Behind the Scenes: Creating the Robert C. Byrd Traveling Exhibit

By Ray Smock

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​The Byrd Center is pleased to report that our traveling exhibit on the career of Senator Robert C. Byrd was launched here in Shepherdstown and is now on display in the Parkersburg Arts Center in Parkersburg, WV. This exhibit is the first of many projects that will come from the extensive archive of the longest serving senator in U.S. history.
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You can learn more about the exhibit and its schedule here. ​What I want to tell you about is what went into the making of this exhibit. 

Our first challenge was one of conception. How do you embrace a congressional career that spanned more than half a century and do it in about 100 photographs, documents, and artifacts, plus a limited amount of explanatory text and captions? How do you present this in a way that it will appeal to historians and political scientists, as well as to our main intended audience, the people of West Virginia of all ages?
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Only time will tell how well we meet this challenge. From the opening reception held at Shepherd University on April 29, and the fine reception we got in Parkersburg, the impression was most positive. People who knew Senator Byrd told stories about him. A single image, or a quotation from Senator Byrd, often brought back memories. Our exhibit may be limited in size, but not in its ability to spark conversations about Senator Byrd, national and international politics,  the way Congress works, country music, the economy of West Virginia, and the story of West Virginia and its people. 

​Once we had a conception, we came up with a title: “Robert C. Byrd, Senator, Statesman, West Virginian.” We would take Senator Byrd’s story from his humble origins in the coalfields of West Virginia, to the West Virginia State Legislature, to the House of Representatives and the Senate. Of all the stories we could tell, we were surprised to learn of his lesser known role of international diplomat as a Senator who served several presidents as an emissary to foreign heads of state. Senator Byrd played a key role in the passage of the Panama Canal Treaties which turned the canal over to the Panamanians. This was a very controversial subject at the time and most West Virginians and many throughout the nation were opposed to these treaties. It was a mark of leadership to buck public sentiment in order to achieve what would later be seen as a positive international achievement.

Jody Brumage (L) and Jay Wyatt (R) load up the exhibit before leaving for Parkersburg.

We could not have assembled this exhibit until we had processed the bulk of Senator Byrd’s papers, a task that took more than five years. Director of Research and Programs Dr. Jay Wyatt and Archivist Jody Brumage worked as a team trying to find the right image, the right quotation, the right document to convey the stories we had selected. Throughout the exhibit we let Senator Byrd set the tone of our narrative with quotations from his Senate speeches and other writings.  Assembling all these elements was not unlike working a jigsaw puzzle, except this was more challenging because so many different pieces could be used in different places, unlike a jigsaw puzzle where a piece fits only in one place. 

​We were fortunate enough to have the assistance of our Shepherd University student interns who learned about archives and the process of making an exhibit by helping us process the Byrd Papers and experience the joy of discovery that comes when you turn up something new. All of us learned a great deal about Senator Byrd and about the richness of the papers and artifacts he left behind. If viewers of this exhibit experience that sense of discovery as we did while creating this exhibit, we will have accomplished our mission.
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Have we told the whole story of Senator Byrd’s remarkable career in this exhibit? No we haven’t. This is a beginning of what we know will be  a long and fruitful journey of discovery into the history of the United States, West Virginia and its people, the United States Senate, the U. S. Constitution,  and the biography of a truly great senator. I hope you can join us on this journey as we share what we and other researchers will discover in the years ahead.

A view of Parkersburg, West Virginia from Fort Boreman Park.