Governor of Ohio and was elected to two consecutive terms, from 1868 to 1872, and then to a third term, from 1876 to 1877. The papers include those in the custody of the Hayes Presidential Center, augmented by those in more than 130 libraries and other institutions in the United States.

301 reels, 56-page guide