UA opens Hammerschmidt papers

The documents former U.S. Rep. John Paul Hammerschmidt collected during his more than 25 years in Congress took more than six years to organize and index — and the index is contained in two large books that total 904 pages.

Hammerschmidt, who was only one of two Republicans to ever defeat Bill Clinton (you get a free subscription to The City Wire if you can name the other Republican), donated in May 2005 more than 1,500 banker boxes of materials to the University of Arkansas.

Tom Dillard, chief of special collections for the university, said the correspondence includes letters addressed to “prime ministers and plumbers.” The papers, he said, document a Congressman who served under six presidents — Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan and (H.W.) Bush.

Dillard said the Hammerschmidt donation is the largest collection of papers, audio, video and other materials received by the UA library.

A large crowd gathered Wednesday (Sept. 14) at the Mullins Library on the UA campus to mark the opening of the John Paul Hammerschmidt Papers. Attendees included Hammerschmidt’s son, John Arthur, former U.S. Sen. David Pryor, former U.S. Rep. Asa Hutchinson, U.S. Federal Judges Morris Arnold and Susan Webber Wright, and several former Hammerschmidt staff members.

VAST ARRAY
“It’s a vast array of materials,” said UA Chancellor G. David Gearhart in his opening comments. “It has in fact taken six years, six years, to organize these materials for easy reference.”

Gearhart said the “wealth of information” from Hammerschmidt’s Congressional career should “prove valuable” to anyone research U.S. and Arkansas history.

Gearhart also read a letter from former President George H.W. Bush in which Bush said Hammerschmidt was an “outstanding leader.” The former President and Hammerschmidt entered the U.S. House in the same year (1967) and became lifelong friends.

Former U.S. Sen. David Pryor, D-Ark., spoke during the program and said the Hammerschmidt papers “are a state treasure as he (Hammerschmidt) himself is a state treasure.” Pryor also recalled how the 1966 election in which Hammerschmidt ran against the “entrenched” Democratic incumbent, U.S. Rep. John Trimble.

“By every yardstick … There was absolutely no way under God’s green Earth he (Hammerschmidt) was going to win that race,” Pryor said, to the laughter of the audience.

Hammerschmidt pulled off the upset, and held the seat for 13 terms. Arkansas’ 3rd Congressional District has been represented by a Republican ever since.

Pryor said Hammerschmidt held the District for so long because he went above and beyond in serving his constituents. Pryor also praised Hammerschmidt’s ability to work across party lines, noting that he never once heard Hammerschmidt “disparage the name or motive” of a political opponent.

DEDICATED HANDS
In his remarks, Hammerschmidt said the opening event is less about him and more about the numerous specialists who took the documents and converted them into reference material. Several times he thanked the “hands of dedicated people” who did the work.

He also jokingly chided Pryor, saying Pryor’s papers from his time in Congress and as Arkansas Governor would be a bigger collection “if he would just get it here.”

Hammerschmidt also said he put a 10-year moratorium on the boxes being opened because he figured he would be out of the picture by then.

“I assumed I would be long gone by the time the moratorium expired. … But for some reason, I am not,” Hammerschmidt said to laughter and applause.

Dillard said the documents received were eventually narrowed down to 1,204 banker boxes after personal and other legally protected documents were removed. The collection is divided into 21 categories (series) that include campaign materials, office administration files, photographs and materials from the 90th through 102nd Congress.

He said Hammerschmidt was very detailed in how he ran his office. For example, Hammerschmidt’s 1985 travel schedule was documented in 74 large file folders. There were 25 file folders dealing with Corps of Engineers mowing policies along the shoreline at Beaver Lake. There were numerous folders and boxes related to the funding and construction of Interstate 540 between Alma and Fayetteville. The boxes also contained literature related to the 1974 Congressional race between Hammerschmidt and a young UA law professor named Bill Clinton.

“There is a lot of good correspondence on that,” Dillard said.

To end the ceremony, Pryor and Dillard presented Hammerschmidt and his son, John Arthur, with copies of the two “Finding Aids” that are the index to the Hammerschmidt papers.