Portrait of Ga. senator unveiled on Capitol Hill

WASHINGTON

The University of Georgia unveiled an oil portrait Tuesday commemorating Sen. Saxby Chambliss' chairmanship of the Senate Agriculture Committee.

The painting will hang in the committee's hearing room until 21 years after he leaves office. It will then be moved to UGA's Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies as part of a permanent collection on Chambliss' political career.

It was unveiled at an afternoon ceremony on Capitol Hill.

Chambliss, a Republican from Moultrie and 1966 UGA graduate, was chairman of the Agriculture Committee for two years before Democrats took control of Congress in the 2006 elections.

Portraits of former chairmen are a tradition in Congress, lining the walls of committee rooms throughout the Capitol and surrounding office buildings.

Chambliss' portrait, owned by UGA, was done by a Bulgarian-born artist who goes by the name Rossin and who lives in Atlanta. Rossin also has done portraits of President George W. Bush and former president George H.W. Bush. He also has a work on display in the White House depicting the presidents of the 20th century.

Private donations, mainly from agribusiness interests, were raised to pay for the Chambliss painting. It cost $17,000, according to William Gray Potter, director of UGA libraries and associate provost.

Chambliss has committed his official papers to be archived at the Russell library.

© 2008 Ledger-Enquirer and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.

Martin J. Hillenbrand Papers

We are pleased to announce that the Martin J. Hillenbrand Papers, 1910s-2005, are now open for research. Ambassador Martin J. Hillenbrand served for thirty-five years as a professional United States Foreign Service Officer, including service in Burma, India, Mozambique, Hungary, France, and Germany. He was appointed as the first U.S. Ambassador to Hungary (1967-1969), Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs (1969-1972) and Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany (1972-1976). The collection consists of Hillenbrand’s personal papers and provides an overview of his life and career in diplomatic service. The papers also document his academic career at The University of Georgia (1982-1997) and involvement in international diplomatic organizations. Of particular interest are his personal, hand-written journals and notebooks, which begin with adolescence and extend through retirement. This collection joins over 120 collections documenting public policymaking and political culture centered in Georgia available for research here at the Russell Library.

View the finding aid for this collection at http://www.libs.uga.edu/russell/collections/hillenbrand/index.shtml

Russell Library on Facebook!

Join Facebook and become a fan of the Russell Library! Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies is now on Facebook, and you can view our page HERE. Fans can post Russell Library related comments, pictures, and videos, converse with other Russell fans, and receive updates on Russell events.

New Russell Staff Member!

Profile by Nora Lewis

Name: Katherine Shirley

Job Title: Head, Arrangement and Description

Joined Russell staff: January 2008

Job Description:I am responsible for accessioning, handling preservation issues, and the arrangement and description of archival and manuscript collections.

Other work experience:
Associate Archivist, The History Factory, Chantilly, Virginia
Processing Intern, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian
Intern, Division of Fishes, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian

Education:
B.A. in History, Georgia State University, 2003
M.A. in Museum Studies, George Washington University, 2006

Professional Memberships:
Society of Georgia Archivists
Society of American Archivists
Academy of Certified Archivists

Most Enjoyable Aspect of Your Job:I enjoy processing collections and viewing pieces of the past that are rarely seen by others. Historic sales catalogs and personal correspondence are the types of items that I enjoy the most because they provide such a unique view into people’s daily lives.

Alternate Career Path if not in Archives: I would love to own a bookstore.

Favorite Pastimes: Reading, watching movies, and hiking

Comments on the profession today: The archival community is increasingly aware of the need to provide access to a larger portion of the public. I am excited about the inventive ways that repositories are using technology to share their collections with new and different audiences.

Politics and Domestic Life in the Russell Library Collections

Herman and Betty Talmadge holding a ham in their smokehouse, ca. 1947,
Herman E. Talmadge Collection, Richard B. Russell Library for Political
Research and Studies

Political gossip and scandal have always played a part in politics, be it from illegal campaign contributions to persistent rumor-mongering. Before the age of career politicians, public servants maintained separate lives from their Washington D.C. alter egos. During breaks from legislation, many returned to their day jobs as farmers, doctors, and lawyers and while away on the nation’s business, their wives and children ran these enterprises.

The selection of letters and photographs in “Politics and Domestic Life in the Russell Library Collections” highlights the personal side of politics. Virginia Rusk’s annual Christmas letters share feelings of excitement when her husband Dean was named Secretary of State by President John F. Kennedy but also record her feelings of shock and dismay two years later after Kennedy’s assassination. In 1900, Dudley Mays Hughes lovingly addressed a letter to his niece, nicknamed “Miss Empire State of the South,” and told her that “the Senate is hard at work” but he would be home soon. While her husband Herman was in Washington D.C. representing Georgia as a Senator, Betty Talmadge ran Talmadge Country Cured Hams based in their hometown of Lovejoy. In 1960 she submitted a recipe for the 1961 Congressional Club Cookbook for Baked Country Cured Ham, which informs cooks that they can soak the ham in water, wine, ginger ale, orange juice, apple cider, pineapple juice, peach pickle juice, Coca-Cola, or champagne and achieve a delicious meal.

The Russell Library lobby gallery is open from 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M., Monday through Friday. For more information about this exhibit, History Lives in the Russell Library (an exhibit of the Russell Library’s greatest hits) or the Russell Library collections, please visit www.libs.uga.edu/russell or call 706-542-5788.

New Russell Library website

Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies would like to announce the debut of our their new website at http://www.libs.uga.edu/russell. Among the variety of improvements added to the site are links to a news and events weblog, dynamic collection search capabilities, and forms to allow users to subscribe to e-updates or offer suggestions.

A Place for Us, Exhibit and Reception

Join us for a reception in honor of the opening of the new exhibit, A Place for Us: The Challenges of Housing in Athens and Surrounding Areas. This spring, as part of the Russell~Roosevelt Public Policy Institute, volunteers from Athens and surrounding counties took photographs that reflected their sense of housing challenges present in their communities. These images form the basis of the exhibit, A Place for Us. New and historical footage of the Athens area from 1946 and from 2007 complement these visual reflections. The Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection provided the 1946 footage and the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies provided the new 2007 footage. This exhibit will be on display from June 22 through August 31, 200. The exhibit and reception are free and open to the public.

History Lives in the Russell Library

Opening Friday, June 22, 2007 an exhibit featuring the greatest hits from the Russell Library’s rich politicial collections including information about Watergate, Civil Rights, historic political campaigns, environmental and agricultural history, and international relations. Through Friday, December 21, 2007 in the Richard B. Russell Library Main Gallery.

"Integrated in All Respects"

Ed Friend's Highlander Folk School Films

The Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies and the Digital Library of Georgia are pleased to announce that Ed Friend's historic Highlander film is now accessible online via the Digital Library of Georgia. "Integrated in All Respects" consists of Ed Friend's film of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee during Labor Day weekend in 1957, and the Georgia Commission on Education's propaganda broadside that features Friend's photographs and stills from his film. Together the film and broadside demonstrate how policymakers in the late 1950s perceived, and attempted to cast, the civil rights movement.

Russell~Roosevelt Public Policy Institute

The National Issues Forums (NIF) discussion model has strong connections to the University of Georgia. After several years of the UGA PPI taking place in Atlanta at the Jimmy Carter Library, in 2006 the Richard B. Russell Library, a political archives and center for research and study of politics and policy, in conjunction with the Roosevelt Institution at the University of Georgia, part of a national network of student think tanks dedicated to influencing national policy through the avenues of public policy and advocacy, have joined together to provide the Russell-Roosevelt Policy Institute.

This institute fosters civic engagement and deliberation among diverse audiences and gives participants the skills to tackle important issues in their own communities. The Russell Library will serve as a repository for materials related to developing civic engagement programming, which will be available to groups interested in developing civic education programming. The 2007 Public Policy Institute in June will be the inaugural program for this joint venture