Outside the Box - February

On June 18, 1972 the Washington Post reported that a team of burglars had been arrested inside the office of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. The chain of events that followed unraveled the Nixon administration, forever changing the way Americans viewed their elected officials and creating a new synonym for scandal – Watergate.

Below: Senate Watergate Committee, examining the testimony of John Dean, Washington, D.C., 1973 June 26.

The Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, chaired by Sam Ervin of North Carolina, was convened in 1973 with orders to investigate the Watergate break-in and subsequent cover up. The committee’s televised hearings allowed the public to watch the scandal unfold day by day. By the end of its year and a half existence, the committee had produced thirteen volumes of testimony and exhibits and a 2,217-page final report. Their findings, in addition to those of two special prosecutors, led to the resignation of the President and Vice President of the United States, as well as the conviction of three cabinet members on felony charges.

Senator Herman Talmadge of Georgia likely achieved his greatest national prominence through his role as one of the seven members of the Ervin Committee. Speaking in an interview years later, he recalled that he received nearly 3,500 letters a day during the Watergate hearings from people across the country. “And wherever I’d go in an airport,” he said, “people would rush up to me wanting my autograph.” More than just a part of the immense spectacle, Talmadge and others on the committee were holding the guilty accountable at a critical moment in American history.

Seventy-three boxes of material in the Herman E. Talmadge Collection document the Senator’s service on the Ervin Committee. They include committee and subject files, witness information, and proceeding reports, as well as correspondence, legal documents, lists, memorandums, and reports relating to committee business, political espionage, and the Bellino subcommittee. Perhaps the most unique artifact from the collection is a Watergate-inspired cross stitch created by Ms. Avis Gallagher, Ms. Patricia Gallagher, and Ms. Ruth Henry of Greensboro, North Carolina on May 14, 1974. Given to Talmadge in gratitude for his contribution to the work of the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, the cross stitch design depicts a rural southern home with castle turrets and a moat, mounted on a mat covered with pages from the official transcript of the Watergate hearings with emphasis on Senator Talmadge’s interrogations. The inscription on the back side of the object explains the design as follows:

During Senator Talmadge’s interrogation of John Ehrlichman, he posed an enormously important question about the extent of the inherent power of the President of the United States, and quoted a principle of law to the effect that ‘no matter how humble a man’s cottage is, even the King of England cannot enter without his consent.’ He responded to Mr. Ehrlichman’s reply by saying, ‘Down in my country we still think it is a pretty legitimate principle of law.’ That prompted the design of a typical rural Southern house with castle turrets and a moat.

Talmadge felt that the Watergate investigation was one of the most important events in U.S. history. Not because of the scandal itself, but because the investigation that followed demonstrated that a republican form of government had a way of correcting the conduct of public officials. This artifact demonstrates the importance of the committee’s work in restoring public faith in government.

Post by Jan Levinson, Outreach Archivist, Russell Library

Outside the Box - August

After a lengthy summer hiatus, we're back! Our feature this month centers on a relatively new addition to our collections, and item from the newly opened Zell Miller Papers.

Object: Lantern used to transport the 1996 Olympic Flame

Collection: Zell Miller Papers

The 1996 Olympic Games
In 1987 Billy Payne, a successful Atlanta attorney, first conceived of bringing the 1996 Summer Olympic Games to Georgia. A graduate of the University of Georgia, Payne hoped that this opportunity would give the city a positive new image. He recruited mayor Andrew Young and together the men developed a proposal to sell local business leaders on the idea. In September of 1990 they pitched an extensive bid document to the International Olympic Committee. Nine years and several billion dollars of infrastructure later, the Olympics landed in Georgia.

Fire from the gods...
The Olympic Flame, which commemorates the theft of fire from the Greek gods by Prometheus, has been a symbol of the Olympic Games since their beginning in ancient Greece. The modern torch relay used to deliver the flame from Greece to the host city, however, only began at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. That first relay lasted twelve days and included 3,000 torch bearers.

By the 21st century, the relay had become an economic opportunity, a series of media events sure to drum up interest for the Games in the host country and around the world. In 1996, the torch relay from Los Angeles to Atlanta lasted 84 days and included 10,000 torchbearers. The torch traveled by foot as well as by bike, seaplane, train, and steamboat – more than 15,000 miles through 42 states to its final destination. Research projected that the relay event would reach more than 180 million citizens and 34 of the top media markets in the country. On July 19, 1996 83,000 attendees watched as famed boxer Muhammad Ali served as the final torch bearer, delivering the flame to Olympic Stadium in Atlanta.

This lantern, used to transport the flame from Greece to the United States, was given to Governor Zell Miller. The matching lantern was given to Billy Payne.

This “Outside the Box” object will be on display in the lobby gallery of the Russell Library, open 8:30 am – 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday, until September 30th. For further information on this feature, or the Zell Miller Papers, please contact russlib@uga.edu or visit http://www.libs.uga.edu/russell.

Outside the Box - May

Where’s the Party?
Full-scale television coverage of national party conventions began in 1952, turning what had been a gathering of party leaders and faithful supporters into a media event on view for a much broader audience. Convention sessions were reorganized to occur largely in the evening hours – the peak viewing times for the at-home audience – and the schedule of events was tightened. That same year, the conventions began to occur in the months of July and August.

The number of delegates in attendance at each party’s convention varies from year to year, and has steadily grown since the introduction of these events in the 19th century. In 2000, the Democratic National Convention hosted 4,337 delegates and 610 alternates; the Republican National Convention hosted 2,066 delegates and an equal number of alternates. Delegates are often seen carrying signs and wearing outlandish outfits to draw increased attention to their candidate, especially to the viewers at home.

Maxine at the 1996 Democratic
National Convention

Maxine Goldstein: “The Hat Lady"Born in 1926, Maxine Goldstein has been an active volunteer in the Democratic Party since the 1960s. She has held positions on both the state and national level, serving on the National Convention Site Committee in 1988. As of 2008, she has been a delegate at the last eleven Democratic national conventions and was a presidential elector in 1980. Mrs. Goldstein has become famous as the “Hat Lady” for the elaborate hats she creates to wear at the conventions, such as the donkey-topped hat she wore at the 1984 National Democratic Convention, complete with batteries for activating the donkey, and the “green peanut” hat she wore at her first convention in 1976.

This month we display the Hat Lady's most recent creation: A red cowboy hat Goldstein sported at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado. The top of the hat is adorned with a miniature bathroom set. Faux dollar bills are stuffed down various drains, and a sign across the front proclaims “Stop America’s Economy From Going Down the Drain.” The back of the hat reveals campaign buttons in support of both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

May’s “Outside the Box” object will be on display in the lobby gallery of the Russell Library, open 8:30 am – 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday, until May 31st. For further information on this feature, or the Maxine Goldstein Papers, please contact russlib@uga.edu or visit http://www.libs.uga.edu/russell.

Post by Jan Levinson, Assistant Outreach Archivist, Russell Library

Cold War Recall

Today in Prague, President Obama and Russian President Dmitri A. Medvedev signed a nuclear arms control treaty that would mandate modest reductions in the arsenals of the United States and Russia. At the height of the Cold War that nearly heated in the 1950s and 1960s, it was likely difficult for leaders on either side to foresee an end to the conflict. Now, nearly twenty years since its conclusion, the legacy of this competition between world powers for increased military spending and technological prowess is still relevant to current world news.

With recent explorations into America’s Role in the World and current events on the mind, I thought April’s “Outside the Box” should take us back to that Cold War Era. And thus, I give you this month's selection:

Object: Scale Model, Nike Zeus B Missile
Collection: Richard B. Russell, Jr. Collection

More about the Nike Zeus...
In 1945 the United States Army began a project with Bell Laboratories to create a line-of-sight anti-aircraft missile system. The U.S. wanted a new system of air defense that could combat the jet aircrafts, whose speed and altitude allowed them to elude existing gun-based systems. Called Project Nike, the work led to the development of a series of anti-aircraft missile systems employed during the height of the Cold War. The Nike Ajax was introduced in 1953, followed by the Nike Hercules and Nike Zeus, each more technically advanced and powerful than its predecessor. With the development of ICBMs (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles) the value for the Nike air defense system decreased and over the 1960s their number was slowly but surely reduced.

We have no official documentation regarding how Senator Richard B. Russell came to posses this particular model. We do know that Russell served as the Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee from 1951 until 1969 and led the establishment of the Atomic Energy Commission. This Nike model is only one of the dozens of model air crafts and missiles in the Russell Collection, all of which were likely gifts commemorating the launch or development of the new military advancements for America’s defense.

For more technical information on the capabilities and intended uses of the Nike Zeus, and to see the missile in action, I give you some historic footage (courtesy of the Internet Archive & Creative Commons): http://www.archive.org/details/nikezeus

April's “Outside the Box” object will be on display in the lobby gallery of the Russell Library, open 8:30 am – 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday, until May 15th. For further information please contact russlib@uga.edu or visit http://www.libs.uga.edu/russell.

Post by Jan Levinson, Assistant Outreach Archivist, Russell Library

Revised Conclusions

When composing this month’s Outside the Box post, I proposed a few theories as to why Governor Lamartine Hardman would have owned a phrenology skull. After speaking with some colleagues here at the Russell Library (who have more insight into the collections) and doing in-depth research in the Hardman collection, I discovered some revealing documents that change these initial conclusions.

Sketches from Burnett Letter
In a file folder titled “fingerprints” largely containing correspondence from 1928, I found a number of documents that support the idea that Hardman actually practiced phrenology during his time as Governor (1927-1932).

Among several documents referencing phrenology in the folder is a pamphlet titled “Three Methods of Measuring Phrenological Faculties,” written by Dr. J.A. Burnett, M.D. of Dunbar, Oklahoma. This same Dr. Burnett sent Governor Hardman a letter providing sketches of his preferred step-by-step methods for head measuring. The folder also contains dozens of letters exchanged between Governor Lamartine Hardman and government officials and mental health providers in various surrounding states, discussing the potential use of fingerprints in determining criminality and insanity in prisoners.

Sealing Hardman’s connection to phrenology are several news clippings referencing the conviction and execution of three individuals implicated in a murder in Georgia in September 1928. The article, “Georgia Executive uses Pictures as Aid in Deciding Pleas Made for Mercy,” outlines Hardman’s use of phrenological principles in deciding clemency cases. The article quotes Hardman as follows:

“Believing that the verdict is just and that the parties are guilty, and with the additional impression of the pictures of Mr. and Mrs. Clifford Thompson and reading as best I can their physiognomy and phrenology, I feel that the court rendered a righteous verdict.”

It goes on to describe that the Governor believed “careful physical examinations, paying especial attention to faces, heads, and finger prints, show whether prisoners are criminal types and whether they are insane.”

So there you have it folks. This series of documents indicates that Lamartine Hardman took more than just a curious interest in phrenology, as late as 1928. This revised conclusion demonstrates how more extensive research can lead to more refined answers in pursuit of historical questions. Further, I think this is a great example of how much can be learned when we utilize the three dimensional objects in our collections as well as the paper documents. Had we not decided to display the phrenology skull for this month's feature, I might never have ventured into this correspondence file in the Hardman collection.

Close-up of sketch on Page 3










For more information on the Lamartine G. Hardman Papers, please visit our website at http://www.libs.uga.edu/russell or email russlib@uga.edu.

Post by Jan Levinson, Assistant Outreach Archivist, Russell Library.

Outside the Box - February

Object: Phrenology Skull
Collection: Lamartine G. Hardman Papers

Lamartine Hardman, Physician...
Though he served as Governor of Georgia from 1927 until 1931, Lamartine Hardman was a man of many talents and interests that began long before his career in politics. Like his father, Dr. William Benjamin Johnson, Hardman was a trained physician. He earned his medical degree from Georgia Medical College in Augusta in 1876. From there, he furthered his medical training at Bellevue Hospital in New York and with continued studies at the University of Pennsylvania, the New York Polyclinic, and Guy Hospital in London. After an extensive education, he returned to Georgia and opened the Hardman Sanatorium with his brother, William B. Hardman, in 1899.

What Was Phrenology?
Introduced in Germany in the 1790s, phrenology was a science that purported to determine an individual’s characteristics based on the size of various portions of the brain. Phrenologists considered the mind to be composed of distinct “faculties” which defined the characteristics of personality. Because of their distinct nature, it was determined that each faculty must have a separate seat in the brain and that the size of each was a measure of its relative power.
It was asserted that the skull took shape from the brain, so therefore the surface of the skull was an index of psychological aptitudes and tendencies.

This pseudoscience made its way to the United States in the 1860s and 1870s, but was entertained only on the fringe of academic medicine. It was largely discredited by the late 19th century; the American Phrenological Journal was discontinued in 1911. The legacy of phrenology, a practice known as “head measuring” was employed by racial anthropologists seeking to confirm the superiority of Europeans to other humans, in the early 20th century.

What Was On Hardman's Mind?
Why would Lamartine Hardman have owned such an object? His high-powered medical education in both the United States and abroad suggests that he would have regarded the skull as more of a curiosity rather than a useful aid for diagnosis. However, his interest in neurology (demonstrated by his research in anesthesia) and operation of a sanatorium might explain his interest in this artifact of psychiatry. Alternately, Lamartine might have inherited this skull from his father, a physician who practiced in an earlier era.










February's “Outside the Box” object will be on display in the lobby gallery of the Russell Library, open 8:30 am – 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday, until March 1st. For further information please contact russlib@uga.edu or visit http://www.libs.uga.edu/russell.

Post by Jan Levinson, Assistant Outreach Archivist, Russell Library

Outside the Box - December

Season's Greetings

With another Thanksgiving under our belts, and Christmas songs flooding radio stations everywhere, it seems the 2009 holiday season is officially upon us! For December’s “Outside the Box” post it seemed fitting to offer some holiday cheer with a selection of greeting cards from our political collections.

Produced by Hallmark, President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued the first official greeting card from the White House in 1953. The tradition took hold over the next seven years and has been followed by every President since. Over the years, the White House mailing list has grown exponentially. In 2008, President George W. Bush reportedly sent greetings cards to 1.4 million people!

Our collection of season’s greetings from the White House includes cards from…

President and Mrs. Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1954

President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy, 1961

President and Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson, 1967

President and Mrs. Richard M. Nixon, 1970

President and Mrs. Ronald W. Reagan, 1983

(depicting the White House Green Room)

While Presidential greetings certainly carry a certain cache (especially when the recipient list was substantially shorter), the political collections here in the Russell Library also contain an array of cards sent to local and state leaders from constituents, friends, and family. For your viewing pleasure, a few of our favorite treasures include:

Two Christmas postcards from friends sent to Richard B. Russell, Jr. The first (below, left), mailed on Christmas Eve 1920, would have arrived just after Russell was first elected to the Georgia House of Representatives at age twenty-three. The second (below, right), mailed on December 23, 1922, would have found Russell in the months before he was elected Speaker pro tempore by the state house (1923).

A groovy card sent by Robert F. Kennedy and family in 1967.








December's “Outside the Box” object will be on display in the lobby gallery of the Russell Library, open 8:30 am – 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday, until January 12th. For further information please contact russlib@uga.edu or visit http://www.libs.uga.edu/russell.

Post by Jan Levinson, Assistant Outreach Archivist, Richard B. Russell Library.

Outside the Box

Object: Meritorious Award, 1976

Collection: M.E. Thompson Personal Papers

Melvin Ernest Thompson was born in Millen, Georgia in 1903. He graduated from Emory University in 1926 and married his high school sweetheart, Ann Newton. Thompson embarked on a career in education, taking on a series of administrative positions in the Hawkinsville School District before assuming the roles of state school supervisor and state school superintendent in the Georgia Department of Education (1933-1942).

Thompson is perhaps best known for his role in the "three governor’s controversy" (1946-47), in which three men vied for the office upon the death of Governor-elect Eugene Talmadge, and Thompson was eventually declared the victor by the state supreme court. But beyond the controversy, Thompson was a man of many achievements. During his brief tenure as Governor (1946-48) he increased state spending without new taxes, raised teachers’ salaries, and expanded the roads and bridges building program. Personally, he considered his greatest accomplishment to have been the state’s purchase of Jekyll Island.

After leaving the office of Governor, Thompson ran several unsuccessful campaigns for elected office before retiring from politics and opening a real estate business in Valdosta, Georgia. He served his community through leadership roles in various civic, business, and church organizations before his death in 1980.

The purchase of Jekyll Island…

At the turn of the twentieth century Jekyll Island, the smallest of Georgia’s barrier islands, was purchased by two northern entrepreneurs. The pair established an elite club on the island and wealthy members, mostly northern industrialists, were invited to build winter cottages on the land. The Great Depression and World War II caused financial difficulties and labor shortages for the venture, forcing the club to close in 1942. In 1946 M.E. Thompson, Georgia’s revenue commissioner, became interested in acquiring the property for the state and opening it as a state park. After becoming governor in 1947, Thompson’s administration facilitated the purchase of Jekyll Island for $675,000.

In the decades that followed his gubernatorial term, Thompson received much acclaim for the Jekyll Island project. In 1976 Georgia’s Association of County Commissioners recognized Thompson for sponsoring the purchase of Jekyll Island and awarded him their Meritorious Award. In 1989, the State Transportation Board posthumously recognized Thompson’s “vision and persistence” in acquiring Jekyll Island for the people of Georgia and dedicated the M.E. Thompson Memorial Bridge.

November's “Outside the Box” object will be on display in the lobby gallery of the Russell Library, open 8:30 am – 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday, until December 1st. For further information on the M.E. Thompson Personal Papers , please contact russlib@uga.edu or visit http://www.libs.uga.edu/russell/.

Post by Jan Levinson, Assistant Outreach Archivist, Russell Library

Outside the Box - October

Object: 2002 Petition in support of a referendum to incorporate the City of Sandy Springs

Collection: Eva C. Galambos Papers

The population of Sandy Springs, an area roughly fifteen miles outside of Atlanta, Georgia, boomed after World War II. With a sizable influx of new residents and land development, by the 1970s major highways connected Sandy Springs to metro Atlanta. But when the city of Atlanta attempted to use a state law to force annexation of the area, residents offered fierce resistance.

In 1975 residents established the Committee for Sandy Springs, a group dedicated to incorporating the city. In 1977 the Committee, led by president Eva Galambos, amassed 8,500 signatures petitioning for a referendum on incorporation. Atlanta legislators blocked the resolution using a procedural requirement that all local legislation be approved first by a delegation of representatives from the affected area. In 1988, another petition was submitted calling for referendum - this time with 19,000 signatures; once again it was blocked. Beginning in 1989, every legislative session included the introduction of a bill in the Georgia General Assembly to authorize a referendum on incorporation and each year it was defeated.

In 2002, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and the Committee for Sandy Springs attempted to reach a compromise, in the form of a tax sharing plan. The Committee submitted the petition shown here, containing approximately 23, 000 signatures, but yet again the petition for referendum was defeated. After years of delay, the procedural rules previously used to prevent a vote by the full chamber were changed so that the bill was handled as a state, not a local, bill. The Sandy Springs referendum bill was approved by the Assembly and signed by Governor Sonny Perdue. On June 21, 2005 area residents voted 94% to 6% in favor of incorporation.

More on Eva C. Galambos...
Eva C. Galambos donated her files on the creation of the City of Sandy Springs to the Russell Library in 2008. Galambos is co-founder and former secretary of Sandy Springs Revitalization, founder of Sandy Springs Clean and Beautiful, chairwoman of the services committee for the Sandy Springs Council of Neighborhoods, former chairwoman of the Fulton County Public Housing Authority, and founder of the Sandy Springs Civic Roundtable. She has served as mayor of Sandy Springs since its incorporation in 2005.

October's “Outside the Box” object will be on display in the lobby gallery of the Russell Library, open 8:30 am – 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday, until November 1st. For further information on the Eva C. Galambos Papers , please contact russlib@uga.edu or visit http://www.libs.uga.edu/russell/.

Post by Kat Shirley, Head of Arrangement and Description, and Jan Levinson, Assistant Outreach Archivist, Russell Library

Outside the Box

Object: Map of the official vote count for the November 12th Democratic Primary Governor’s Race, 1962

Collection: Carl E. Sanders Papers

Carl E. Sanders, state senator from 1956 to 1962, took the next step in his political career when he decided to make a run for the governor's chair in 1962 against Marvin Griffin. Shortly after his announcement, federal courts ruled that Georgia's county unit system was unconstitutional. In 1962, the state would elect its officials by popular vote, giving the urban candidate, Sanders, a greater chance at victory.

As a moderate on racial issues, Sanders faced an outspoken opponent of integration in former-Governor Griffin. While agreeing that Georgia should try to maintain the tradition of segregation, Sanders also believed it was imperative that the state avoid violence and adhere to national laws. Unlike Griffin, Sanders’ campaign issues were not centered on race. Instead, he focused on the elimination of corruption in state government and promoting progress in education and industry. In the end, his positive campaign message, Sanders clinched the election, making him the youngest governor in the country at the time. He was 37.

As a candidate, Sander's strength was concentrated in the counties above the fall line, as shown in red on the map above. When the primary votes were tallied, Sanders had captured 87 counties with 256 old unit votes while Marvin Griffin had carried 72 counties with 154 old units.

September's “Outside the Box” object will be on display in the lobby gallery of the Russell Library, open 8:30 am – 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday, until October 1st. For further information on the Carl E. Sanders Papers, please contact russlib@uga.edu or visit http://www.libs.uga.edu/russell/.

Post by Kat Shirley, Head of Processing, Russell Library

Outside the Box - July

Object: Campaign Sash & Yard Sign

Collection: Janet B. Scarborough Merritt Papers

Janet B. Scarborough Merritt was elected to represent Sumter County in the Georgia State House in 1964. The only woman in this body at the time of her election, and the first to represent Sumter County, Merritt called herself a “full-time” representative. She served four terms in that position: she was elected again in 1966, in 1968 (after reapportionment combined Sumter with Macon and Schley counties into the new 46th district), and in 1970. In 1972, after a second reapportionment, Merritt was defeated for re-election by her former colleague in the House, Oliver Oxford, in a run-off. Merritt ran against Oxford a second time in the 1974 election, but was again narrowly defeated in a run-off.

Merritt's papers document her campaigns, her time in the state legislature and her community activities including heavy involvement in the Daughters of the American Revolution (D.A.R.). Of particular note are materials documenting Merritt’s ongoing battle to change Georgia’s state flag. In 1969, Merritt sponsored a bill to change the Georgia flag adopted in 1955, shortly after the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling, back to the 1879 version, which did not include the Confederate battle flag.

Campaign Sash & Sign...

Merritt’s younger daughter, Jane Myers, still vividly remembers helping her mother on the campaign trail with a few essential, homemade tools:

“Mother made those blue banners for my friends and me to wear. She also made the yard signs to be given out to those who requested them. She assigned the "Merry Maids" areas in Americus [Georgia] to go door to door wearing the banners, giving out cards and asking people to vote for Janet Merritt for Georgia State House Representative.”

Meritt went on to tell her daughters recollections of politicking at the age of 5 or 6. “She would visit her grandmother Ella in Americus and they would go riding in a horse drawn carriage with her cousin Charles R. Crisp.” Unbeknownst to the youngster, her cousin represented Georgia’s Third Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. “At the time she thought it was just a ride in the country.”

July's “Outside the Box” object will be on display in the lobby gallery of the Russell Library, open 8:30 am – 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday, until August 1st. For further information on the Janet B. Scarborough Meritt Papers, please contact russlib@uga.edu or visit http://www.libs.uga.edu/russell/.

Post by Jan Levinson, Assistant Outreach Archivist, Russell Library