A Pragmatic Legacy: Charles Wilson’s Politics and the Battle for His Archival Heritage

<p>Congressman Charlie Wilson served Texas and the United States with distinction throughout his political career, leaving a profound impact on East Texas and the global stage. Known for his progressive policies in the Texas Legislature and his influential role in U.S. foreign policy during his tenure in Congress, Wilson’s pragmatic political career and legacy is preserved in the Charlie Wilson Congressional Papers collection at the East Texas Research Center (ETRC). Despite its historical significance, the collection faced decades of delayed processing, disorganization, and neglect of archival best practices. This public history thesis confronts these challenges by detailing the efforts to process, preserve, digitize, and finally make the entire collection of documents, audio-visual items, photographs, and artifacts accessible to the public. The author examines the application of archival best practices, analyzes the intersection of archival work and public history, and reflects on the importance of preserving political archival collections.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts - History

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

History

Year dc:date.available

2025

Author dc:creator

• Coleman, Jordan

Contributors dc:contributor

• Dr. Perky Beisel
• Dr. M. Scott Sosebee
• Dr. Brook Poston

• Political Archival Collections
• Archival Processing
• Congressman Charles Wilson
• Public History
• Archival Best Practices
• Archival Digitization
• American Material Culture
• Digital Humanities
• Military History
• Other Film and Media Studies
• Photography
• Political History
• United States History

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds/612

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarworks.sfasu.edu:etds-1639