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SOCIETY OF AMERICAN ARCHIVISTS
Congressional Papers Roundtable
Newsletter
JULY 1999
Table of Contents
Note from the Chair
16 July 1999
Dear Colleagues:
Our Congressional Papers Roundtable meeting in Pittsburgh will be on
Thursday 26 August 1999 from 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. As I reported in our
Feb. newsletter, Mike Gillette, director of the Center for Legislative
Archives at the National Archives, and Herb Hartsook, curator of Modern
Political Collections at the University of South Carolina, have agreed to
speak on fund-raising for archival projects. Herb has been very successful
at persuading donors to provide monetary support when donating their
papers, and Mike has successfully solicited corporate support for a
documentary source book highlighting documents from the Center for
Legislative Archives. I am looking forward to the meeting in Pittsburgh
and hope to see many of you there.
There is a new development in the Office of the House Clerk. Cynthia
Miller recently accepted a position as the archivist on Sen. Daniel Patrick
Moynihan's staff, and she will be leaving the Clerk's Office. This is
great news for Cynthia, and we wish her well. The down side to this is
that it leaves the Clerk's Office without a professionally trained
archivist. Cynthia had served as an ex officio member of the CPR Steering
Committee, representing the Legislative Resource Center of the House of
Representatives. The Roundtable will have to decide who will replace her.
On a slightly different note, as chair of CPR, I wrote the new House
Clerk, Jeff Trandahl, in March [see text of letter below]. I asked him to
reconsider the reorganization undertaken by his predecessor, Robin Carle,
and to restore the staff position of assistant historian -- the position
held by a trained archivist. I did not receive an answer to my letter.
I wish to congratulate Mark Greene, our past chair, who has been
elected to the SAA Council. Each Council member serves as a liaison to several SAA
groups, and Mark will serve as the liaison with CPR.
I hope that all members have returned the Roundtable preservation
survey mailed this spring. Jeff Suchanek and Mark Greene will present the results
of the survey at our annual meeting. The agenda for the CPR meeting is
still open. So far the agenda includes the election of new officers, an
update on the tax status of restricted collections, the CPR preservation
survey, and announcements relating to other sessions which may be of
interest to the CPR membership. If there is anything that someone would
like to see added to the agenda, please e-mail me at
. I am looking forward to seeing all of
you at the annual meeting.
See you in Pittsburgh,
Claudia Anderson
Chair
Roundtable Business
SESSIONS OF INTEREST AT SAA
The following sessions at the Pittsburgh meeting may be of interest to CPR
members:
Session 26: "Web Sites, Electronic Finding Aids, and the Archival
Researcher," Aug. 27 (Fri.), 12:45 p.m. - 2:15 p.m. One of the panelists,
Burt Altman, will present findings from a user survey that was conducted
when planning the POLARIS (Pepper Online Archival Retrieval Information
System) project for a contemporary congressional collection, the Claude
Pepper Papers.
Session 36: "Archival Entrepreneurs: Donor Support for Archival
Collections," Aug. 28 (Sat.), 2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. Panelists will discuss
donor funding for archival activities. This session will complement the
presentations that Mike Gillette and Herb Hartsook will be making at the
CPR meeting.
CANDIDATES FOR CPR OFFICE
Vice Chair/chair Elect:
1. James Edward Cross, Manuscripts Archivist, Special Collections-Strom
Thurmond Institute, Clemson University.
2. Cynthia Pease Miller, Archivist, Office of Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Steering Committee (Two to be elected):
1. Ben Rogers, Archivist and Collections Manager, Baylor Collections of
Political Materials.
2. Burt Altman, Librarian/Archivist, Claude Pepper Library, Florida State
University.
3. Karyl Winn, Curator of Manuscripts and Acting University Archivist,
University of Washington.
Other candidates will be announced at the CPR meeting in Pittsburgh on 26 Aug.
House Legislative Resource Center
THE CHAIR'S LETTER TO THE HOUSE CLERK
Below is a copy of the letter that Claudia Anderson sent to the House
Clerk. She has not received a response.
March 18, 1999
Honorable Jeff Trandahl
Clerk, U. S. House of Representatives
H-154, U.S. Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Mr. Trandahl:
As Chair of the Congressional Papers Roundtable of the Society of
American
Archivists, I am writing to ask you to reassess the elimination of the
position of assistant historian which occurred in the Clerk's Office early
last year. The membership of the Congressional Papers Roundtable is
composed of archivists representing institutions which house the papers of
members of Congress. Our organization has a strong interest in the
reinstatement of the position of assistant historian. The assistant
historian has historically been a trained archivist who worked to ensure
that the records of the House and the papers of individual members were
saved and preserved.
At the time of the reorganization in the Clerk's Office, my predecessor
as
Chair, Mark Greene, as well as a number of the other members of the
Congressional Papers Roundtable, wrote Robin Carle in support of the
assistant historian's position. The letters outlined our concerns that the
lack of an experienced and professional archivist would have serious
repercussions for the preservation of the history of the House of
Representatives. As the records of the House and the papers of its members
become more complex and voluminous, the need for a staff member with
archival and records management expertise has become more and more
important. During the year since the reorganization in the Clerk's Office,
the absence of a trained archivist to facilitate the transfer of members'
papers to depositories, to offer advice to members on the management of
their files, and to ensure House records are properly preserved and
transferred to the Center for Legislative History at the National Archives
has been apparent.
Members of the Congressional Papers Roundtable are aware that the
papers
of several defeated or retiring House members have been inadvertently
destroyed by the House member's Washington staff before being transferred
to a depository. One case in point is that of the Rep. Scotty Baesler
(D-KY), whose Washington office staff destroyed a majority of his papers
before sending them to a depository because there was no one in the Clerk's
Office to advise them on what to do with the material. Until last year,
the assistant historian acted as a liaison between congressional staffs and
the institutions which members of Congress had selected to receive their
papers. The assistant historian served as an important link in the
management, preservation, and processing of members' papers.
On behalf of the Roundtable and the institutions that collect and make
available modern political collections, I again ask you to restore the
position of assistant historian in the Clerk's Office. Making the history
of the House of Representatives available to the public is important to our
citizens and is necessary for the proper functioning of our democratic
process. Without a trained archivist in the Clerk's Office, adequate
preservation of this history is at risk.
Sincerely,
Claudia Anderson
Chair
Senate Historical Office
ONLINE ACCESS TO SENATE ORAL HISTORIES
Since 1976, the Senate Historical Office has conducted oral history
interviews with former senators and retired members of the Senate staff.
Both biographical and institutional in scope, these interviews include
personal recollections of careers within the Senate and discussions of how
Congress has changed over the years.
During the week of 26 May 1999 with the online publication of a 1989
interview with Sen. George A. Smathers (D-FL), the Historical Office
initiated a project that will eventually provide online access to its
complete oral history series.
George A. Smathers served two terms in the U. S. House Representatives
(1947-1951) and three terms in the Senate (1951-1969). He defeated
incumbent Rep. Pat Cannon (D-FL) in the Democratic primary of 1946. Four
years later, he unseated Sen. Claude Pepper (D-FL) in a legendary primary
campaign. During his Senate career, Smathers chaired the Democratic
Campaign Committee, belonged to the Democratic Policy Committee, and served
as secretary of the Democratic Conference. He held seats on on the
Commerce, Finance, and Foreign Relations Committees, among others.
Smathers witnessed the political evolution of the South and the Senate on
civil rights legislation. Following his retirement from the Senate,
Smathers returned to the practice of law in Miami and Washington, and
became a prominent Washington lobbyist.
For more information, click on "Oral History Project" at the Senate
Historical Office home page
http://www.senate.gov/learning/learn_history.html
For more information about this and other publications of the Senate
Historical Office, please contact Betty K. Koed, Assistant Historian,
Senate Historical Office, (202) 224-0753.
RULES AND GUIDELINES FOR SENATE COMMITTEE RECORDS
Karen Paul of the Senate Historical Office reports that
A Records Management Handbook For United Senate Committees has
recently been published. It and the pamphlet U.S. Senate Records:
Guidelines for Committee Staff have been distributed in the Senate. Newly
highlighted in the handbook and pamphlet are the rules and statutes
governing ownership and disposition of committee records. It is important
that all repositories receiving senators' papers be aware that committee
records should not be included in such donations. If they are found mixed
with the private papers, repositories should contact the Senate Archivist
at (202) 224-3351 and arrange for the return of these materials. The
following rules and statutes govern Senate records:
Senate Standing Rule XI: Papers Withdrawal, Printing, Reading of, and
Reference
1. No memorial or other paper presented to the Senate, except original
treaties finally acted upon, shall be withdrawn from its files except by
order of the Senate.
2. The Secretary of the Senate shall obtain at the close of each Congress
all the noncurrent records of the Senate and of each Senate committee and
transfer them to the National Archives for preservation, subject to the
orders of the Senate.
Senate Standing Rule XXVI: Committee Procedure
10. (a) All committee hearings, records, data, charts, and files shall be
kept separate and distinct from the congressional office records of the
Member serving as chairman of the committee; and such records shall be the
property of the Senate and all Members of the committee and the Senate
shall have access to such records. Each committee is authorized to have
printed and bound such testimony and other data presented at hearings held
by the committee.
44 U.S.C. 2118. Records of Congress
The Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House of Representatives,
acting jointly, shall obtain at the close of each Congress all the
noncurrent records of the Congress and of each congressional committee and
transfer them to the National Archives and Records Administration for
preservation, subject to the orders of the Senate or the House of
Representatives, respectively.
2 U.S.C. 72a. Committee Staffs
(d) Recordation of Committee Hearings, Data, etc.; Access to Records
All committee hearings, records, data, charts, and files shall be kept
separate and distinct from the congressional office records of the Member
serving as chairman of the committee; and such records shall be the
property of the Congress and all members of the committee and the
respective Houses shall have access to such records. Each committee is
authorized to have printed and bound such testimony and other data
presented at hearings held by the committee.
18 U.S.C. 641. Public Money, Property or Records
Whoever embezzles, steals, purloins, or knowingly converts to his use or
the use of another, or without authority, sells, conveys or disposes of any
record, voucher, money, or thing of value of the United States or of any
department or agency thereof, or any property made or being made under
contract for the United States or any department or agency thereof;
or
Whoever receives, conceals, or retains the same with intent to convert it
to his use or gain, knowing it to have been embezzled, stolen, purloined or
converted-
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 10 years, or
both; but if the value of such property does not exceed the sum of $1000,
he shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or
both. The word "value" means face, par, or market value, or cost price,
either wholesale or retail, whichever is greater.
18 U.S.C. 2071. Concealment, Removal, or Mutilation Generally
(a) Whoever willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates,
obliterates, or destroys, or attempts to do so, or with intent to do so
takes and carries away any record, proceeding, map, book, paper, document,
or other thing, filed or deposited with any clerk or officer of any court
of the United States, or in any public office, or with any judicial or
public officer of the United States, shall be fined not more than $2000 or
imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
(b) Whoever, having custody of any such record, proceeding, map, book,
document, paper, or other thing, willfully and unlawfully conceals,
removes, mutilates, obliterates, falsifies, or destroys the same, shall be
fined not more than $2000 or imprisoned not more than three years, or both;
and shall forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office
under the United States. As used in this subsection, the term "office"
does not include the office held by any person as a retired officer of the
Armed Forces of the United States.
Center for Legislative Archives
ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETS
Mike McReynolds of the Center for Legislative Archives sends the following
news:
The Advisory Committee on the Records of Congress met on 14 June 1999
in Senate Room S-211 with Secretary of the Senate Gary Sisco chairing the
semiannual meeting. Four new members introduced themselves: James. B.
Lloyd, librarian, Special Collections, University of Tennessee; Elizabeth
Scott, archivist/librarian, Special Collections, South Dakota State
University; Timothy J. Johnson, curator, Special Collections, University of
Minnesota; and Susan Palmer, professor, Department of History, Aurora
University.
Opening statements were made by Sisco, Clerk of the House Jeff
Trandahl, and Archivist of the U. S. John Carlin. Following this was a discussion of
the electronic systems development programs in Congress, the renovation of
the downtown National Archives building, and the activities of the Center
for Legislative Archives.
Sisco and Trandahl both talked about intra-Congress and Internet
programs
to make congressional documentation flow easily between the House and the
Senate, and to the GPO and NARA, and then to the American public. Adrienne
Thomas, assistant archivist for administration at NARA, updated the
committee on the plans for the renovation of Archives I. Michael Gillette,
director of the Center for Legislative Archives, talked about the upcoming
Archives I exhibit, "Treasures of Congress." He also reported on
foundation grants for funding distribution of the Center's documentary
resource packages to high schools and community colleges in Mississippi and
Texas. Finally, he related various projects to make the Center's finding
aids and records available online.
Richard Baker, historian of the Senate, proposed that the committee
issue
a third report to Congress on the papers of individual members of Congress.
His motion passed, and that report will be due in Dec. 2000.
Institutional News
Since Jan. 1998, the Sen. H. John Heinz III Archives at Carnegie
Mellon University (CMU) has provided electronic access to portions of
the congressional papers of late Sen. John Heinz (R-PA). Named in the senator's
memory, the Heinz Electronic Library Interactive Online System (HELIOS) allows
researchers to currently search, browse, view and print more than 648,000 digital
images (327 c. f.) from the archives.
The following statistics were recorded by our web server. During the
course of 1998, remote users initiated 1508 HELIOS sessions. Of those,
1245 were conducted by affiliates outside of CMU (according to IP address).
I accounted for 97 of the 1508 sessions while other CMU users initiated
166 sessions. Of the 1508 sessions, we recorded use by 931 unique IP
addresses; 806 of those by outside affiliates. We were also able to
determine that remote users performed a "Search" or "New Search" on the
database 2684 times, displayed pages 2061 times, and browsed through the
collection hierarchy 4193 times. About 88% of the HELIOS sessions lasted
less than 15 minutes.
From January to June 1999, remote users initiated 858 HELIOS sessions.
Of those, 715 were conducted by outside affiliates (according to IP address).
I accounted for 71 of the 858 sessions while other CMU users initiated 72
sessions. Of the 858 sessions, we recorded use by 548 unique IP addresses;
476 of those by outside affiliates. We were also able to determine that
remote users performed a "Search" or "New Search" 1507 times, displayed
pages 1371 times, and browsed through the collection hierarchy 2833 times.
About 89% of the HELIOS sessions lasted less than 15 minutes.
Conclusions: Over the course of the year-and-a-half since the release
of HELIOS, we have recorded more than 2300 uses of the Heinz Archives by more
than 1400 people (individual patron=IP address). This is an overwhelming
amount of use, and it leads me to conclude that using new technology has
promoted the use of the collection because it is easier and faster than
doing research the "old fashion way." Based on the statistics reported
above, only 14% of our users are CMU students, faculty, or staff. That
means about 86% is entering the web site from an outside computer or is not
affiliated with CMU. This pattern is probably reflective of most
congressional collections and their patrons.
What are we to make of the
fact that the majority of HELIOS sessions have lasted less than 15 minutes?
Is it because the digital version of the archives facilitates searching
and browsing in a far superior method than the traditional paper-based
archives? Are researchers finding what they want immediately and
efficiently? Or is it simply because fellow archivists and librarians have
taken a look at HELIOS and navigated through the site for several minutes?
Is the use of HELIOS to be accounted for because of a look-see at the
whiz-bang technology rather than the contents of the archives? I'd like to
think both. -- Ed Galloway
The Dirksen Congressional Center has announced 18 winners
of its 1999 Congressional Research Awards. Recipients receive funding for scholarly
research on congressional leadership. More information on the awards and the
recipients appears on the Center's web site http://www.pekin.net/dirksen/
-- Frank H. Mackaman
Update 2/22/01 : The above address will link to the previous year's list,
i.e. as of this update, a list of the winners of the 2000 awards is available.
The processing of the congressional papers of Rep. Guy A. Vander Jagt
(R-MI) is continuing at the Joint Archives of Holland. Christina Schmidt,
an MIS candidate at the University of Michigan, is the second of three
summer interns assigned to work on the collection.
Two main areas of the collection are being processed this summer:
Vander Jagt's congressional bill files and his casework files. Both of these
areas contain records that reveal the interests and concerns of the
congressman and his constituents, as well as legislation he introduced or
co-sponsored. Some of the more prominent topics processed to date are the
development of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, issues
surrounding the Great Lakes (erosion, high water levels, pollution, etc.),
and diabetes legislation. -- Geoffrey D. Reynolds
In April, Millersville University dedicated the archives of Bob Walker
(R-PA), who served in the U. S. House of Representatives for more than 20
years. Walker was best known as an early and staunch supporter of Ronald
Reagan and a leader in the Republican resurgence in 1995. The archives
contain more than 200 c. f. of material housed in the university's Ganser
Library. Most of the collection is officially open, although the personal
correspondence is closed until April 2009. At the dedication ceremony,
Walker said, "My hope is that these archives will help students and
scholars, citizens and commentators better understand the joys and the
trials of public policy making and the essence of both representing a
congressional district and playing a national and international role during
changing times." -- Lancaster Intelligencer Journal
The Ohio State University Archives announces the hiring of Jeff Thomas
as
the John Glenn Archivist. Thomas was previously employed at the Ohio
Historical Society, where he had acquired and processed the papers of Sen.
Frank Lausche (D-OH) and Rep. Chambers P. Wylie (R-OH). The archives also
plans to hire an assistant archivist to help process the Glenn papers.
In May the archives received an additional 100 c. f. of materials from
the
home of Sen. Glenn (D-OH). This accession included personal
correspondence, photographs, other audiovisual items, printed materials,
and artifacts. The archives also received materials from the U.S.
Astronauts Hall of Fame in Titusville, FL, and NASA's Space Center in
Houston. These artifacts and photographs document Glenn's military, NASA,
corporate, and U.S. Senate careers, and they had been displayed in
temporary exhibits commemorating the senator's 1998 flight aboard the space
shuttle Discovery.
Currently, the processing work is focused on artifacts and memorabilia
in
anticipation of loan requests. To date, approximately 150 c. f. have been
appraised and 380 items cataloged in a Microsoft Access database. The
archives has digitally photographed all cataloged memorabilia and plans to
link the images to the database to allow easy access and minimize handling.
Once completed, the database and images will be available to researchers
through the University Archives web site. -- Jeff Thomas
The Carl Albert Center at the University of Oklahoma announces two new
accessions. Added to the existing Carl Albert Collection are 82 c. f. of
files and 24 framed photos and memorabilia. Included is a set of pens used
to sign the Great Society legislation and given to Carl Albert (D-OK) as a
present from President Lyndon Johnson. The Center has also acquired 14
boxes from newspaper reporter Allan Cromley. This collection contains
files on Oklahoma's delegation to Congress during the 1950s-1980s. A
similar collection, the papers of UPI reporter Harry Culver, was acquired
years ago and has recently been processed and made available to researchers.
The Center's web site
http://www.ou.edu/special/albertctr/archives/
has
also expanded. In addition to existing information on resources
documenting Native American history and the Great Depression, smaller
subject descriptions have been added. New topics include abortion, birth
control, migrant labor, and the UN. In addition, the Center has added two
folder-level inventories to the site. The inventory to the Legislative
Series of the Carl Albert Collection covers Albert's years as Speaker
(1971-1976). The complete inventory to the papers of Sidney Clarke (R-KS),
nineteenth century Kansas congressman and early white Oklahoma settler, has
also been included.
Two new exhibits are on display at the Center. "Those Gallivanting
Politicians: The Spectacle of Political Travel" explores the history of
congressional junkets. "Rated G: Hollywood Goes Political" looks at the
attraction between movie stars and politicians. In progress are two
exhibits for display and touring in 2000. One concerns women and Congress
and the other the history of the Speaker of the U. S. House of
Representatives. -- Todd Kosmerick
The Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library at Princeton University continues
processing on the papers of Sen. Bill Bradley (D-NJ). Most of the
collection documents Bradley's 18 years in the Senate. In the past year
significant progress has been made on the 2100 c. f. collection, which is
being processed by project archivist Kristen Turner and her team of one
full-time assistant and four students. They have surveyed more than 600 c.
f. The press releases, speeches, and most of the legislative staff records
have been arranged and described to the folder level. Work also continues
on the administrative staff records. In the fall, work will begin on the
project files (community case files) and the remaining boxes. -- Kristen
Turner
The papers of Rep. Eligio (Kika) de la Garza (D-TX) have been acquired
by the University of Texas Pan-American. The university received 717 boxes of
archival materials, 588 from the congressman's Washington, DC, office and
129 from his McAllen, TX, office. Materials include legislative documents,
constituent inquiries and requests, photographs, maps, trophies, plaques,
and awards. -- College and Research Library News
Tulane University has received the congressional papers of Robert
Livingston (R-LA), representative of the First Congressional District from
1977-1999. Livingston, who received a BA and JD from Tulane, was
Speaker-designate and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. The
speeches, interviews, press releases, newsletters, and other public
documents will be open once they are processed. The remaining papers are
restricted for 10 years. Tulane University Library has made a special
allocation for the rapid processing of Livingston's papers. -- Bill Meneray
General News of Interest
SENATE BILL AFFECTS TAXATION OF HISTORICAL DONATIONS
Page Putnam Miller, director of the National Coordinating Committee for
the Promotion of History (NCC), recently wrote to NCC archival repositories:
I wish to bring to your attention S. 217. This is a bill that would
have the most direct effect on archivists for it deals with the tax
implication's for donors of historical materials. In most cases charitable
gifts of historical papers do not have a gift tax or estate tax
consequence. However, some estate planning lawyers have concluded that
there may be an adverse tax consequence in situations where the donor
retains various rights in the papers donated, such as the right to limit or
control access for a period of time, for privacy reasons, etc. Retaining
some control is perceived by some lawyers as disqualifying for the
charitable gift donation. Thus some people who had planned to donate
papers are not doing so for fear they will have to pay taxes on the
donation. As Sen. Moynihan (D-NY), who introduced this legislation along
with Sens. Inouye (D-HI) and Wellstone (D-MN), made clear in his
introductory remarks, many people would never donate papers if some
restrictions were not permitted and many lawyers do not see these
restrictions as disqualifying for gift and estate charitable contributions.
But since some lawyers do perceive a problem, Sen. Moynihan has introduced
this bill to clarify the issue that qualifying rights for the charitable
tax law would include the right to control access to the materials for a
period of time not to exceed 25 years after the death of the person who
created the materials. [Additional information on the bill can be found in
the CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, 19 Jan. 1999, pp. S663-5, and the Library of
Congress Thomas web site (http://thomas.loc.gov/)]
This bill will probably not be acted on as a stand alone bill but will
be
folded into a larger tax bill. Sen. Roth (R-DE), who chairs the Senate
Finance Committee that would be considering this provision, has indicated
that he would support it as long as the language is tight enough that it
cannot be abused. Moynihan is the ranking minority on this committee.
Letters are needed that indicate that this is a perception problem that is
resulting in delaying of gifts of historical papers of writers, judges,
artists, political leaders, etc. Letters should be sent to: Senators Trent
Lott (R-MS), Thomas Daschle (D-SD), William Roth (R-DE), and Daniel Patrick
Moynihan (D-NY). Address: U.S. Senate, Washington, DC, 20510.
CYNTHIA PEASE MILLER THANKS CPR
15 July 1999
Dear CPR friends and colleagues,
I have left my position in the Legislative Resource Center, Office of
the
Clerk, U. S. House of Representatives, to become the archivist for retiring
Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan. I want to thank the Roundtable as a group
and all of you individually for your support for a professional archival
position within the House and your encouragement, support, and good wishes
for me personally.
Several years ago I served on an SAA task force to study and evaluate
SAA's lobbying efforts compared to that of other professional
organizations. You all proved that archivists do pull together and lobby
for what they believe to be the right action for the profession. While at
this point there is no archivist in the House of Representatives, we can
hope that the seeds of this effort will eventually bear fruit.
With warmest regards to you all,
Cynthia Pease Miller
RAYBURN MEMORABILIA TO STAY PUT
The 11 May 1999 issue of the Dallas Morning News reported on an
agreement
between the office of Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) and the state of Texas
allowing the Sam Rayburn Library and Museum to retain control of
memorabilia housed there. A spokesman for Hastert stated that the Bonham,
Texas, facility could keep the items as long as they are publicly
displayed. The memorabilia have been on display since the library in 1957.
The University of Texas's Center for American History, which oversses the
Rayburn Museum, maintains that the items belong to it and are state
property. The Feb. 1999 issue of the CPR Newsletter stated that the Clerk
of the House had been claiming memorabilia that former Speakers had given
to universities and libraries throughout the country.
CONGRESSMAN SPONSORS BILL TO PREPARE A HISTORY OF THE HOUSE
Page Putnam Miller's 9 July 1999 NCC Washington Update reported the
following:
On 22 June 1999, John Larson (D-CT) introduced H.R. 2303, a bill that
directs the Librarian of Congress to prepare a history of the House of
Representatives. Larson, a former high school history teacher and a newly
elected member of the House, introduced this bill because of his
disappointment as a new member of Congress with the lack of awareness in
the House to its own history. He sees this as a bipartisan initiative and
has enlisted 245 cosponsors, including the leadership of both parties.
The bill begins by stating that "subject to available funding," the
Librarian is mandated to consult, commission, or engage the services or
participation of eminent historians and current members and former members
of the House in preparing the history. Additionally the bill specifies
that the history should be illustrated and prepared for the general reader
as well as members of Congress and their staffs. There is also a section
of the bill authorizing the Librarian to expand and update the oral history
of the House as told by current and former Members. In carrying out this
section, the bill states that the Librarian may enlist the voluntary aid of
organizations such as the United States Association of Former Members of
Congress or may contract with such organizations for services.
Many in the historical profession are pleased to see a renewed interest
in
the history of the House of Representatives; however, there is a hope that
this move will not preclude efforts to restore the House Historical Office,
which was dismantled in 1995. There is also some concern in the historical
profession about how this history will be prepared. Just five years ago
the Congressional Research Service, which is part of the Library of
Congress, prepared a history of the House that was never widely distributed
because of its disjointed narrative and its heavy reliance on lists,
tables, and charts. Ironically, the House Historical Office was in the
process of preparing a history of the House and had completed about
one-third of the manuscript at the time the office was disassembled. There
is also the question, in light of the library's own budgetary priorities
and constraints, of how it would deal with this "unfunded mandate."
U.S. CAPITOL HISTORICAL SOCIETY TO HOST TALKS ON CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS
The U.S. Capitol Historical Society plans talks on four congressional
leaders for whom Capitol Hill office buildings are named: Joe Cannon,
Nicholas Longworth, Richard Russell, and Everett Dirksen. The talks will
be held as a Wednesday noontime "Brown Bag Lecture Series" on Aug. 11, 18,
and 25, and Sept. 1. The presentation on Cannon will be given by Rod Ross
of the Center for Legislative Archives. It is titled "The Chair Recognizes
the Gentleman from Illinois: The Career of House Speaker Joseph Gurney
'Uncle Joe' Cannon as Seen through Newspaper Political Cartoons of Clifford
Berryman."
BRITISH PARLIAMENT TO ADOPT "NEW" TECHNOLOGY
The 16 June 1999 Electronic Telegraph indicated that the British
Parliament is considering legislation to preserve official acts on archival
paper. Since Henry VII, parchment or vellum has been used. The article is
silent on Parliament's use of electronic records.
INTERNET RESOURCES
The fifth release of A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: US
Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1873 is now available on the
Internet. The Library of Congress's American Memory web site
now has 111 volumes of
congressional history covering the time period of 1774-1821.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lawhome.html
Note from the Editor
CONGRESSIONAL PAPERS ROUNDTABLE NEWSLETTER - July 1999
Members receiving this newsletter by e-mail are asked to contact the editor
if they would like a print version sent to them through U. S. postal mail.
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 11 Feb.
2000. The next issue will be distributed in Feb. 2000.
If you know of people 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) 325-5045 (tel.), (405)
325-6419 (fax),
CPR pages maintained by Robin Reeder,
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