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Bylaws for the Roundtable passed, and the current leadership is already enacting the structure and responsibilities set forth in this administrative policy. Steering Committee members are drafting guidelines for implementing the work of the committee and the subcommittees for program development and for nominations and elections. At the upcoming annual meeting, attending members will elect officers and steering committee from a choice of candidates. The Nominating Committee--Herb Hartsook (chair), Jim Cross, and Rebecca Johnson Melvin--have worked diligently to provide a strong slate, any of whom will serve the Roundtable well. See p. 3 for the election notice.

The bylaws establish a representative seat for the Center for Legislative Archives. Michael Gillette, director of the center, has appointed Diane Dimkoff, who will join the Steering Committee in San Diego. Diane is a longtime member of the Roundtable and will bring valuable experience to the leadership. The 1996 annual meeting for the Roundtable is set for Friday, August 30, 4:00-6:00 p.m. Following a business meeting and election, there will be a program on the appraisal policy for congressional papers established at the Minnesota Historical Society. Karyl Winn of the University of Washington will introduce the topic, and Todd Daniels-Howell and Mark Greene will discuss the appraisal project at the Society, the policy and its application to both new and old collections, and future plans. Last year's social was such a success, we are planning another for San Diego. While it will be impossible to match the gracious hospitality of Paul Chestnut, we are going to try for an equally fun time. The only space in a very crowded schedule that we could determine is to make use of the planned SAA farewell reception, Saturday, 6:30-7:30 p.m. So, we encourage you to get a ticket for the affair. At the Roundtable meeting, we will pass out congressionally appropriate stickers to identify those who want to gather together at the reception.

This column marks my last as chair of the Roundtable. While there is always relief when such responsibility is passed on to another, that emotion for me is surpassed by a sense of accomplishment and a sense of poignancy. I am very pleased with the strides we have made in setting up bylaws, in forging a partnership with the Center for Legislative Archives, and in coming together as one strong voice in support of the work of the House historian's office. And, I feel an exceptional bond with the Steering Committee and membership that I hope will not lessen over time. It has truly been my pleasure to work with a dedicated, energetic, and ofttimes, enthusiastic group of colleagues--a most rewarding two years for me. I encourage each of you to take the opportunity to serve the Roundtable in a leadership role. See you in San Diego!

The Center for Legislative Archives, which preserves and administers the historical records of Congress at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), made its debut on the World Wide Web at http://www.nara.gov/nara/legislative late this spring. In keeping with the mission of NARA to provide the public and its officers with ready access to essential evidence, the Center's Web site is a component of NARA online presence. The Center's homepage has been designed in four parts: general information about the Center and access to NARA holdings, major guides and finding aids to the Center's holdings, the Center's outreach activities, and links to other Web sites concerning Congress and Congressional studies.

Web browsers are first briefly introduced to the Center and its mission. Links are also provided to information about the Center's location, directions to the Archives building in Washington, D.C., and general information for those who wish to conduct research at NARA.

The records of Congress are highlighted in the second part of the Web site. Here the Center's major publications -- Guide to the Records of the United States Senate at the National Archives, 1789-1989 and Guide to the Records of the United States House of Representatives at the National Archives, 1789-1989 -- are available online. Additional information detailing House and Senate rules, and suggestions on how to cite the records are also featured. Future additions to this section of the Web site will include information about the Center's collection of Publications of the U.S. Government, its growing collection of records from Congressional support agencies, and its special collections. The Center's special collections include its oral histories and research interviews, featuring materials unique to the Center's holdings -- such as the research interviews of Richard F. Fenno, Jr. -- and copies of interviews from other repositories that the Center will digitize, such as those of the Senate Historical Office. The Center plans to put this entire collection, subject to individual deeds of gift, online.

The Center's varied outreach activities -- which include at present two traveling exhibits and an educational document packet -- will be the focus of the projected third part of the site. This part of the Web site will include online exhibits of digitized records for educational purposes. Plans also include posting experimental teaching units from upcoming educational document packets based on materials from the Center's holdings. These online documents will be selected from the records of Congress for their historical significance and educational utility, converted into digitized images, and accompanied by such aids as transcripts and historical summaries that place the featured documents into context.

The fourth part consists of a brief set of links to associated Web sites concerning Congress and Congressional studies. These include links to the homepages of the House of Representatives, the Senate, and "Thomas," the legislative Web site of the Library of Congress. Additional links are provided to the Congressional Papers Roundtable homepages, as well as other professional association sites.

As of mid-August there are 52 members of the House of Representatives who will not be members of the 105th Congress, which will convene in January 1997. These members are retiring, running for other office, or have been defeated in a primary. Guidelines for the proper disposition of office files have been distributed to all of these offices and Legislative Resource Center staff have met with 30 of these offices. If your repository is receiving the papers of any of these members and you need more information about these guidelines or procedures for closing an office in the House of Representatives, contact Cynthia Pease Miller, B-18 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515 (202) 225-1153.

Also preparatory to archiving the work of the 104th Congress, the Legislative Resource Center is preparing a new edition of the handbook Committee Record Guidelines and will offer a seminar this fall for the committee clerks. New e-mail address for Cynthia Miller: cynthiam@clerk.house.gov Do not use the old address (cmiller1@hr.house.gov)

The Senate Historical Office reports that there are thirteen Senators retiring at the end of this Congress, not counting Senator Robert Dole. The Senate Archivist has been working with all of the offices that are closing to select a repository and prepare the materials for donation and transfer. All but four of the offices have hired professional archivists to assist during this last year with selection and transfer of archival materials. Of the remaining four offices which did not hire professional archivists, two have sent staff to NARA for training in archival and records management practices. The Senate Historical Office also has been working extensively with computer center staff and office systems administrators to prepare electronic records for transfer. For the first time, the Senate will be transferring electronic files on CD-ROM. These will be in ASCII and will have a search engine embedded. This is a temporary transfer medium. Each repository will then determine how it wants to maintain the information. Repositories have been given the opportunity to receive a demonstration disk for testing purposes.

In July, Dr. William Saffady (Professor in the School of Information Science and Policy, State University of New York at Albany) conducted a seminar for Senate administrative staff and systems administrators on the topic of "Optical Disks and Micrographics: Competition or Integration." The Senate has maintained a micrographics laboratory for the past twenty years and wished to evaluate optical disk systems as replacements or supplements.

A meeting of the Advisory Committee on the Records of Congress (established under authority of Public Law 101-509, November 5, 1990) is scheduled for September 16th at the Senate. Further information is available from the Center for Legislative Archives, National Archives.

The following nominations will be placed at the meeting of the Congressional Papers Roundtable at SAA in San Diego, Friday, August 30, 4:00 p.m. This will be the first election under the new Roundtable bylaws.

Nomination for Chair of the Roundtable:

• Ron Becker, Rutgers University Library

Nominations for Vice-chair/chair-elect:

• Bill Brown, University of Miami
• Mark Greene, Minnesota Historical Society

Nominations for Steering Committee (select two):

• Ed Galloway, Heinz Archive, Carnegie Mellon University
• Pam Hackbart-Dean, Richard B. Russell Library, University of Georgia Libraries
• Gretchen Lake, University of Alaska at Fairbanks
• Peter Steere, University of Arizona

Anyone wishing to cast an absentee ballot, please contact Herb Hartsook, Modern Political Collections, 720 College, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208 (803-777-0577) or e-mail

Tim Pyatt: Two new congressional collections were acquired by the Manuscripts Department of the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. For more information contact Tim Pyatt, Assistant Curator of Manuscripts, or see our website at http://www.unc.edu/lib/mssinv/

J. Alex McMillan, Republican member of U.S. House of Representatives, was elected in 1984 and held four successive terms until 1994. McMillan served on numerous committees, including Small Business (1985-1986), Banking and Urban Affairs, Joint Economic (1986-1988), Energy and Commerce (1989-1994), and Budget (1991-1994). Task Forces he was involved with include the Leadership for Health Care Reform and the President's Commission for Entitlement Reform (1994). McMillan served as a delegate to the North Atlantic Assembly (NATO) and as Vice Chairman of the Economic Committee and Sub-Committee on East-West Economic Cooperation.

The J. Alex McMillan Papers (#4741) encompass his entire congressional career and also contain materials pertaining to McMillan's civic and professional involvements in Charlotte, and throughout North Carolina. Approximately 350 linear feet; access is restricted until processing of the papers is complete. The collection was initially received in January 1995 with an addition in March 1996.

Harold Martin Lancaster (1943-) represented the Third North Carolina District in the United States House of Representatives from 1987-1994. The H. Martin Lancaster Papers (#4790) chiefly contain North Carolina General Assembly and United States House of Representatives legislative materials (bills, committee reports, etc.) and correspondence relating to the issues discussed in the legislative materials. About 20% of the collection relates to Lancaster's tenure in the North Carolina House of Representatives, 1978-1986. The rest of the collection relates to his time in the United States Congress as representative from the Third North Carolina District, 1987-1994.

Received in January 1995, the collection consists of approximately 51,750 items (165.0 linear feet). An initial inventory is available; access to portions of the collection is restricted until 2004.

Jim Cross: States' Rights papers opened for use: Material documenting Strom Thurmond's campaign for President in 1948 on the States' Rights Democratic Party ticket is now available for use at the Special Collections Unit, Clemson University Libraries, Clemson, SC. Most of the files relate to the South Carolina branch of the party, although there is a significant amount of material from the national party headquarters and the campaign in other states as well. It forms part of the Campaigns subseries of the Gubernatorial series within the Strom Thurmond Collection, and also includes material from Thurmond's 1946 campaign for Governor of South Carolina and 1950 campaign for Senator against incumbent Olin Johnston (the only campaign he has ever lost). This is the largest extant collection of papers on the 1948 States' Rights campaign.

Thurmond memorabilia on display in Atlanta: Buttons, posters and a necktie (!) from Strom Thurmond's 1948 Presidential campaign are on display at the Atlanta History Center. The items are part of the Center's exhibit "The American South: Past, Present, Future" which was part of the festivities for the Olympics and will run until June 15, 1997. The Atlanta History Center is located at 130 West Paces Ferry Road, Atlanta, Georgia 30305-1366.

Pam Hackbart-Dean: Web Page for the Richard B. Russell Library: The Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies is on the Net!! As of late March, a World Wide Web page for the Russell Library is up and running at http://www.libs.uga.edu/russell/russell.html. Included at the site is textual and graphical information about the Russell Library, its collections, and the Russell Foundation. There is also information on contacting and visiting the library, current exhibits, rules and regulations for using the materials, and links to other sites on the Internet. Web pages are always improving, and the Russell Library's is no exception. In the future, more collection descriptions will be added to the site as well as editions of the "Russell Amendment." Surf the net and tell us what you think.

Unveiling of the Richard B. Russell, Jr. Statue: On January 24, 1996, Vice President Al Gore, Georgia Governor Zell Miller, U.S. Senator Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), and congressional leaders celebrated the unveiling of a new marble statue by sculptor Frederick E. Hart honoring Georgia Senator Richard B. Russell, Jr. The seven-foot-high statue has been placed in the rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., honoring the senator known as "the Georgia Giant," who died 25 years ago. Senator Russell was one of the most respected legislators and presidential advisors in U.S. history, serving under every president from Franklin D. Roosevelt through Richard M. Nixon. Nunn was the master of ceremonies at the invitation-only event. Vice President Gore, Senator Robert C. Byrd (D-W. Va.), Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), and Governor Miller spoke of Russell and his contributions to the nation.

Avril Madison: Manuscripts & University Archives of the University of Washington recently processed the papers of Sterling Munro, who was Senator Henry M. Jackson's chief aide and campaign manager from 1961 to 1976. The long sought collection created by Sterling Munro was a gift of his widow, Gene Munro, who donated it in 1995. Archival arrangement and description of the papers were completed under a grant from the Henry M. Jackson Foundation. The Munro Papers span the period 1952 to 1990 with the bulk of the collection dating from 1960. The records document his civil service and consultant careers through 1981, and his political activities as a private citizen through 1990. They also complement the 1,193 cubic ft. Henry M. Jackson Papers donated in 1983.

Approximately two-thirds of the Munro accession contains material generated during his tenure on Senator Jackson's staff and primarily chronicle Jackson's Senate campaigns, his two bids for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1972 and 1976, and his legislative efforts. Included in the 35 cubic ft. accession are the incoming and outgoing correspondence of Jackson, Munro, and other members of the Jackson legislative and campaign staffs. The Papers also contain financial records for Jackson's Presidential campaigns; campaign materials, legislation, news releases, reports, speeches and writings, subject series, clippings and ephemera. A guide and inventory are available.

Eliot Wilczek: Bowdoin College Archives and Special Collections is pleased to announce the beginning of a two-year project to process the papers of former Maine Senator George J. Mitchell. Funding for the project was supplied by an anonymous donor. Information about the collection and progress reports about the processing are available at the George J. Mitchell Papers Web Site: http://www.bowdoin.edu/dept/library/arch/mitchell

At the end of the project a complete finding aid will be available online. The project staff includes Project Director, Greg Colati, College Archivist; Processing Assistants Cally Gurley and Eliot Wilczek; and student assistants.

James Corsaro: The New York State Library Manuscripts and Special Collections is now the repository of the papers of Congressman Hamilton Fish, Jr.. Congressman Fish from Millbrook, New York, served in the House from 1969 to 1994. He was the most recent in a long line of distinguished members of his family to serve his state and nation. His great-grandfather, Hamilton Fish, Sr., served as Governor of New York and as Ulysses S. Grant's secretary of state; his grandfather, Hamilton Fish, served as Speaker of the New York Assembly; and his father, Hamilton Fish, Sr., who served in the House from 1920 to 1944, was a conservative opponent of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Congressman Fish was a moderate Republican who was known as one of the major figures in the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, the Civil Rights Act of 1991, and the Voting Rights Extension Act of 1982. He was known as the leading Republican in the House on civil rights bills. He was the senior member of the New York congressional delegation and the senior Republican on the House Judiciary Committee. His vote to support the resolution to impeach Richard Nixon in 1974 showed his independence and strong integrity in the face of much political pressure.

The New York State Library received about 205 cubic feet of Congressman Fish's papers documenting his distinguished 25-year career in the House. The Library also received his father's papers of approximately 150 linear feet. His father's papers include material about his congressional career as well as his work as the founder of the American Legion, as a star football player for Harvard, as a decorated soldier in World War I, and as a writer and speaker for conservative causes until his death at age 102. The Library also received a set of scrapbooks related to the political career of Congressman Fish's grandfather in the New York State Assembly which have been added to the many papers of the Fish family already in the collections.

The Manuscripts and Special Collections unit of the State Library has over 15,000 cubic feet of archival and manuscript material as well as large collections of rare books, cartographic material, visual materials, musical scores and ephemera. The collections are available for research Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.. Questions concerning the Fish family papers may be addressed James Corsaro, Associate Librarian for the unit.

Herbert J. Hartsook: Modern Political Collections at the University of South Carolina has recently opened the papers of Congressman Robert W. Hemphill (1915-1983), Elizabeth Patterson (b. 1939), and announced the receipt of the congressional papers of Robert M. "Robin" Tallon, Jr. (b. 1946).

Hemphill represented South Carolina's 5th District in Congress from 1957 until 1964, when he was appointed Federal District Judge. The collection, 6.25 ft., 1926-1984, chiefly documents his judicial career, 1964-1983, and personal life.

Patterson, the daughter of Senator Olin Johnston, represented South Carolina's 4th District from 1987-1993. A Democrat in a largely Republican district, Patterson was defeated for re-election in 1992 by Bob Inglis. Ten feet of papers, 1964-1994, document her life in politics and service in the South Carolina General Assembly and Congress. Additions are received irregularly.

Robin Tallon represented South Carolina's 6th District from 1983 to 1993. Tallon announced in 1992, after redistricting made the 6th a heavily black majority district, that he would retire rather than engage in a divisive campaign; this despite predictions that he would win re-election. The Tallon papers currently consists of 102 ft. of material, 1982-1993. Tallon also contributed generously to the Modern Political Collections Endowment -- which now stands at $ 70,000 -- to help underwrite expenses related to the care of his papers.

Beth Silbergleit: The Center for Southwest Research, a department of the University of New Mexico General Library, is pleased to announce the opening of the Dennis Chavez Papers. Dennis Chavez was born in Los Chavez, Valencia County, New Mexico, on April 8, 1888. His career in political office began in 1922 when he was elected to the New Mexico State Legislature. In 1930, he was elected as the Democratic candidate to the House of Representatives. Chavez was defeated by Bronson Cutting for a U.S. Senate seat in 1934, but when Cutting died in 1935, Govern Clyde Tingley appointed Chavez to fill the vacant seat. He was elected to serve out the remainder of the unexpired term in 1936, and was re-elected in 1940, 1946, 1952, and 1958. Chavez was the first native-born Hispanic elected to the U.S. Senate. At the time of his death, he was fourth ranking in Senate seniority. He died in Washington, D.C., on November 18, 1962 and is buried at Mount Cavalry Cemetery in Albuquerque.

The Dennis Chavez papers contain 383 cubic feet of material documenting Chavez's career as a politician. This includes his tenure in the New Mexico State Legislature, as well as in the United States Congress, where he was involved in such areas as Indian affairs, labor, the Post Office, the Defense Department, Latin American issues, and New Deal programs. The bulk of the collection dates between 1930 until 1962. The collection contains personal and congressional papers and correspondence (including materials related to Senator Joseph McCarthy), photographs, news clippings, publications, maps, reports, legislation, press releases, scrapbooks, and memorabilia. Also included are project files on New Mexico counties and subject files on agriculture, mining, and water resources, among other topics. The inventory to the Dennis Chavez Papers is available on disk in WordPerfect 5.1. The complete inventory and collection are accessible via the Anderson Reading Room, Center for Southwest Research, Zimmerman Library at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

We have the congressional papers of a prominent politician. The material on his election campaigns includes film/video promotional material, intended to be broadcast as advertisements or publicly shown. Some of these films were created by ad-hoc "Committee to Re-elect Congressman X." The individual is still politically active, and we have received requests from news organizations and researchers -- probably including people working for political organizations -- for copies of the videos. What are the issues -- absent any donor imposed restrictions on the use of the materials -- with allowing news media to use such campaign material in news programing? Does this fall under fair use? Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Christopher Densmore
University Archives, University at Buffalo
420 Capen Hall, Box 602200
Buffalo, New York 14260-2200
Tel: 716-645-2916
Fax: 716-645-3714
email:

I'm looking for the personal papers of Herman Talmadge and Jennings Randloph from 1957-1959. The two co-authored a bill together during that time that was passed into law. I've checked with the University of Georgia for Talmadge's papers and they have everything except those years. I've also gone down the list of repositories from Guide to Research Collections of Former U.S. Senators for Talmadge and haven't had any luck either. And I've also checked with the Legislative Archives at NARA, which turned up nothing. I'm having even more difficulties finding any sort of list for Randolph, except that he is not listed as a Senator whose papers are without a home. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Lara Christian, Bach & Bingham
Tel: (205) 251-8100
Fax: (205) 226-8799
email:

Guide to the Silvio O. Conte Congressional Papers, 1950-1991, prepared by Gail L. Giroux, with assistance from Linda L. Seidman, et al. [Amherst]: University of Massachusetts Amherst, 1995. Contact Gail Giroux, Conte Archivist, at (413) 545-2780 or Also, visit the Silvio O. Conte Congressional Papers website at the following URL: http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/silvio.html

Closing a Congressional Office: a Guide to the Disposition of Official Papers and Records, prepared by the Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, Robin H. Carle, Clerk. [Washington, 1996] For information, contact Cynthia Pease Miller, Legislative Resource Center, U.S. House of Representatives, (202) 225-1153 or

1994 Congressional Papers Conference: the Preservation, Use, and Accessibility of the Personal Papers of Members of Congress (Portland, Maine: September 16-17, 1994), sponsored by Northwood University Margaret Chase Smith Library. Edited under the direction of Gregory P. Gallant, Director, Margaret Chase Smith Library and William E. Brown, Jr., Head of Archives and Special Collections, University of Miami (FL). For more information, contact Bill Brown, (305) 284-3551 or

If you scanned by it, go back and read the above publication announcement again. Published proceedings of the 1994 Congressional Papers Conference are available from Bill Brown at the University of Miamia or Gregory Gallant at the Margaret Chase Smith Library. Especially if you missed the conference, you'll enjoy reading this publication. ** The Roundtable's website "Congressional Sources on the Internet" continues to grow. There are now 26 repositories providing various levels of description via the Internet to identify 231 collections of congressional papers. Time to make the site searchable! This will be the second CPR newsletter available at the site: http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/congress.html ** See you all in San Diego. I'll be bringing our updated mailing list -- 163 members. If you have changes, be sure to let me know, and as always, please send news. Many thanks to all the contributors to this newsletter. (302) 831-6089 or FAX it to (302) 831-1046

L. Rebecca Johnson Melvin
Special Collections
University of Delaware Library
Newark, DE 19717-5267

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