By Ray Smock
I was honored to attend a wonderful reception on April 28 at the historic Anderson House in DC, in celebration of the completion of a great landmark in documentary editing and congressional scholarship, the 22-volume series on the First Federal Congress. This project, housed at George Washington University and published by The Johns Hopkins University Press, has been the life-long work of the chief editor, my dear friend of many years, Charlene Bickford. Along with her fabulous colleagues Ken Bowling, Helen Veit, and Chuck diGiacomantonio , all top professional editors and historians, this magnificent project collected, researched, edited, and annotated the full record of the First Federal Congress that met from 1789 to 1791. It was the Congress that launched our government and turned the words of the U.S. Constitution into the reality of a working government.
Ms. Welch is a board member of the West Virginia Humanities Council, the Eastern West Virginia Community Foundation, and the Scarborough Society, which helps support the Shepherd University Library. She is also the co-founder and coordinator of the Shepherdstown Film Society. She and her husband Paul were recipients of the President’s Award in 2015 for their outstanding support of Shepherd University and the community.
April 1-7 is Congress Week, an annual observation of the history and importance of the Legislative Branch of our government. The Byrd Center joins with dozens of other repositories and research organizations across the United States in celebrating Congress Week. We hope that you will join us at the center for our special Congress Week programs!
Fifty years ago, Congress passed the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The bill came as a result of a study conducted by the Carnegie Corporation of New York which urged the creation of public broadcasting to combat the growing influence of commercial broadcasters on America’s airwaves. At the urging of President Johnson, the Senate took up the motion in late spring and quickly moved it through the Senate Commerce Committee, sending it to the House in May of 1967. However, it was in the House of Representatives that the bill became embattled in protracted and contentious hearings. |
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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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