Raymond W. Smock
| Raymond W. Smock | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 8, 1941 |
| Other names | Ray Smock |
| Known for | Historian of the United States House of Representatives |
| Notable work | Booker T. Washington: Black Leadership in the Age of Jim Crow |
Raymond W. "Ray" Smock (born February 8, 1941) is an American historian, currently serving as director of the Robert C. Byrd Center for Legislative Studies at Shepherd University, and formerly the Historian of the United States House of Representatives (1983-1995).[1]
Contents
Career
Education
Smock studied at Roosevelt University in Chicago. He received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Maryland at College Park.[1]
House Historian
Smock was a key planner of the national commemorations of the bicentennials of the U. S. Constitution and of the U.S. Congress and oversaw numerous related publications. He was senior historical consultant to WGBH-TV public television in Boston on their 26-part telecourse, A Biography of America (2000). He served as a historical consultant to the National Constitution Center, the first museum dedicated to the U. S. Constitution located on Independence Mall in Philadelphia.[1]
Robert C. Byrd Center for Legislative Studies
In 2002, Smock opened the Robert C. Byrd Center for Legislative Studies as director. The center houses Sentor Robert C. Byrd's collection and serves as a study and research center of the United States Constitution.[2]
Smock was a consultant, editor, and writer for a DVD called Foundations of Freedom, designed to teach high school students about the Constitution. It was produced by Wheeling Jesuit University and distributed to 25,000 high schools in 2005. For his work on this project Wheeling Jesuit University presented him with the “Foundations of Freedom” award for educating Americans about the U.S. Constitution.[1]
Smock is a member of the adjunct history faculty at Shepherd University, where he teaches U. S. History and Public History.[1][3]
He served as president of the Association for Documentary Editing, the Society for History in the Federal Government, and the Associatiion of Centers for the Study of Congress.
In 2006, West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin III appointed Smock to the board of the West Virginia Humanities Council. In 2009 he was appointed to the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, an independent agency of the federal government affiliated with the National Archives and Records Administration.[4][5]
Works
Smock is perhaps best known for his book Booker T. Washington: Black Leadership in the Age of Jim Crow, which took him nearly 20 years to complete. He also helped edit 14 volumes of Washington's correspondence.[6]
Works overseen
- The Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-1989
- Blacks in Congress, 1877-1989
- Women in Congress, 1917-1990
- A Guide to Research Collections of Former Members of the United States House of Representatives, 1789-1987
- The Origins of the U. S. House of Representatives: A Documentary Record.
- Final Report of the Commission on the Bicentenary of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1990: Including a Summary of the Activities and Programs of the Office for the Bicentennial of the House of Representatives, 1983-1989 (1990)
Works authored
- Booker T. Washington: Black Leadership in the Age of Jim Crow (2009)
Works edited
- Booker T. Washington in Perspective: Essays of Louis R. Harlan (1988)
- Landmark Documents on the U.S. Congress (1999)
Works co-authored or contributed to
- Talent for Detail: The Photographs of Miss Frances Benjamin Johnston, 1889-1910 with Pete Daniel (1974)
- American history slide collection, compiled and edited by Raymond W. Smock, William M. Stowe, Jr., and Pete Daniel (1977)
- Guide to Manuscripts in the Presidential Libraries, compiled and edited by Dennis A. Burton, James B. Rhoads, and Raymond W. Smock (1985)
- Encyclopedia of the United States Congress (1995)
- Masters of the House: Congressional Leadership over Two Centuries by Roger H. Davidson, Susan Webb Hammond, and Raymond W. Smock (1998)
- The Booker T. Washington Papers with Louis R. Harlan (1972)
- Booker T. Washington in Perspective: Essays of Louis R. Harlan, edited by Raymond W. Smock (2006)
- Congress Investigates: A Critical and Documentary History, edited by Roger A. Bruns, David L. Hostetter, and Raymond W. Smock (Robert C. Byrd Center for Legislative Studies, 2011)
Articles
- "Public History at the U.S. House of Representatives"[7]
References
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