News Notes for Ford Library Researchers - 2007

December 7, 2007
The Library has opened to research the J. Stanley Pottinger Papers (56 feet). Pottinger directed civil rights matters for the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (1970-1973), and the Department of Justice (1973-1977) during the Nixon and Ford administrations.  The collection documents the investigation and enforcement of various civil rights issues, including: desegregation, busing, women’s rights, affirmative action, education, employment, government surveillance, Kent State, and Wounded Knee.  Access to the materials requires advance consultation with an archivist before a visit to the Library in order to request that specific folders be added to the Library’s review-for-access queue. For more information and the container listing see the collection finding aid.

November 16, 2007

The Library announced the list of recipients of Gerald R. Ford Foundation Research Travel Grants from the fall meeting of the grants screening committee.

November 5, 2007
The Library has opened to research an additional series of the William J. Baroody Papers. This series concerns White House briefings arranged by the Office of Public Liaison for associations and groups during the Ford administration. Access to the materials requires advance consultation with an archivist before a visit to the Library in order to request that specific folders be added to the Library’s review-for-access queue. For a container listing see the collection finding aid.

July 6, 2007
The Library has opened four additional collections to research. Three of them require advance consultation with an archivist before a visit to the Library in order to request that specific folders be added to the Library’s review-for-access queue.

These collections are the William J. Baroody Papers (the series concerning his work as an aide to Congressman and Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird and as head of the White House Office of Public Liaison in the Nixon and Ford administrations), the Max Friedersdorf Papers (primarily concerning his work as head of the Congressional Relations Office in the Ford White House), and the Roland Elliott Files (concerning his work as director of the White House Correspondence Office in the Ford White House).

In addition the Library has opened the Clifford Ericson Scrapbook on the American Revolution Bicentennial. This scrapbook contains letters from President Ford and the governor of each state concerning the meaning and importance of the Bicentennial.

June 16, 2007
The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library is proud to announce that Vanessa P. Walker has been chosen as the 2007 winner of the Gerald R. Ford Scholar Award in Honor of Robert M. Teeter.  Ms. Walker is a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is completing her doctoral dissertation: Ambivalent Allies: Advocates, Diplomats, and the Struggle for Human Rights in Latin America.  She is investigating how human rights became a force in foreign policy by focusing on the relationship between advocacy and policies/diplomacy in the 1970s.  More specifically, she examines how this relationship influenced and shaped U.S. diplomacy with Latin America by analyzing several non-governmental organizations and their relationships with Congress and the Ford, Carter and Reagan administrations during a series of human rights crisis with Chile and Argentina. See additional information about this award.

May 22, 2007
The Library announced the list of recipients of Gerald R. Ford Foundation Research Travel Grants from the spring meeting of the grants screening committee.

May 1, 2007
Deadline for the "Gerald R. Ford Scholar Award (Dissertation Award) in Honor of Robert Teeter." For more information about the Award contact Joshua Cochran.

April 16, 2007
The Library has opened six additional document calendars from the Department of Defense Historical Project Files in the Melvin Laird Papers. These calendars concern chemical weapons and biological research (including the storage of chemical weapons in West Germany and Okinawa), procurement of the MK-48 torpedo and DD-963 Navy ships, and Navy shipbuilding. With this opening, all of the calendars from the DOD Historical Project Files are now available to researchers. Information in the calendars makes it is possible for researchers to request Mandatory Reviews for specific documents that have not yet been reviewed for declassification.

March 15, 2007
Deadline for the Gerald R. Ford Foundation Research Travel Grants.

March 6, 2007
The Library has declassified and opened many of the documents in the POW/MIA file in boxes C19 and C20 of the Melvin Laird Papers. The materials concern attempts to learn more about the fate of American military personnel missing in Southeast Asia, interactions with the families of MIAs and POWs, U.S. attempts to secure the release of POWs, plans for the handling of released POWs, and the debriefing of those released.

In addition, the Library has opened seven additional document calendars from the Department of Defense Historical Project Files in the Laird Papers. These calendars concern Japan, Japan - Okinawa, MIRV, MIRV - A-X/Close Air Support, People's Republic of China, Republic of China, and Safeguard Antiballistic Missile. Information in the calendars makes it is possible for researchers to request Mandatory Reviews for specific documents in the Historical Project Files.

February 14, 2007
The Library processed and opened two series from the National Security Adviser. NSC International Economic Affairs Staff: Files, (1973) 1975-1976. The two subject files in the collection ("Presidential Subject File" and "Institutional Subject File") are now available for research. They contain materials accumulated by NSC senior staff member Robert Hormats and his assistants and concern such topics as economic relations with specific countries, international economic summits, trade, foreign investment, energy, oil prices, OPEC, food aid, grain sales, Maritime affairs, and foreign aid. Two other series in the collection - chronological files for Hormats and his assistant Timothy Deal - are still unprocessed and not open to research. For more details on the collection, view its finding aid.

January 11, 2007
The Library announced the list of recipients of Gerald R. Ford Foundation Research Travel Grants from the fall meeting of the grants screening committee.

See News Notes for Ford Library Researchers for the year 2006