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Columns::March 11, 2002
Civil rights scholar will deliver annual Holmes-Hunter Lecture
New partnership chronicles ‘unsung foot soldiers’
Multicultural studies pioneer will give Tresp Lecture
Annual Nunn Forum focuses on commercialization of the academy
$16,000 in prize money awarded at first marketing research competition
National search gets under way for new grad dean
Veterinary Medicine students take part in Spay Day
Looking for the cheese
Health center earns JCAHO accreditation
Retirees
Newsmakers
Forum essay: To understand us, others must learn English. . .
Tenor of the matter
Campus News
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| Sheryl Vogt has overseen the growth of the Russell Library to a facility that houses the collections of more than 100 public figures, policy makers and political parties. (Photo by Peter Frey) |
‘Taste’ of research whetted library director’s appetite for archival work
By Jean Cleveland
jclevela@uga.edu
Serendipity brought Sheryl Vogt to the Russell Library, but it has been her love of history that has guided her in building the library from its modest beginnings to the respected archival facility it is today.
“I originally planned to teach history in public schools,” Vogt says. “In the course of assisting my husband with research for one of his books, I got a taste of primary research. I thoroughly enjoyed working with original documents and thought archival work is what I’d really like to do. I had read about the Russell Library coming to the university and thought maybe that’s a place I’d like to work.”
The Richard B. Russell Memorial Library was named for the man who served Georgia in the U.S. Senate for 38 years and spent a half-century in public service. The library opened in 1974 to house Russell’s memorabilia and papers, and Vogt joined the staff a month later.
“Those of us working here have felt that for the library to be successful it needed an expanded collection focus. In the early 1980s we started to move in that direction to document Georgia political history and public policy,” Vogt says. “In 1994, our 20th year, we changed our name, to the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies, as an acknowledgement that we had been successful in that endeavor.”
The library has the distinction of being the single repository in Georgia directed solely toward support of scholarly research in modern political history. Because of the scope and content of its collections it is often compared in importance to a presidential library and long has been considered a model repository for congressional papers.
Now housing the collections of more than 100 public figures, policy makers and political parties, the Russell Library targets collections from people with longevity in office and those who have held important committee assignments.
“When we expanded our collection policy, we wanted not only to collect active participants, we wanted to do retrospective collecting,” Vogt says. “Those have perhaps been the most fun with which to work, and many have included family papers, so we can see the perspective of, for example, women in the household. We find that these wives and mothers of politicians were very actively engaged in civic affairs and can provide key insights into issues from that time. We are very conscious of the need to collect the papers of women and to have collections representing the diversity of our culture.”
A continuing expansion of that scope can be seen in the recent partnership with the Foot Soldier Project for Civil Rights Studies, which will chronicle Georgia’s rich history in the civil rights movement. The foundation for the project is the award-winning documentary by social work professor Maurice Daniels, Foot Soldier for Equal Justice: Horace T. Ward and the Desegregation of the University of Georgia.
A major challenge on the horizon for the UGA Libraries is raising funds for a building to house the Russell Library and the other two special collections units. The special collections building will bear Russell’s name, thanks to a $3 million gift from the Russell Foundation. The proposed building is estimated to cost at least $36 million, of which the university will contribute one-third.
“I have had the unique experience of being with the collection and with the library from the beginning. I have not only observed its growth but been largely responsible for its growth,” Vogt says. “Now I am in a position, with the coming of the new building, of seeing the possibility for all the programming we have wanted to do for so many years. I can see that on the horizon and know that I’ll most likely be able to accomplish that.”
The university community will have the opportunity to glimpse what will be possible in the expanded exhibit area in the new facility when a baseball exhibition opens next month. The core of the exhibition is formed by Russell’s childhood collection of tobacco cards depicting early 20th-century baseball players; some are the most prized cards in the collecting world. A series of lectures on various facets of the game is also planned.
“I am most proud that we have a collection that is diverse, that is vibrant, that we are constantly challenged with more ideas for what we’d like to do than we have resources,” says Vogt. “Looking at this library is almost like looking at a body of work. It’s a unique perspective. I don’t know of too many archivists who can do that.”
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