The Iris F. Blitch Papers document her two terms representing Georgia's Eighth District in the United States Congress from 1955 to 1963, and, to a lesser extent her campaigns and personal life. The majority of the collection consists of correspondence, newspaper clippings, legislative bills, research and campaign materials, scrapbooks and photographs. Well-documented throughout the entire collection, particularly in the Legislative and Subject Series, are the issues that were important to Blitch and to the twenty counties that composed the Eighth District, including agriculture and environmental issues. Bills sponsored or supported by Blitch include: Okefenokee Conservation Bill (secured funding for water conservation and fire protection in and around the swamp); Small-Watershed Bill (allowed the building of small watershed projects with government grants and loans to conserve water for farmers, municipalities, industry, recreation and the conservation of fish and wildlife); Water Pollution Bill; forestry development; anti-subversive activities; improved drug laws; livestock sales; and benefits to beekeepers, among others. Additionally, the papers provide insight into the political climate for women in the second half of the 1950s and the early 1960s as well as into social mores regarding their participation. Blitch's personal beliefs and opinions regarding women's roles and responsibilities in government and politics are evident in the speeches and interviews she gave throughout her career. To a lesser extent, and primarily through correspondence found in the Personal Series, is information relating to her immediate and extended family as well as her fragile health, which ultimately forced her retirement in 1963. Correspondents include the following prominent Georgians: D. W. Brooks, Phil Campbell, John Flynt, Jr., E. L. Forrester, Ed Friend, Henderson Lanham, Herman Talmadge, John Pilcher, Prince Preston, and Richard B. Russell, Jr.