University of Virginia Library

Library Receives
Byrd Collection

Shannon Hails Historical Importance
Of Late Senator's Papers, Speeches

The papers of Virginia's late Senator Harry
Flood Byrd have been presented by his sons to
the University.

Announcement of the gift was made
Saturday by Edgar F. Shannon Jr., president of
the University, at the annual luncheon meeting
of the Alumni Association. The papers are the
gift of the late senator's three sons, U.S. Sen.
Harry F. Byrd Jr., Richard E. Byrd and
Beverley B. Byrd.

'Historical Archives'

"The Byrd papers.. constitute one of the
most important historical archives of our time."
President Shannon said. "We feel that it is
especially fitting that these papers should be
preserved by a university founded by three
Presidents of the United States and in a library
that is especially strong in the papers of
Virginia's public men of the past two
centuries."

Spanning the late senator's more than 30
years in Washington as well as his career in the
Virginia Senate and as Governor of the
Commonwealth, the collection includes papers
stored in the attic of Rosemont, his home at
Berryville, and those from his Senate office.

250,000 Items

Now housed in the University's Alderman
Library, it includes correspondence,
photographs, reports, speeches, business
records, scrapbooks of newspaper clippings and
a collection of 575 political cartoons. Some
250,000 items are estimated to be in the
collection which is the University's largest
collection from a political figure.

The collection of the late senator's political
cartoons is believed to be the largest in the
nation. Three hundred of the 575 framed
cartoons, many of which hung in Sen. Byrd's
office, are originals by the late Fred Seibel,
Richmond Times-Dispatch cartoonist of
national fame.

In notifying President Shannon of the
family's decision to present his father's papers
to the University, Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr. said
"We have concluded that it would seem
appropriate that his papers should be housed at
the University of Virginia. Our father was a
Jeffersonian Democrat; he adhered to the
philosophy of Thomas Jefferson.

"Entering into our thinking, too," he
continued, "is that our mother's close kinsman,
the late R. Gray Williams, served from 1931 to
1946 as a member of the Board of Visitors of
the University, and from 1939 until his death in
1946 was Rector of the University"

100 Scrapbooks

According to Edmund Berkeley, Jr., curator
of manuscripts at Alderman Library, "One of
the most valuable helps to the student of
Virginia history will be the 100 scrapbooks of
clippings from newspapers all over the nation,
covering every aspect of the senator's career."

The Byrd archive contains all the senator's
speeches since 1920 and correspondence
including letters from such public figures as
former presidents Harry S. Truman, John F.
Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.

One 1958 letter from Sen. Barry Goldwater
discusses the future for political conservatives,
such as Sen. Byrd and himself:

"It is going to be a lonesome road you and I
and the other Conservatives are going to travel
in the coming years," Sen. Goldwater wrote,
"but I think that if we stick together a little
better than we have in the past, we can give
those Liberals. . .something to think about.

'Watchdog of Treasury'

"I hope that Lyndon will be able to manage
that crowd, but frankly, I have my doubts. I
think that there are too many of them, and
when they begin to feel their oats, Said, lock
the gate, because the money will really start
going out."

Well-known for his lifelong struggle for
economy in government spending. Sen. Byrd in
1923 led the fight in the Virginia Senate against
a proposed $50 million bond issue for highway
construction.

In Washington, Sen. Byrd fought but
remained friendly with a host of presidents and
congressional leaders, and, as chairman of the
Senate Finance Committee from the
Eisenhower administration until his retirement
in 1965, earned the reputation of "watchdog of
the federal treasury." He died in 1966.