The Library's first national support group, and one of Dr. Billington's most important initiatives during his tenure in office - the James Madison Council - celebrates its seventh birthday in January.
Attracting such diverse personalities as Phyllis George, James Earl Jones and Laurance Rockefeller, the Library has been able to reach out through the council to corporate executives and philanthropists alike to persuade them that the Library needs their talents and support to help ensure that more citizens receive the full benefits of the Library's incomparable educational, scientific, technological and cultural resources.
Since the council was established in January 1990, members, who give a minimum of $10,000 annually, have donated $4.5 million in unrestricted membership contributions and an additional $30 million in gifts and pledges for specific projects. In 1996 Madison Council members accounted for more than 60 percent of private gifts and pledges to the Library.
Sixteen Council members have given or pledged $1 million to the Library to become members of the Jefferson Society, or "Jeffersonians," within the Madison Council.
Since 1990 Madison Council members have contributed to 78 Library programs, including exhibitions, acquisitions, preservation, publications, films, internships, symposiums, electronic initiatives and other outreach projects.
Organization
John W. Kluge, president of Metromedia, is the chairman of the Madison Council; the vice chairman is Edwin L. Cox, chairman of the Texas-based oil company Edwin L. Cox Co. A 10-member steering committee makes decisions and sets the agenda for the spring and fall meetings. Major decisions, such as the commitment of Madison council funds, are approved by the full council.
The Library's Development Office is the principal liaison between the 105-member Council and the Library and functions as its executive secretariat. Norma Baker and her staff handle the logistics for the meetings of the council and publish a newsletter about its activities, The Madison Council Bulletin. They work closely with Dr. Billington on all Madison Council events.
Madison Council meetings held at the Library include special programs - an in-depth look at an exhibition on view or an orientation to a specific collection - to help acquaint the members with the vast holdings of the Library.
Divisions that have hosted Madison Council meetings are Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound (including a visit to the film vaults at the Library's storage facility in suburban Maryland); Rare Book and Special Collections; Music; Geography and Map; and most recently, Manuscript.
Other council meetings have been hosted by individual members away from the Library: two meetings were held in Charlottesville, Va., at Mr. Kluge's Morven Farms; and the spring 1993 meeting was held at Pocantico Hills, the home of Mary and Laurance Rockefeller in Tarrytown, N.Y.
1996 Fall Meeting
The Madison Council met most recently at the Library on Oct. 8-9. The meeting celebrated the acquisition of the Marian S. Carson Collection of Americana (see LC Information Bulletin, Oct. 21, 1996), which was purchased in part with $1 million of individual member and general Madison Council funds, and provided an in- depth look at the collections of the Manuscript Division and how they are used by scholars and researchers.
During the opening dinner in the Jefferson Building's Great Hall, Dr. Billington praised the council for its contribution to this acquisition, "the most significant acquisition of Americana by the Library of Congress in this century," and thanked Mrs. Carson and her family for their willingness to transfer to the Library and the American people a collection that had been assembled by her and her husband's families for generations.
"With important financial contributions from the Madison Council, Mrs. Carson has agreed to transfer what is really a priceless collection to the Library of Congress and to the American people," said Dr. Billington.
"It numbers over 10,000 manuscripts, broadsides, rare books, photographs, prints and drawings. The Carson Collection is an extraordinary assemblage of Americana, documenting particularly the first 100 years of American history," he said.
Mr. Kluge told the gathering, "Thomas Jefferson, were he here tonight, would certainly join in congratulating Mrs. Carson and her family and the members of the Madison Council. … Together you have brought a rich treasure trove of American history - into the nation's Library, where it will be preserved intact for all generations."
Commentator and columnist Art Buchwald offered some reflections on his life in Paris and Washington that left everyone - predictably - in a good humor.
The major business of the fall meeting occurred Oct. 9, when Mad- isonians met in the Library's Pickford Theater to see a short video, produced with Madison Council funds, about the Manuscript Division and some of its treasures. They then heard four panelists discuss how they had used the Library's manuscript collections for their own projects and why one should consider depositing manuscript collections at the Library. Dr. Billington served as the moderator.
The panelists were Alan Brinkley, professor of history at Columbia University; David Garrow, Distinguished Professor of History at American University; Sylvia Morris, biographer of Edith Kermit Roosevelt and Clare Boothe Luce; and Alexander Haig, secretary of state under President Reagan (see story on here.)
Following the panel discussion, Madison Council members were led on small-group tours through the Manuscript Division to see the key operations of the division - from the reading room and the stacks to the preparation section and a display of some of the division's treasures and an explanation of how they will be made more accessible through the National Digital Library Program (//www.loc.gov/).
The meeting concluded with a business lunch in the Library's Montpelier Room, reports from council committees and remarks by retiring Sen. Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.), who began his speech by praising Dr. Billington, his predecessor Daniel J. Boorstin, the Library's "dazzling staff," and the Library's collections as "beyond description." Sen. Simpson also talked about the nation's future budget priorities and how they will affect funding of federal institutions such as the Library.
"As a senator I do not even vote on 67 percent of the federal budget. It just goes out automatically to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, federal retirement and interest on the national debt. So you know what's going to happen. You can see it. What is happening in the year 2012, with no increase in taxes and having done a perfect health care bill, there will be only sufficient revenue to run Medicare, Medicaid. … There will be nothing, nothing, for education, transportation, defense … or any other discretionary program of the United States."
The senator thanked members of the Madison Council for investing time, talent and funds, because maintaining and enhancing the Library of Congress "won't get done without you."
Looking Ahead
The Madison Council will play a major role in celebrating the May 1997 reopening of the Jefferson Building with an exhibition of treasures of the Library (funded by Xerox Corp., whose chairman, Paul Allaire, is a Madison Council member) and a fund-raising gala in the fall.
A special committee of the council is already looking at how the council can support the Library's celebration of its bicentennial in the year 2000.
Ray Smith, chairman and CEO of Bell Atlantic, is spearheading a Madison Council effort to raise the additional private funds needed for the Library's National Digital Library Program ($13 million in 1997 and $10 million in 1998).
And the Council's Acquisitions Committee, established just last year, will help to identify collections in various areas and to raise funds for retrospective acquisitions that the Library otherwise would not be able to purchase.
