Raymond W. Smock (born February 8, 1941) is an American historian, who is the director emeritus of the

Robert C. Byrd Robert Carlyle Byrd (born Cornelius Calvin Sale Jr.; November 20, 1917 – June 28, 2010) was an American politician and musician who served as a United States senator from West Virginia for over 51 years, from 1959 until his death in 2010. A ...

Center for Congressional History and Education at

Shepherd University Shepherd University is a public university in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. Accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, the university enrolled 3,159 students in Fall 2020. History Shepherd University began when the county seat of Jefferson ...

, and formerly the

Historian of the United States House of Representatives The Historian of the United States House of Representatives is an official appointed by the United States House of Representatives to study and document its past. The House Historian heads the Office of the House Historian, which serves as the i ...

(1983-1995).

Career

Education

Smock received a B.A. in American History from

Roosevelt University Roosevelt University is a private university with campuses in Chicago and Schaumburg, Illinois. Founded in 1945, the university was named in honor of United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The unive ...

in Chicago in 1966. He received his Ph.D. in history from the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

at College Park in 1974.

House Historian

Smock was a key planner of the national commemorations of the bicentennials of the

U. S. Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven ar ...

and of the

U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...

and oversaw numerous related publications. He was senior historical consultant to

WGBH-TV WGBH-TV (channel 2), branded on-air as GBH or GBH 2 since 2020, is the primary PBS member television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship property of the WGBH Educational Foundation, which also owns Boston's sec ...

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 National Constitution Center is a non-profit institution devoted to the Constitution of the United States. On Independence Mall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the center is an interactive museum and a national town hall for constitutional dia ...

, the first museum dedicated to the

located on Independence Mall in Philadelphia.

Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education

In 2002, Smock was named the director of the Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education. He retired from this position in 2018, but remains on the center's board of directors. The center houses Senator

's papers and other corresponding collections and serves as a study and research center on the United States Congress and the

U.S. Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the natio ...

and conducts public programs and teacher training. 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 Wheeling University (WU, formerly Wheeling Jesuit University) is a private Roman Catholic university in Wheeling, West Virginia. It was founded as Wheeling College in 1954 by the Society of Jesus (also known as the Jesuits) and was a Jesuit inst ...

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. Smock is a member of the adjunct history faculty at

, where he teaches U. S. History and Public History. He served as president of the Association for Documentary Editing, the

Society for History in the Federal Government The Society for History in the Federal Government (SHFG) is a private non-profit organization established in 1979 to promote an understanding of the history of the federal government in the United States and to represent historians A historian i ...

, and the Association of Centers for the Study of Congress. In 2006, West Virginia Governor

Joe Manchin III Joseph Manchin III (born August 24, 1947) is an American politician and businessman serving as the senior United States senator from West Virginia, a seat he has held since 2010. A member of the Democratic Party, Manchin was the 34th governor o ...

appointed Smock to the board of the

West Virginia Humanities Council West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some R ...

. In 2009 he was appointed to the

National Historical Publications and Records Commission The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It i ...

, an independent agency of the federal government affiliated with the

National Archives and Records Administration The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It i ...

, where he served until 2016.

Works

Smock's early professional career was as an assistant editor, then co-editor of the 14-volume

Booker T. Washington Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to several presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American c ...

Papers with his colleague Louis R. Harlan, from 1967 to 1982. Smock's biography of Booker T. Washington was published in 2009.

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) * ''Trump Tsunami: A Historian's Diary of the Trump Campaign and His First Year in Office'' (2018) * ''American Demagogue: Critical Essays on the Trump Presidency'' (2019) * ''Bearing Witness to America's Worst President: Essays on the Trump Disaster'' (2020)

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 James Berton "Bert" Rhoads (September 17, 1928 – April 7, 2015) served as fifth Archivist of the United States. He was born in Sioux City, Iowa. Rhoads received his B.A., in 1950, and M.A., in 1952, from the University of California at Berkele ...

, and Raymond W. Smock (1985) * ''Encyclopedia of the United States Congress'' (4 vols.) (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 Louis Rudolph Harlan (July 13, 1922 – January 22, 2010) was an American academic historian who wrote a two-volume biography of the African-American educator and social leader Booker T. Washington and edited several volumes of Washington materi ...

(14 vols.) (1972-1983) * ''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"

References

External links

*
C-SPAN ''Q&A'' interview with Smock, November 15, 2009List of books edited by Raymond W, Smock (photograph included)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smock, Raymond W. 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers Historians of the United States House of Representatives Historians of the United States People from Prince George's County, Maryland 1941 births Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Shepherd University faculty Historians from Maryland American male non-fiction writers