Staggers, Sr. Press Collection Opens for Research

by Malorie Matos

The Byrd Center is excited to announce that the Harley O. Staggers, Sr. Press Series is now open for research.

We have just finished processing Congressman Stagger’s fascinating collection of press materials and newspaper clippings. The series contains press coverage of specific topics and issues addressed by Staggers throughout his 32 years in the U.S. House of Representatives. The collection spans the entirety of Stagger’s professional life, beginning with his days as a student at Emory and Henry College in the 1920’s and ending with his retirement from the U.S. Congress in the 1980’s.

Compared to the Senator Robert C. Byrd Press Series, which opened in May of this year, the Staggers, Sr. Collection was relatively easy to process. The collection did not contain the diversity of record-types that Senator Byrd’s Collection did and as a result, it was easier to arrange and describe the records. Containing primarily newspaper clippings and magazine articles about Staggers and his political activities, the collection came to us in chronological order and there was nothing out of place which made it very simple to re-house the documents and enter them into our catalog. The Staggers, Sr. press files series offered relatively few obstacles and we were able to process and release the entire collection in less than a month.

The press series contains both loose files and scrapbooks originally assembled by Staggers’ staff. There were a lot of interesting pieces in the loose chronological files covering topics such as Staggers’ 1971 Hearings on the CBS Documentary The Selling of the Pentagon and his involvement with the energy crisis of the 1970’s, when he served as Chairman of one of the largest Senate and House Conference Committees in the history of the U.S. Congress. The scrapbooks were especially interesting as they contained many obscure records from Staggers’ early life. The scrapbooks contain important documents from Staggers, Sr.’s entry into politics, his service in World War II, and his election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1948. Reference letters for college, old driver’s licenses, and a handwritten recipe for date pudding were among the more amusing personal records found in this part of the series.

We encourage researchers to utilize this valuable collection. Like Senator Byrd’s Press Files, these records often serve as an index to the member’s career, providing specific dates for major legislative projects and serving as a guide for researchers to the larger collection. You can view the finding aid by clicking here.

We have included a sampling of the unique records found in the press files series. Click on any of the images to view them enlarged.