Farley File

A Farley file is a series of fact sheets kept by politicians about people with whom they have had contact.

The term comes from James Aloysius Farley, a campaign manager for US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Farley eventually became the head of the Democratic National Committee and the US Post Office.

Farley kept a file of everyone who had encountered Roosevelt. When someone had to meet Roosevelt a second time, the file was reviewed and Roosevelt could recover the data learned the first time: wife, names and ages of the children, personal situation, etc., anything that had been mentioned, in addition to the data that would have been added by Farley independently. The effect was profound and the intimacy was greatly increased.

These types of Farley files have become commonplace in political and business circles.