On October 6, 2006, alumnus Henry J. Hyde (JD ’49) donated his papers to Loyola University Chicago as one of the foundation collections for the new Center for Public Service Archives, a special collection of the Loyola libraries and housed in the Center for Public Service. These papers span his 32 years representing Illinois’ 6th district in the United States House of Representatives and include information on local, national, and international issues such as the deep tunnel project, O’Hare expansion, Des Plaines river flooding, abortion, health care, education, civil rights, terrorism, the Iran-Contra affair, and the impeachment of President William Jefferson Clinton. The collection consists of correspondence, speeches, reports, notes, photographs, news articles, testimonies, scrapbooks, transcripts, videotapes of “The Henry Hyde Show” and other events, and memorabilia.
Members of the University Archives are currently inventorying the approximately 400 linear feet of material received from both Hyde’s district office in Addison, IL, and his Washington, DC, office before beginning to process it. Because of the extent of the material it will be several years before processing is finished and the papers are available to researchers, which are scheduled to be opened to researchers in 2016. The exception to this date is the availability of unpublished materials relating to the impeachment of President Clinton. According to National Archives regulations, records regarding investigations and/or trials are closed for 50 years. The Center for Public Service Archives will follow NARA’s restrictions on this matter, which means that such materials found in the Hyde papers will not be open to researchers until 2048. Until the Hyde papers are open for research, photographs and memorabilia will be used for displays at the Center for Public Service, including a display for the open house after the dedication of the Information Commons on December 7, 2007. For further information about the Henry J. Hyde papers contact the University Archivist at (773)508-2661 or via email to kyoung3[at]luc.edu.
