Archivists at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock plan to digitize the papers of former Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, making them more accessible to scholars.
UALR's Center for Arkansas History and Culture has received a grant for a 2-year project to process Tucker's papers.
The $136,851 grant is the largest award from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission ever received by an Arkansas institution, UALR said.
The papers include documents and photos from throughout Tucker's life and career. Archivists will work over the next two years to sort through some 600 boxes of content and create an online database that will be accessible to researchers around the world.
"I think that Arkansans should be very pleased that they have a facility like UALR's Center for Arkansas History and Culture that can organize and arrange and make our records about the state available worldwide," said Deborah Baldwin, associate provost for the center and dean of the UALR College of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.
Some work has already been done on the papers, including creating an inventory of the documents.
The grant money will go mostly toward paying staff members to process the papers, said Colin Woodward, lead archivist for the project. He said the center will hire someone to work on the project full time, but other archivists and graduate assistants will help out, too.
"A lot of it is just going through papers, going through folders, trying to work out a biographical sketch," Woodward said. "We really want to highlight he's important to Arkansas, but he's important to the country as a whole, too."
Tucker was elected lieutenant governor of Arkansas in 1990 and became governor when Bill Clinton resigned in 1992 to become president. Tucker also worked as a civilian war correspondent and a lawyer, and he served as U.S. Representative for the state's 2nd Congressional District, state attorney general and prosecuting attorney for the state's 6th Judicial Circuit.
He resigned as governor in 1996 after being convicted of conspiracy and mail fraud in connection with the Whitewater investigations.
Tucker's papers, which have been acquired by the center gradually over several years, span from his early life through the 2000s, Woodward said.
Tucker, 70, said Wednesday that he is still donating boxes of documents to the center as he comes across them.
"There are a massive number of papers," he said. "A governor's office just collects huge amounts. I am still finding and locating boxes that are in storage facilities and getting them delivered. Hopefully they'll have everything I know of in the next few months."
Woodward said the papers cover a far broader scope than Tucker's political life.
"Those are in the political papers, but there is a lot of personal and biographic stuff too," he said. "There's a lot of interesting material before he ever runs for governor."
Woodward said the collection includes photographs Tucker took during his time as a civilian correspondent covering the Vietnam War and notes for Tucker's book, Arkansas Men at War.
The papers can be accessed at the Center for Arkansas History and Culture at 401 President Clinton Ave. in downtown Little Rock, said Kimberly Kaczenski, the center's assistant director.
"The collection is available, but because it's unprocessed, we ask that people make an appointment," Kaczenski said.
Metro on 05/22/2014