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Thomas J. D'Alesandro Jr.,Father of U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Archivists are always happy when current events renew interest in a collection in their care. This is certainly the case with the Thomas D’Alesandro Jr. collection, one of the numerous archival holdings in Langsdale Library’s Special Collections Department.
Thomas J. D’Alesandro Jr. (Aug. 1, 1903- Aug. 23, 1987) served as a member of the Maryland General Assembly, as a member of Congress and finally as mayor of Baltimore for three consecutive terms. D’Alesandro’s name has regained national attention with the election of his daughter, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as the first female speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
While Langsdale's collection well documents D'Alesandro's public life through text and images, family photographs showing his daughter are rare. One of the few (left, second from top) shows young Nancy sitting with her brothers and her mother, listening to her father speak during his mayoral campaign.
D’Alesandro was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1925 and served in the General Assembly until appointed general deputy collector of internal revenue in 1933. He was elected to the Baltimore City Council in 1935, but left the position after his election to U.S. Congress in 1938. D’Alesandro served as a member of Congress through World War II and was re-elected for a fifth time in 1946.
As a freshman member of Congress, D’Alesandro listened to Fiorello LaGuardia, R-N.Y. speak on June 17, 1940. A five-term member of Congress, the Italian-American from New York had lost his seat in the Democratic sweep of 1932 but was elected mayor of New York on a reform ticket the following year. His story may have inspired D’Alesandro, who entered the Baltimore mayoral race during his own fifth term in Congress; after success at the polls, he resigned his seat in Congress on May 16, 1947, to become mayor of Baltimore.
D’Alesandro completed plans for a new airport that his predecessor, Theodore McKeldin, had begun. He welcomed President Harry Truman to the facility (above) when it opened as Friendship International Airport on June 24, 1950.
In the 1950s, the mayor’s responsibilities included an extensive building campaign. In 1955, he broke ground in
He also broke ground or laid cornerstones for more than 50 public schools throughout the city, including Hazelwood Elementary in 1957 (above), and for numerous recreation facilities, firehouses, hospital additions and public swimming pools.
As Mayor of one of America’s 10 most populous cities, D’Alesandro welcomed dignitaries from around the world, including Foreign Minister (later Prime Minister) Golda Meir of Israel (right) on Dec. 10, 1956.
D’Alesandro unsuccessfully challenged Republican J. Glenn Beall in 1958 for the U.S. Senate and lost the mayoral race to J. Harold Grady the following spring. Despite these defeats, he continued to be active, serving as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention between 1944- 1968. He also served on a presidential commission during the tenure of President John F. Kennedy.
The Thomas J. D'Alesandro Jr. collection was originally given to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library at the request of the late president’s widow. The collection was transferred to the University of Baltimore at the request of D'Alesandro's son, Thomas D’Alesandro III, when the JFK archives needed to make room for Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’ materials upon her death.
D'Alesandro III , (right: D'Alesandro III walks behind his father on Fireboat No. 1 Mayor Thomas D’Alesandro Jr.) was elected mayor in 1967. The father and son are affectionately remembered in
Just a few weeks before her father’s death in the summer of 1987, Pelosi became a member of Congress, elected to succeed the late Sala Galante Burton of