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SOCIETY OF AMERICAN ARCHIVISTS
Congressional Papers Roundtable
Newsletter
February 1999
Table of Contents
Note from the Chair
St. Paul
22 Feb. 1999
Dear Colleagues,
Earlier in February, I attended a conference at the National Archives for
personnel of the presidential libraries. There was a strong emphasis on
developing a coordinated preservation strategy that would set goals and
impact budgeting decisions. Soon after I returned to Austin, I received an
e-mail from Jeffrey Suchanek saying that the preservation /conservation
survey discussed at the 1998 CPR business meeting in Orlando was ready to
mail. There is clearly a growing realization of the need to identify the
conservation/preservation problems in modern political collections.
The survey, prepared by Jeffrey Suchanek and Mark Greene, will provide
basic statistical information about current preservation/conservation and
holdings maintenance practices. The information will help archivists
evaluate the preservation work being done in modern political collections
and help them to develop preservation strategies and budget priorities.
When you receive the survey, please take the time to complete and return
it; the success of this project depends on widespread participation. The
survey results will be presented at the Sept. 1999 Roundtable meeting in
Pittsburgh.
On another note, there have been two new developments in the House of
Representatives. Early last year, as you remember, there was a
reorganization of the Office of the Clerk. The reorganization, implemented
by then House Clerk Robin Carle, effectively abolished the archivist
position held by Cynthia Miller. The Roundtable strenuously objected to
the change and asked the House Oversight Committee to restore the position.
The position was not restored. To update everyone, Robin Carle resigned
in Dec. 1998, and the new clerk is Jeff Trandahl, who is considering his
own reorganization. Cynthia Miller is still employed by the Office, but
not as a professional archivist. I am drafting a letter to Jeff Trandahl
asking him to consider restoring the archivist's position. I encourage
members of the Roundtable to write the new clerk to express their hopes
that the position will now be restored. The address is Hon. Jeff Trandahl,
Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, H-154, U.S. Capitol, Washington, DC.
The second development in the House came with the adoption of new rules
for the 106th Congress. The new rules include a provision saying "there is
established an Office of the Historian of the House of Representatives.
The Speaker shall appoint and set the annual rate of pay for employees of
the Office of the Historian." We will continue to watch and see what
happens on that front. (see below "A Renewed House Historian?")
At the Orlando meeting, the steering committee discussed the possibility
of having a panel on fund-raising for archival projects at the 1999
Roundtable business meeting. I have talked to Mike Gillette, director of
the Center for Legislative History at the National Archives, and to Herb
Hartsook, curator of Modern Political Collections at the University of
South Carolina. Both have agreed to speak at our meeting. Most recently,
Mike Gillette obtained corporate and foundation support for a documentary
source book, Our Mothers Before Us: Women and Democracy, 1789-1920. The
book highlighted documents from the Center for Legislative Archives. Herb
Hartsook has been very successful at persuading donors' to give monetary
support along with their donations of papers. I am looking forward to
hearing them in Pittsburgh.
Claudie Anderson
Correspondence with the House Clerk
The House Legislative Resource Center (LRC) sends the following news:
The web site http://bioguide.congress.gov/
is now available. It provides
online access to biographies of all members of Congress since 1774, as well
as updated versions of the House and Senate guides to research collections
and bibliographies of Senators. Favorable comments have been received
regarding the site. Our thanks go to those of you who have sent updated
information on the congressional collections in your repositories. The LRC
and the Senate Historical Office update the web site as information is
received. The LRC is currently adding bibliographic citations for House
members. Researchers who contact the office by telephone and e-mail are
enthusiastic about having current information so readily available.
The new 106th Congress exhibits the lowest turnover in House membership
in ten years Only forty-nine members elected to the 105th Congress are not
members of the 106th. During the last Congress four members died, two were
appointed to other office, three resigned, twenty-one did not seek
reelection, and twelve ran for other office, including three elected to the
Senate. One member was defeated in the primary, six in the general election.
The LRC provided advice to 30 of the offices that were closing. Nineteen
departing members donated their papers to repositories upon leaving the House.
House Claims Furniture of Former Speakers
The House is claiming furniture taken by former Speakers when they left
office. In many cases, the furniture has been displayed in public exhibits
commemorating the lives and careers of these men. This action has been in
conjunction with a law affecting publicly-funded offices of living former
Speakers.
Approximately 40 pieces of furniture, primarily tables and chairs, from
former Speaker Tom Foley (D-WA) are located at the Foley Institute of
Washington State University. They are on a permanent loan from the House.
During the summer of 1998, House Clerk Robin Carle contacted the Foley
Institute about reclaiming these items, based on the law. The furniture
had gone to the institute in 1994 when Foley was still Speaker, and because
of this, the institute is seeking clarification on whether the law applies.
Texas Christian University has also been contacted about furniture
associated with former Speaker Jim Wright (D-TX). This includes chairs,
tables, a lamp, a sofa, a bookcase, draperies, and other pieces, and all
have been displayed in the Special Collections area of the Burnett Library
since 1989. Representatives from the House have repeatedly checked on the
items in the intervening years. Last summer, the Clerk's Office contacted
Wright, not the university, about the return of these items, and the former
Speaker indicated that he will comply with the request.
From 1986-1996, the Bapst Library at Boston College (BC) displayed
furnishings from the Speaker's office of Tip O'Neill (D-MA), and this was a
popular tourist attraction. Exhibited were a grandfather clock, two
chandeliers, a sofa, a love seat, chairs, tables, lamps, and a porcelain
horse presented to the Speaker by the premier of China. These items were
on loan from the Architect of the Capitol and the Clerk's Office. As a
separate loan from the Smithsonian, BC had Pres. Grover Cleveland's desk,
which O'Neill had also used in his Washington office. In 1996 the
university decided to close this display and install at the Thomas P.
O'Neill, Jr., Library a permanent exhibit, with the Smithsonian desk as the
centerpiece. Proposals were made to move or purchase the furniture on
loan from the House, but the pieces were returned to Washington when the
Clerk's Office would not agree to these changes. Included was the rostrum
chair, which BC said O'Neill's colleagues had given him as a retirement
present. The Clerk's Office was unable to substantiate this.
The Clerk's Office has contacted the University of Texas's Center for
American History, which oversees the Sam Rayburn Library and Museum. Among
the items sought to be returned are a Greek urn and a marble rostrum. The
view of the center is that the Rayburn Library and Museum and its contents
are property of the state of Texas.
Boston University (BU) possesses a desk, chairs, a sofa, flags, and other
items from John McCormack, and it has also been approached by the House.
These items are no longer formally displayed, as they had been during
McCormack's lifetime, but they are prominently identified as having
belonged to the former Speaker. BU had not complied with the House clerk's
request because it believes itself to be the owner of the items through an
agreement with McCormack.
The 18 Feb. 1999 issue of ROLL CALL stated that the staff of new Speaker
Dennis Hastert has been reviewing the situation and that nothing definite
has been decided yet. It also reported that "sources familiar with the
deliberations said House officials are sensitive to the notion that
whatever decisions they reach will likely serve as precedent for the
disposition of the legacies of all past and future Speakers." New House
Clerk Jeffrey Trandahl, in his former role as deputy clerk, had performed
an investigation into the disposition of the furniture.
Renewed House Historian?
Page Putnam Miller, director of the National Coordinating Committee for
the Promotion of History, reported the following in her 28 Jan. 1999 NCC
Washington Update (which appeared on the Archives & Archivists listserv):
On 6 Jan. 1999, the House of Representatives re-codified and passed a
revised version of its standing rules. The revision, which involved
reducing the standing rules from 52 to 28, retained the provision for the
Office of the Historian. In 1994 when Republicans gained control of the
House, one of Speaker Newt Gingrich's (R-GA) first acts was to dismiss the
House Historian, who had been selected by a bipartisan search committee and
had served ably for many years. For most of the past four years, the
position has remained vacant. The recently adopted Rule 2, which deals
with the duties of officers and members, states under Item 7 that "there is
established an Office of the Historian of the House of Representatives."
This is an encouraging development and may open the way for the House once
again to have a historian.
Senate Historical Office
The following news comes from Karen Paul:
Documenting the impeachment trial has been a primary focus of archival
activities during the past several weeks. The Senate historians have
maintained a chronology of the secretary of the Senate's role during the
process, beginning with the receipt of the Referral Report of the Office of
the Independent Counsel to the House of Representatives on 11 Sept. 1998
and continuing through the final vote to acquit on 12 Feb. 1999. This
information is designed to document the entire administrative process.
Concurrently, the documents that were submitted and created during the
trial have been collected and inventoried. These materials (including the
transcripts of closed sessions) will eventually be forwarded to the Center
for Legislative Archives.
The MINUTES OF THE SENATE DEMOCRATIC CONFERENCE, 1903-1964, (S. Doc.
105-20) have been published, thus fulfilling a 1991 recommendation made by
the Advisory Committee on the Records of Congress. Edited by Donald A.
Ritchie, the conference minutes add significantly to knowledge about the
Senate's institutional development during the first two-thirds of the
twentieth century. The minutes have been transcribed, annotated, edited,
and indexed. The 694-page volume is being sent to government depository
libraries and presidential libraries. Because it is published in very
limited quantity, the use of interlibrary loan is recommended.
(Publication of the Republican minutes will be forthcoming.)
Now that the impeachment trial is concluded, the Senate Historical Office
will be watching the status of S. 217, a bill to amend the Internal Revenue
Code of 1986 to provide for the treatment of charitable transfers personal
papers with a separate right to control access. Introduced by Sen. Daniel
Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) with Sens. Daniel Inouye (D-HA) and Paul Wellstone
(D-MN) as cosponsor, it has been referred to the Committee on Finance. In
his introductory statement, Moynihan explained that it is designed "to
correct a little-known estate and gift tax provision that may inadvertently
penalize persons who donate their personal papers and related items to a
charitable organization for the historical record" (see p. S663 of the 19
Jan. 1999 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD). The full text of the statement and the
bill are available through the Thomas web site of the Library of Congress
(http://thomas.loc.gov/).
SENATE RECORDS LENT TO HAWAII
In Aug. 1998, the Center for Legislative Archives of the National Archives
(NARA) and the Senate lent to the Bishop Museum of Honolulu, HA, portions
of a 1897 petition to the Senate. The 556-page petition contains the
signatures of 21,169 native Hawaiians, more than half the population at the
time, who protested the proposed annexation of Hawaii to the United States.
The document is highly revered by Hawaiians because it illustrates the
degree of opposition.
The petition was a forgotten part of Hawaiian history until 1992, when
Noenoe Silva, a Hawaii Studies doctoral candidate, saw it displayed in a
National Archives and Records Administration exhibit titled Ties that Bind.
Silva and Nalani Minton had the petition copied and published with a
50-page historical note. Tom Coffman, a Hawaiian journalist and film
maker, made the petition the centerpiece of a documentary film and
accompanying book titled NATION WITHIN: THE STORY OF AMERICA'S ANNEXATION
OF THE NATION OF HAWAII.
The Bishop Museum displayed that portion of the petition that could travel
to Hawaii (90% of the pages), and it mounted on the walls of the Hall of
Discovery copies of each page. Thousands of Hawaiians came to see the
petition because it contained "mana," the Hawaiian word for "spirit" or
"soul." They also searched for their ancestors' signatures. Ceremonies
were held when the petition arrived and when it returned to NARA in Jan.
1999. The NARA Document Conservation Laboratory is treating those pages
that were too fragile to travel, and a NARA microfilm publication will be
published this year.
Institutional News
Rep. Vic Fazio (D-CA), who recently retired after serving in Congress for
20 years, has donated 340 boxes of personal papers, political memorabilia,
and other documents to the library at the University of California-Davis.
It's the first time a national politician has donated his or her papers to
the university. There are boxes of material on base closures, water
policy, and environmental law. Fazio's speeches and briefing books are
also included. Also at the former representative's home are materials that
he is currently sorting through.
SACRAMENTO BEE
The Special Collections Unit, Clemson University Libraries, has acquired
new material for the J. Fred Buzhardt, Jr. Papers (1923-1984). The
addition includes photographs, clippings, and papers, including a
remarkable draft of a letter to Bob Woodward in reaction to All the
President's Men. The collection consists of the personal papers and other
material of J. [Joseph] Fred Buzhardt, Jr., who joined Sen. Strom
Thurmond's (R-SC) staff as legislative assistant in 1958 and became the
Senator's administrative assistant in 1965. In 1973 he became Pres.
Richard M. Nixon's special counsel in matters concerning the Watergate
investigation, and from Jan.- Oct. 1974, he was counsel to the president.
The Buzhardt Papers date primarily from these last two positions.
The Gubernatorial series of the Strom Thurmond Collection has been
microfilmed and opened for research. Covering the period 1947-1951, the
series includes appointment books, correspondence, proclamations, reports,
speeches and telegrams relating to Thurmond's official and personal
activities while being South Carolina's governor. Topics of interest
include civil rights, railroad freight rate equalization, regional
education, and women in government. There is also material on Thurmond's
1948 presidential campaign as the States' Rights ("Dixiecrat") Party
candidate. While most of the material relates to the South Carolina branch
of the party, it also contains information on the national campaign and
constitutes the largest amount of the States' Rights Party records still
extant.
Matthew Priewe and Jim Cross
The University of Connecticut is pleased to announce the donation of the
papers of Rep. Barbara B. Kennelly (D-CT). The collection will be placed
in the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center on the university's Storrs Campus.
Kennelly was the first woman to serve as vice chair of the House Democratic
Caucus, as chief deputy majority whip, and as member of the House Committee
on Intelligence. In the 105th Congress, she was the ranking member of the
Subcommittee on Social Security. A longtime advocate for children, she has
worked for child protection programs, foster care and adoption assistance,
and health care.
Kennelly represented Connecticut's First District from 1982 until 1998,
when she ran unsuccessfully against John Rowland for governor of the state.
Prior to her election to Congress, she was secretary of the state of
Connecticut and a member of the Hartford Court of Common Council. The collection consists of 72 cubic feet of materials pertaining to her
Congressional career and includes correspondence, reports, news clippings,
press releases, speeches, committee and issue files, and audio visual
materials. A public announcement will be made when the collection is
opened for research.
Betsy Pittman
The Dirksen Congressional Center has a new Web site
www.pekin.net/dirksen with information about the center's history,
governance, programs, grants, archival collections, and other features.
The center has also sponsored a new grants program, called the Robert H.
Michel Civic Education Grants. Information on the grants can be found at
the Web site.
Frank H. Mackaman
The Pepper OnLine Archival and Retrieval Information System (POLARIS)
Project officially began in Oct. 1998 at the Claude Pepper Library, Florida
State University. It provides access to the library's holdings.
Researchers will be able to search and browse the finding aid to the papers
of Sen. Claude Pepper (D-FL), as well as the collections of photographs,
memorabilia, and audiovisual recordings. In the future, this will be
available on the Internet. The POLARIS project team is creating a database
for the finding aid container lists, and will be pursuing several projects
involving the imaging of documents and photographs and the digital
reproduction of sound and video recordings from the collection.
Burt Altman
The Joint Archives of Holland has processed the first increment of the
papers of Rep. Guy A. Vander Jagt (R-MI), member of Congress from 1967 to
1992. The collection will be closed until processing is completed in 2000.
Vander Jagt served as chairman of the National Republican Congressional
Committee from 1975-1992. His committee assignments included Ways and
Means, the Joint Committee on Taxation, and Foreign Affairs. The papers
were processed during the summer of 1998 by Helen Baer, now an MLIS
graduate from the University of Texas at Austin. Two subsequent summer
interns will complete the processing. The Vander Jagt collection will
eventually join the other processed congressional collections of Rep.
Gerrit J. Diekema (R-MI) and Sen. William Alden Smith (R-MI). For further
information about the project, write to Geoffrey Reynolds, Collections
Archivist, at P.O. Box 9000, Hope College Campus, Holland, MI 49422-9000,
or send
Geoffrey D. Reynolds
Humbolt State University holds the papers of Rep. Don Clausen (R-CA), and
a preliminary box-level inventory was recently prepared. The collection
contains more than 80 boxes. Future plans for the collection have not been
established, but processing is expected to begin within the next few years.
Clausen served in Congress from 1963-1983.
Edie Butler
The University of Kansas continues with its plans for a new archive
facility to house the papers of Sen. Robert Dole (R-KS). A site has been
selected. The designs for the building include space for a separate
receiving room; large processing area; digitization, photo, conservation
labs; and exhibit preparation room. A separate heating, ventilation and
air-conditioning system for the storage areas will maintain constant
temperature year-round.
The Dole Institute's programs and the senator's career continue to be
highlighted in various ways, including a photo display of Dole's last week
in the Senate (shown 29-30 Jan. 1999 at the annual Kansas Day Celebration
in Topeka, KS) and a presentation made on 13 Feb. 1999 to the Riley County
(Kansas) Republican Women. Future plans include celebration of the 30th
anniversary of Dole's maiden speech in the U. S. Senate (14 Apr.1999) and a
conference on the 50th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization in Sept.
Within the last six months, the Dole Archive has acquired materials from
former Dole staff members and volunteers. These include materials
regarding the senator's legislative interests on the rights of the
disabled, world trade, taxation, and budgetary issues; audio files from
Senate hearings; and photographs from photographer P. F. Bentley. Former
staff members, volunteers, and friends of the senator are encouraged to
donate materials and anecdotal history to the Dole Archive, Kansas
Collection, Spencer Research Library, the University of Kansas. Processing
continues on the Dole papers, and it is expected to be completed in two or
three years.
Bryan Culp
On 18 Sept. 1998, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library released
recordings and transcripts of telephone conversations held by Johnson from
1 Sept.-31 Oct. 1964. The Library had previously opened the president's
recorded conversations dated 22 Nov. 1963 - 31 Aug. 1964.
The focus of many of the Sept. and Oct. conversations is the impending
1964 presidential election, but other topics include action on remaining
legislative items before Congress, another alleged attack on U.S.
destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin, the arrest and subsequent resignation of
Johnson aide Walter Jenkins, and the explosion of a nuclear bomb by the
People's Republic of China. The release includes a number of conversations
with members of Congress, including John McCormack, Carl Albert, Hale
Boggs, Mike Mansfield, Richard Russell, Carl Hayden, and many others.
There are approximately 34 hours of recorded conversations from this time
period.
Researchers may listen to the recordings in the library's Reading Room or
purchase copies of individual tapes at a cost of $6.00 per tape (minimum
order of $10.00). The cost of the set of 32 tapes is $132.00, plus Texas
sales tax where applicable. Copies of transcripts (transcribed by the
president's staff) may also be purchased at 10¢ per page if ordered in the
Reading Room and 20¢ per page if ordered by mail. Researchers should be
cautioned that the transcripts are not always reliable and should never be
used without being checked against the actual recordings.
Claudia Anderson
The Kentucky Archives for Politics and Public Policy at the University of
Kentucky Library recently announced the acquisition of the collections of
Sen. Wendell Ford (D-KY) and Rep. Scotty Baesler (D-KY).
After serving as a Kentucky state senator, lieutenant governor, and
governor, Ford was elected to the Senate in 1974, and he became the state's
longest serving Senator, breaking the record held by Alben W. Barkley
(D-KY). In addition to serving as minority whip, Ford was involved in major
national public policy debates and helped shape many pieces of historic
legislation, such as the National Voter Registration Act, the Family and
Medical Leave Act, the National Energy Security Act of 1992, the Age
Discrimination Act Amendments of 1986, the Tobacco Reform Act of 1985, and
the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act of 1977. He was known as a staunch
supporter of the economic interests of Kentucky, and as a national leader
on energy, aviation, and federal election reform. He served on committees
on Rules, Commerce, Science and Transportation, and Energy and Natural
Resources; on the Aviation subcommittee; and on the Joint Committee on
Printing. He also served as chairman of the National Democratic Governors
Caucus (1973-1974) and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
(1976-1982). The 1500 c. f. Ford Collection and includes gubernatorial
papers. Access to it is restricted during Ford's lifetime.
Scotty Baesler served as Lexington, KY, vice mayor and mayor and Fayette
County district judge. In 1991 he was defeated in the Democratic
gubernatorial primary, but in 1992 he was elected to Congress by a large
majority. He served three terms in the House before running for the Senate
seat vacated by Ford. In the Nov. 1998 general election he was defeated by
Rep. Jim Bunning (R-KY) by a narrow margin. Baesler served on the
Agriculture Committee, which positioned him to protect Kentucky's tobacco
interests. During the 104th Congress, he introduced legislation to prevent
the Food and Drug Administration from asserting regulatory control over
tobacco and tobacco products. As a founding member of the Democratic "Blue
Dogs," the congressman helped develop two major policy initiatives: the
Common Sense Balanced Budget Act of 1995 and the Individual Responsibility
Act. He also introduced legislation dealing with campaign finance reform.
The Baesler Collection consists of 42 cubic feet of material, and includes
photographs and audio-visual film and videotapes. Access to the collection
is restricted during Baesler's lifetime.
Jeffrey Suchanek
Since Dec., 1998, the Ohio State University Archives has received
approximately 1346 c. f. of the papers of Sen. John Glenn (D-OH). For the
most part, these document Glenn's 24 years in the Senate, and they include
correspondence, campaign materials, photographs, videotapes, microfilm of
constituent correspondence, press releases, speeches and artifacts. Also
included are more than 100 boxes of mail concerning his 1962 space flight.
Additional materials are expected in the near future, and these will
document Glenn's pre- and post-Senatorial career.
The collection is smaller and in better condition physically and
intellectually than expected. In 1997 Glenn added to his staff an
experienced and professional archivist, Colleen Mason, to prepare the
collection before transfer. Weeding of duplicates and trivial items took
place before the office closed. Nearly all of the boxes have
container-level descriptions, which are searchable electronically; some
also have folder-level descriptions.
The John Glenn Institute was inaugurated in 1998 at Ohio State University.
It will feature workshops, seminars, and classes that on formulation of
public policy and issues of citizenship. Glenn is a member of the faculty.
The archival program is an aspect of the Institute and is part of the Ohio
State University archives. Permanent funding to process the collection,
service researchers, and develop the collection further has been allocated
to the archives by the university. Staff will be hired in the very near
future.
The University Archives is in a new (1995) building that provides an ideal
environment for research and preservation. A picture of the building
appears on the archives' web site
http://www.lib.ohio-state.edu/arvweb.
An additional stack building has been funded and will be completed by the
spring of 2000.
Rai Goerler
The University of Scranton has received the Joseph M. McDade Collection.
Rep. McDade (R-PA) served the Tenth House District in northeast
Pennsylvania for eighteen terms beginning in 1963. At his 1998 retirement,
he was the senior republican in the House, the vice chair of the Committee
on Appropriations, and vice chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on
National Security. The unprocessed collection is approximately 400 cubic
feet, and it is stored in a recently renovated room in the university's
Weinberg Memorial Library.
Mike Knies
Modern Political Collections, a division of the University of South
Carolina's South Caroliniana Library, has recently opened the papers of
Reps. Joseph Raleigh Bryson and James R. Mann.
Bryson (1893-1953) represented South Carolina's Fourth House District from
1939 until his death in 1953. A conservative Democrat, he was a staunch
supporter of prohibition and a champion of states rights. He earned the
title "Mr. Textiles" for his work in the interest of the Southern textile
industry. The collection contains 8.75 l. f. of papers, chiefly dates from
1947-1953 (inclusive dates are 1917-1953), and documents Bryson's
congressional service.
James Robert Mann (1920- ) also represented the state's Fourth District
as a Democrat from 1969 until his retirement in 1979. He is best
remembered for his leadership on the House Judiciary Committee when it
considered the impeachment of Pres. Richard Nixon. The collection contains
28.75 l. f. of material, dates from 1948 -1998, and chiefly documents his
service in Congress and the state legislature.
Modern Political Collections recently mounted an exhibit on the career of
former South Carolina Governor and U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia John C.
West. It was displayed both in West's hometown of Camden, SC, and at the
South Caroliniana Library. Another exhibit, "Christmas on the Potomac,"
featured Christmas cards from the papers on former Rep. William Jennings
Bryan Dorn (D-SC).
Susan Dick, processing archivist with Modern Political Collections, is
leaving to become senior archivist at the Georgia Historical Society. The
vacated position is being upgraded to attract an experienced archivist and
will soon be advertised on the Archives & Archivists listserv.
Herbert J. Hartsook
The Archives/Special Collections Department of the Hilton M. Briggs
Library at South Dakota State University has recently completed processing
the Rep. Ben Reifel (R-SD) Papers. Reifel was from Parmelee, SD, and held a
seat in the House from 1961-1971. He was the first enrolled member of a
Sioux tribe to serve in Congress. The congressional part of the collection
is limited to election material, letters from VIPs, and memorabilia.
Reportedly, the bulk of his congressional materials was left in Washington,
DC, and has subsequently been lost. The finding aid to the collection can
be accessed on the Internet
http://www.sdstate.edu/li11/http/mss/scope/ma9.html
Elizabeth B. Scott
The University of Vermont Libraries has received the first installment of
the papers of Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT). These 40 l. f. include the
senator's personal files relating to his work as chair of the Committee on
Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, and they cover the years 1989-94.
Some of the more interesting topics documented include the Farm Bill
(1990), Vermont land trust, maple sugaring, the Northeast Dairy Compact,
and GATT Fast Track legislation. Leahy was elected to the Senate in 1974,
following the retirement of George D. Aiken (R-VT), and he is known as the
"cybersenator" because of his work on Internet legislation. He has been a
leader in the campaign against antipersonnel landmines, and he has been
ranked as a top environmental legislator. He serves on the Agriculture,
Judiciary (ranking member), and Appropriations committees and on several
Appropriation subcommittees including, Agriculture, Defense, Foreign
Operations, Interior, and VA-HUD. Kristi Mashon, the archivist on the
senator's staff, has been working closely with archivists at the
University of Vermont on disposition issues.
Connell B. Gallagher
The congressional papers of Rep. Thomas Foley (D-WA), former Speaker of
the House and now the ambassador to Japan, are now fully open for research
use at the Washington State University Libraries. Received in 1995, the
papers have been made available under limited conditions since that time,
pending the completion of processing and the compilation of a complete
guide. For information about the collection, contact Manuscripts,
Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries,
Pullman, WA 99164-5610. The telephone number is (509)335-6272. Hours of
service are 8-5, M-F. The guide to the collection is a 265-page folder
list. Interested persons may obtain it, either as a photocopy or on a
diskette with ASCII format files. There is a small fee. The guide can
also be viewed on the World Wide Web:
http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/holland/masc/foley.page.htm
Lawrence R. Stark
California Political Papers Consortium
The following information has been compiled from minutes to the meetings of
the California Political Papers Consortium's (CPPC):
CPPC is a group of archivists and manuscript librarians interested in
establishing cooperative procedures among interested California
repositories to ensure acquisition, preservation, and access to collections
documenting the activities of the state's public officials and political
organizations. Membership is open to all and currently includes
representatives from the California State Archives (CSA), the Los Angeles
City Archives, the Huntington Library, California State
University-Northridge, Loyola Marymount University, University of Southern
California, University of California-Irvine, University of California-Los
Angeles (UCLA), University of California-Riverside, and University of
California-Santa Barbara.
The organization began on 19 Sept. 1997, when 17 archivists and manuscript
librarians met at UCLA to discuss issues concerning California legislative
and governmental collections.
Attendees gave brief descriptions of past and current acquisition practices
and collection policies, notable holdings, processed and unprocessed
materials, and budgetary support at their respective repositories.
Discussions took place on the state's jurisdiction of governmental records,
processing costs and deaccessioning requirements, the need for detailed
appraisal guidelines specific to California collections, the need for
preparation and advance planning, coordination of acquisition efforts among
a repository's development staff and administrators, and the effects of
term limits. There was unanimous agreement among attendees that a
cooperative approach to the acquisition of legislative and governmental
collections should be pursued. By the end of the meeting, the group had
adopted its name and planned to meet again.
The next meeting was on 30 Jan. 1998 at the UCLA Library. Attendees
received a list of post-World War II California legislative and
governmental collections administered by non-governmental repositories. A
CSA representative discussed development of a statewide database that will
contain information on the location of California's legislative records
created since 1960. She also stated that the state archives is most
interested in acquiring bill, hearing, and subject files from state
legislators' offices but less so with their district office materials.
There was a confirmation of CPPC goals to ensure the preservation of and
access to the papers of persons who have served as public officials within
the state and to ensure the preservation of and access to the records
generated by significant organizations and agencies related to the state's
public officials and/or governmental activities. The membership agreed
that these collecting goals will be carried out in cooperation with the
collecting mandates and regulatory responsibilities of California archival
agencies. Each member repository will identify collections it wishes to
acquire within the parameters of its collection development or acquisition
policy, and each will foster the cooperative acquisition of collections on
a statewide level.
CPPC met for a third time on 30 Apr. 1998 in Pasadena, CA. Twenty-eight
persons gathered to review the reasons for the group's formation and to
determine statewide interest in promoting its objectives. Members made
presentations on their repositories, and information was presented on the
CSA attempt to document legislative intent in the state legislature and the
Los Angeles city archives concern over the acquisition of mayoral and city
council member records by local academic institutions. There was an
agreement to support and comply with state and local public records
statutes and ordinances, to support the mission and objectives of state
government archives and record centers, to further cooperative acquisition
efforts, and to expand the work of the CPPC into a statewide effort.
A fourth meeting was held in Sacramento, CA, on 6 Nov. 1998. Meeting
minutes have not yet been distributed.
Internet Resources
The Library of Congress American Memory Project is bringing online
important congressional records and publications. "A Century of Lawmaking
for a New Nation" is a web site
http://lcweb2.loc.gov.ammem/amlaw/lawhome.html designed to make these
records more accessible to students, scholars, and interested citizens, and
it will bring together the records and acts of Congress from the JOURNALS
OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS through THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE, which ceased
publication in 1873. Documents dated 1774-1805 are currently available.
Additional materials will be added to the site every few months. The
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD from 1989 to present is also available at
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/thomas2.html
Rebecca Johnson Melvin indicates that she plans to review the
congressional list at the University of Delaware's web site
http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/c_clctns.html . Anyone with
Internet-accessible collection information linked to that site should
review it and indicate changes to Rebecca. Those people wanting to add a
link from that site to their Internet-accessible collection information
should also contact her. Her e-mail address is
OAH Publication on Congressional History
(Reprinted with permission from APSA LEGISLATIVE STUDIES SECTION NEWSLETTER)
Senate Historian Richard A. Baker provided the introduction to the Summer
1998 issue of MAGAZINE OF HISTORY, published by the Organization of
American Historians (OAH). His introduction is followed by a panoramic
literature review on congressional history by archives specialists Kenneth
Kato and Elizabeth Rybicki, both from the Center for Legislative Archives
at the National Archives and Records Administration.
In three essays the magazine provides "examples of the ways in which
congressional history may be used to examine issues and structures
affecting the daily lives of most Americans":
*Patrick Maney, "The Rise and Fall of the New Deal Congress, 1933-1945"
*Donald A. Ritchie, "What Makes a Successful Congressional Investigation?"
*Raymond W. Smock, "Kings of the Hill: The Speakers of the United States
House of Representatives."
Accompanying lesson plans by Rita G. Koman, Donald A. Ritchie, and Richard
P. Kollen use original source documents related to the New Deal, the
Watergate scandal, and the 1836-1844 House gag rule debate.
Two additional essays describe Library of Congress and National Archives
projects designed to make documents and records much more readily available
to the nation's classrooms:
*Emily Lind Baker, "A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S.
Congressional Documents and Debates on the Internet"
*Richard Hunt, "Using the Records of Congress in the Classroom."
Editors Charlene Bangs Bickford and William C. diGiacomantonio draw upon
their First Federal Congress Project at George Washington University to
provide profiles of the more influential members of that Congress.
Those interested in obtaining a copy of this issue (Vol. 12, No. 4) of the
OAH MAGAZINE OF HISTORY may contact the Managing Editor, 112 North Bryan
Avenue, Bloomington, IN 47408-4199, (812) 855-7311 (tel.), (812) 855-0696
(fax), (e-mail). The magazine is also available on
microform and article copies through University Microfilms Inc., 300 N.
Zeeb Rd., Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106, telephone (800) 521-0600 (tel.)
Note from the Editor
Minutes to the 1998 CPR business meeting in Orlando were distributed to you
via e-mail in Nov. 1998. If you didn't receive a copy, please contact the
editor.
The editor would like to thank all who contributed to this issue of the
newsletter. If you have news for the next issue of the CONGRESSIONAL
PAPERS ROUNDTABLE NEWSLETTER, please submit it to the editor by 16 July
1999. The next issue will be distributed in Aug. 1999.
If you know of anyone who would like to join CPR, please have them contact
the editor.
Editor: Todd Kosmerick, Carl Albert Center, University of Oklahoma, 630
Parrington Oval, Rm 101, Norman, OK 73019, (405) 325-6372 (tel.), (405)
326-6419 (fax), (e- mail).
Note from Editor: Some Congressional Papers Roundtable members may still be
using my old e-mail address of kosmerick@uoknor.edu. Effective May 1,
1998, this will be deactivated. Congressional Papers Roundtable members
should use to contact me.
CPR pages maintained by Robin Reeder,
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