The tragedy is the more stark because Senator McMahon, as one of the youngest as well as one of the most respected men in the Senate, was only starting on his great career of service to his fellow man. Months after his death Brien McMahon was still quoted and remembered in the Senate debates recorded in The Congressional Record , particularly on issues regarding atomic energy, and his family continued to receive honors and awards in his memory. One cannot help but admire McMahon as both a man and statesman after becoming familiar with his life. The Brien McMahon Papers are organized first by subject series and then either alphabetically or by date within each series. Since much of the material in the collection was received in the original files kept by McMahon, an attempt was made to preserve his filing system as far as possible.
Correspondence is arranged alphabetically by subject and then by individual names.
The subject correspondence may also contain papers other than correspondence which are related to that subject. The individual correspondence is arranged alphabetically by name and any lengthy correspondence with one individual is still more precisely arranged by date. First there are invitations to speak at various affairs, followed by campaign speeches made in 1938. The remainder of material in this series consists of speeches by others and anonymous speeches. There are, however, two series in which minor discrepancies should be noted.