University of Arkansas Libraries announced on Thursday the opening of the Ray Thornton Papers, a 1964 manuscript collection.
A native Arkansan, longtime congressman and former U of A president, Thornton’s papers are a contribution to archival materials relating to 20th-century political history and University and Arkansas.
Thornton’s career spans more than 40 years of public service and his papers document his political career including his time as a member of the House Judiciary Committee when Thornton served on a committee investigating Watergate.
Other Watergate materials include opinion correspondence from Arkansas constituents and out-of-state correspondents, published records of the Committee on the Judiciary’s impeachment inquiry, President Nixon’s reelection campaign activities in 1972, transcripts of Watergate-related presidential tapes, and investigative background materials.
Political researchers will also find items related to Thornton’s tenure as chair of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy (1980-1984), and as chair of the National Institutes of Health Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (1980-1983).
The Arkansas’ Congressional delegation is preserved in Special Collections, the largest academic archive in the state. The collection complements the papers of Thornton’s contemporaries also held in Special Collections, including Rep. John Paul Hammerschmidt, and Sens. Dale Bumpers and David Pryor.
Sign up for Daily E-news
