Modern Political Archives to Close Temporarily; Select Digital Collections Available
October 5, 2023
Fred Thompson (left) and Howard Baker (right) during the Watergate hearings (Photographs from the Life and Career of Howard Baker digital collection, Modern Political Archives, University of Tennessee Libraries)
The Modern Political Archives (MPA) will close as of Monday, October 9, for about two to three years. The MPA collections, which have been housed at the Howard H. Baker Jr. School of Public Policy and Public Affairs, will be placed in secure storage until completion of the planned Libraries Storage Annex, a modern climate-controlled facility that also will house special collections and the University of Tennessee Archives. The Baker School will expand its operations into the space now occupied by the MPA reading room and collections.
The archives contains over 4,000 linear feet of material (manuscripts, books, photos, film, sound recordings, digital files, memorabilia, and ephemera) representing the careers and legacies of select Tennessee members of the US Congress, the federal judiciary, and presidential cabinets. Significant MPA collections include the papers of four former US senators: Howard Baker, Jr.; Estes Kefauver; Fred Thompson; and Bill Brock.
Clarence Darrow addresses the jury in the Scopes “Monkey Trial” (Dayton, TN, 1925), a test of the law that made it illegal for Tennessee’s public schools to teach the theory of evolution. (Of Monkeys and Men: Public and Private Views from the Scopes Trial digital collection, Modern Political Archives, University of Tennessee Libraries)
The bulk of those collections will be unavailable to researchers or to staff for two to three years. However, selected materials from the MPA will remain available as digital collections:
