University of Arkansas to open JPH papers

story info submitted by the University of Arkansas

The papers of former U.S. Rep John Paul Hammerschmidt, R-Harrison, will be opened to researchers in a ceremony at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 14, in the Helen Robson Walton Reading Room in Mullins Library at the University of Arkansas.

Guest speakers will be Hammerschmidt; Carolyn Allen, dean of University of Arkansas Libraries; David Gearhart, chancellor of the University of Arkansas; Sen. David H. Pryor; and Tom Dillard, head of special collections. Chancellor Gearhart will also deliver a special message from former President George H.W. Bush.

The papers of Hammerschmidt (Manuscript Collection 1230) were donated to the University of Arkansas special collections department by Hammerschmidt on May 2, 2005. The collection contains 1,221 linear feet and includes biographical materials, correspondence, legislative and committee materials, personal and office financial records, speeches, press releases, posters, audio and video tapes, and ephemera. The materials are divided into 21 series: personal materials, campaign materials, 90th through 102nd Congress materials, office administration, restricted materials, audio visual materials, ephemera, oversize materials and photographs.

Dillard said, “At more than 1,200 boxes, the Congressman Hammerschmidt Papers comprise the largest manuscript collection held by the University of Arkansas Libraries. This collection will support research in a whole range of disciplines and subject areas. Generations of students will be able to use this large and diverse collection. All those users will be indebted to Congressman Hammerschmidt for preserving his papers and making them available to the public.”

Hammerschmidt was born May 4, 1922, in Harrison, Boone County, Arkansas. He attended The Citadel in South Carolina followed by the University of Arkansas before joining the Army Air Corps in 1942. He served with the Third Combat Cargo Group in the China-India-Burma Theater, flying numerous missions over “The Hump” (the eastern portion of the Himalayan Mountains) during World War II. He was awarded the Air Medal with four oak leaf clusters, the Distinguished Flying Cross with three oak leaf clusters, three Battle Stars and the China War Memorial Medal by the government of the Republic of China.

After the war, Hammerschmidt returned to school at Oklahoma A&M in Stillwater until an illness in the family brought him home to Harrison to assume control of the family business, the Hammerschmidt Lumber Co. In 1948 he married Virginia “Ginny” Sharp of Harrison and they had one son, John Arthur, in May 1949.

In 1966 Hammerschmidt defeated incumbent James W. Trimble for the 3rd District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives to become the first Republican elected to the House from Arkansas since Reconstruction. He served 13 terms from 1967 until his retirement in 1993.

One of his first initiatives was to sponsor the 1967 legislation to establish the Buffalo National River. During his tenure Hammerschmidt served as ranking member of the Veterans Affairs Committee and also served on the Public Works Committee.

In 1974 he was appointed to the Select Committee on Aging. In 1977 he was chosen as a delegate to the Middle East Peace Talks. In 1984 he served as a delegate on the first post-Vietnam War “official” party to Hanoi. In 1989 he was appointed to the President’s Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism, which was sent to investigate the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

After retiring from Congress in 1993, he served as honorary chairman of the Dole/Kemp campaign in 1996 and in 1998 was appointed by then-President Bill Clinton to the Metropolitan Airports Authority Board of Review.