The Robert C. Byrd Congressional Papers Collection is comprised of several sections or “series” of records. The Office Files Series, one of the smaller series within the collection, contains 76 linear feet of records from the four offices Senator Byrd operated during his time in Congress. Ranging in date from 1956 through 2010, the Office Files Series provides a comprehensive record of the administration of Senator Byrd’s offices for all but the first 3 years of his Congressional career. This collection offers several different types of documents which help to further illuminate the life and work of Senator Byrd and to gain a better understanding of how Congress operates outside of the chamber and away from the C-SPAN cameras.
By Jody Brumage
Each summer, Washington D.C. comes together to participate in the tradition of the Congressional Baseball Game. Started over a century ago, it is perhaps the only time where partisanship is expected to rule the day. The event was started in 1909 by Congressman John Tener (R-PA), who had been an outfielder and pitcher for the Chicago Cubs (then the Chicago White Stockings) in 1888-1889 and who played several years in minor league teams. Members of each party form their respective teams, dawn uniforms celebrating their home states, and meet at the ball field to see which side can best the other in America’s pastime. Though the game has been interrupted over its history by the Great Depression, World War II, and the occasional Speaker of the House who found the game to be distracting, the annual meeting of the parties on the baseball diamond continues to this day. A blog post from the U.S. House of Representatives Historian’s Office offers a more detailed history of the tradition, which you can read by clicking here. This year’s game will be played on Thursday, June 11, 2015 at National’s Park. By Jody Brumage
Several projects supported by Senator Byrd spanned the length of his career and included multiple appropriations to upgrade infrastructure or adapt to changing technologies. One of these projects that received continued support was West Virginia’s fish hatcheries and aquaculture centers. Beginning in the early twentieth century, the state established centers to study fish populations and breed trout and other species for stocking rivers and ponds. The first of these centers was the White Sulphur Springs National Fish Hatchery, founded in 1902 in Greenbrier County. A second hatchery, located at Leetown in Jefferson County, was established in 1930. The Bowden Hatchery, located near Elkins in Randolph County, was started in the early 1960s. All three of these hatcheries, in addition to centers at West Virginia University and other hatcheries established by the state received several appropriations from Congress through Senator Byrd’s efforts. By Jody Brumage
In the summer of 1979, Senate Majority Leader Robert C. Byrd led a delegation to the USSR to speak with Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev in the wake of Senate debates over the second Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT II) Treaty. The meeting was accounted in a variety of documentary and photographic records now housed in the Robert C. Byrd Congressional Papers Collection at the Byrd Center. SALT II was proposed to continue the efforts of the first SALT Treaty which had been signed by President Richard Nixon and President Brezhnev in 1972. SALT I mandated a freeze on the number of ballistic missile launchers operated by both the US and the Soviet Union and called for a dismantling of some outdated intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launchers. In continuation of these efforts, SALT II proposed to halt the manufacturing of strategic nuclear weapons and infrastructure. The negotiations occurred over seven years during the Nixon, Ford, and Carter Administrations. By Malorie Matos It was nearly one year ago that Byrd CLS Intern Malorie Matos began working on processing Senator Byrd’s Press collection. For months, Malorie and fellow intern Sarah Brennan sorted through almost 50 boxes containing thousands of press releases and related congressional documents. Malorie and Sarah arranged and re-housed everything, detailing the entire process in this Post from the Archives blog last October.
We are pleased to announce that the collection is now fully processed and ready for researchers! We are excited to announce that a new photograph collection has been opened on the Byrd CLS website! TheHarley O. Staggers, Sr. Congressional Papers Photograph Collection features a sampling of the over 1,000 historical photographs contained in the archival collection held at the Byrd CLS. These photographs document meetings and exchanges between Congressman Staggers, Sr. and various notable figures, including presidents and congressional colleagues, foreign dignitaries, and celebrities, throughout his thirty-two year career in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Since May 2014, the staff and interns at the Byrd CLS have been working on digitizing and processing the over 1,000 photographs contained in Congressman Staggers, Sr.’s collection, which spans over 7 decades from 1916-1987. You can view a selection of unique images from this collection featured in our blog series “Posts from the Archives.” In addition to 13 document cases of photographs, the collection also contains 9 large albums which are currently undergoing digitization. Together, this large collection offers researchers a comprehensive view of the extensive career of Congressman Staggers, Sr. The Robert C. Byrd Center for Legislative Studies has joined the Association of Centers for the Study of Congress(ACSC) to announce the opening of “The Great Society Congress,” an online permanent exhibition that draws on primary resources to highlight legislation passed during the 89th United States Congress (1965-66).
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July 2023
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The Byrd Center advances representative democracy by promoting a better understanding of the United States Congress and the Constitution through programs and research that engage citizens.
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