The Byrd Center for Legislative Studies was honored to host 27 mine-safety officials from the People’s Republic of China State Administration of Coal Mine Safety on Friday, Oct. 17. The delegation was led by Deputy Director General Yang QingSheng.  The group came to Shepherd University to attend an all-day seminar conducted by Davitt McAteer, of Shepherdstown, a recognized world authority on coal mine safety and coal mine disasters.

We were able to impart some stories about Senator Byrd’s long-time advocacy of the mining industry and the safety and welfare of miners.  The Byrd Archive contains extensive files on mining issues in West Virginia as well as national energy issues. Senator Byrd made four trips to China during his tenure as a Senate leader, including participation in the first U.S. Congressional delegation in 1975, during the Ford Administration, following up on the earlier diplomacy of President Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to begin the process of normalizing diplomatic relations between the United States and the People’s Republic of China.  When Senator Byrd reported back to President Ford on that first trip, he made a prediction: “I will put my money on the long run development of China rather than the Soviet Union.”
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By Ray Smock

By Ray Smock

University President Suzanne Shipley led a group from Shepherd University for a tour of historical sites in Charles Town related to the rich African American heritage of this area.  I was pleased to join her and Dr. Keith Alexander from the History Department, and Christana Johnson, Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs and Student Success.  We toured three historic sites and came away with a better appreciation of the work being done by our hosts, members of the Jefferson County Black History Preservation Society, to save these sites and interpret them to visitors as part of the Jefferson County African American Heritage Trail.
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We were invited to visit the sites by Mr. James Taylor, Mr. George Rutherford, Mr. James Tolbert, and Ms. Linda Ballard who acted as our  guides.  The Byrd Center for Legislative Studies recently conducted oral history interviews with George Rutherford and James Tolbert regarding their relationship to Senator Byrd and the senator’s efforts to help preserve Fisherman’s Hall, one of the sites we visited.   Even though Senator Byrd passed in 2010, an appropriation he earmarked for Fisherman’s Hall in 2009 is still helping with the restoration of this important building.  Work was still going on in the final phase of the building’s restoration at the time of our visit.

By Sarah Brennan and Malorie Matos

As interns at the Robert C. Byrd Center for Legislative Studies, we’ve had the opportunity to work on many fascinating projects. One of our latest undertakings was the processing of the Press Files Collection from Senator Robert C. Byrd’s Congressional Papers.
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Byrd’s Press File Series was massive, containing over 50 years’ worth of material. We began processing in February of this year and we are just now coming to the end of the project. Processing is an archival term referring to the act of arranging, rehousing, and describing the papers within a collection. Archival collections must go through processing before becoming accessible for research.