UWG
News Item
Contact: University Communications & Marketing
Phone (678) 839-6464, FAX (678) 839-6645
ucm@westga.edu
Murphy donates papers
January 3, 2003
CARROLLTON, GA - Speaker Tom Murphy, former Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives for 27 years, has donated the political papers and memorabilia housed in his office to the University of West Georgia. The materials will be uniquely housed in a replica of his State Capitol office to be built on campus.
“Thank you, folks, and I appreciate what you are doing for me,” Murphy said at the signing of the donation agreement on UWG’s campus. “I’m ready to get these papers signed and start being retired.”
The
Ingram Library Special Collections/Archives Department will receive the
collection following the closing of Murphy’s office on January 10.
A re-creation of his office will be built on campus, complete with the
actual contents including furnishings, photographs, plaques, etc, to make
the papers accessible to the citizens of Georgia.
Dr. Beheruz Sethna, UWG president, expressed his appreciation of Murphy’s donation.
“We are honored and delighted that Speaker Murphy and his family chose UWG as the official repository of his papers, and as the site for the re-creation of the Office of the Speaker — the one with the longest tenure in the history of the United States,” Sethna said. “We know that the Speaker and his family had many excellent choices for both of these repositories, and are very pleased that they decided on UWG.”
According to Myron House, Special Collections librarian, initial conversations between the Speaker and Dr. Mel Steely, director of the Georgia’s Political Heritage Program, centered around the donation of Murphy’s personal papers. Later, the Speaker’s children began to discuss the idea of re-creating his office rather than dispersing the office contents among their father and themselves.
“This was a very unselfish idea and will allow many more individuals in the future the opportunity to visit and enjoy what is essentially a time capsule of over a quarter of century of Georgia politics,” House noted.
Steely noted, “Speaker Murphy’s important collection is the centerpiece around which all other state political collections will be based.”
House has extensively photographed and video taped the Speaker’s office in order to construct as exact a replica as possible. Framed photographs, certificates, plaques, etc. will hang in the same location and furnishings will be placed as Murphy had them in his office.
“We are honored and looking forward to this as a family,” said daughter Martha Murphy Long.
Murphy and his family want the materials to be made available as soon as possible and to the fullest extent possible. Charles Beard, director of University libraries, concurs.
“Our goal will be to make this collection available not only to researchers, political scientists, and historians, but to the citizens of the west Georgia region so they can better understand Speaker Murphy’s important place in the history of Georgia,” Beard noted.
Murphy’s papers will join an impressive accumulation of political collections in UWG’s Ingram Library. U. S. Congressman Bob Barr recently donated his materials, and previous acquisitions include the entire political collection of Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich. Other collections include papers from former Congressman Pat Swindall, and legislative collections from Ebb Duncan, Tracy Stallings, Charles Thomas, John Simpson, and Wayne Garner.
Phillip Kauffman, chairman of the Board of Trustees for the West Georgia Foundation, Inc., attributes much of UWG’s recent growth to the Speaker’s attention to the University.
“This University would not have experienced such amazing growth or achieved its current level of distinction without his presence and support,” Kauffman said. “Unarguably, Speaker Murphy has been Georgia’s most influential political decision maker of our time. Adding his papers to UWG’s Special Collections will continue to propel the University beyond its current level of excellence.”
“The selection of UWG for this singular honor by Speaker Murphy, combined with our acquisitions from Congressman Barr and Speaker Gingrich, in addition to our existing audio and video histories of past Governors and other prominent Georgia politicians, conclusively establishes UWG’s Special Collections as one of the state’s most important political archives and UWG as a University of significant stature,” Sethna said.
-30-