The McClellan collection, featuring the papers and other materials of the late former senator from Arkansas, will be available for public use following the McClellan Opening Ceremony on Thursday, Dec. 1, at 5 p.m in the McClellan Hall rotunda.
The collection features papers that John McClellan filed during his time as senator for 35 years from 1942-1977. Ouachita has been in possession of this collection since 1976 and has been in the process of organizing and categorizing it so it can be available for research.
“It took three years, 38 student workers, eight project staff and six permanent staff to arrange and process the 1,300 cubic foot collection in order to provide primary sources to students and researchers,” said Phyllis Kinnison, assistant professor and archivist. “We want to celebrate their hard work as well as bring attention to Senator McClellan’s work for Arkansas and American citizens during his time in office.”
Dr. Sherry Laymon, former archivist, wrote a biography of McClellan using the papers in the collection. The opening ceremony will also promote her book.
“The Senator John Little McClellan Collection offers insights into a variety of governmental activities,” said Dr. Ray Granade, director of library services. “Contained therein are the stories of each of the roughly 140 laws that McClellan shepherded through the legislative process to enactment as well as those of the thousand or so bills he introduced. Taken together, those stories offer instruction to those interested in how politicians of differing political stripes and philosophies can work together to further the common good.”
McClellan was born on Feb. 25, 1896, in Sheridan, Ark. He was admitted to the Arkansas bar when he was 17, making him the youngest lawyer in the United States. McClellan was elected to Congress in 1934 and served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from the Sixth Congressional District of Arkansas. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1942, where he served until his death in 1977.
“McClellan sponsored an impressive amount of legislation, and his staff performed an impressive amount of constituent service,” Granade said. “If one wants to study almost any segment of American life between 1955 and 1975, the McClellan Collection will be informative.”
During the opening ceremony, a group of people who worked with Senator McClellan will speak on behalf of McClellan and the collection, along with Laymon, Robert Blakey and Dr. Rex Horne. Robert Blakey is a professor at Notre Dame Law School who helped McClellan draft some of the crime legislation in the 1970s, according to Kinnison.
“If students are interested in history, political science or government, they might find it interesting to come and see the ceremony,” said Phil Hardin, assistant to the president.
The Collection is important to Ouachita because it distinguishes the university as the home of the McClellan Collection. Ouachita is now linked into a national archive and it has inspired other political figures to donate their papers.
“The McClellan Collection was the first of some significant political papers that we have collected, including those of former Arkansas Congressman Jay Dickey, current Arkansas Congressman Mike Ross and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee,” Granade said. “In archival work, collections increase in value to researchers as they are juxtaposed with others from the same area or era; the whole is always greater than the sum of the parts.”
All students, researchers and scholars are invited to the opening ceremony. For more information on the McClellan Collection, visit http://www2.obu.edu/mcclellan/.
“The reason why we are having this ceremony is so people not only here, but anybody who is interested in research in this area, will now know where to find material on Senator McClellan and his work,” Hardin said.
Picture courtesy of Phyllis Kinnison.
Caption: Student workers organize Senator John McClellan’s papers for public use.
