The Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies at the University of Georgia Libraries was established in 1974. The Library’s original mission was to collect and preserve materials that documented the late Richard B. Russell, United States Senator from Georgia from 1933 to 1971. The Russell Library has grown over the years as a center for research and study of the modern American political system, with particular emphasis on the role of Georgia and the increasingly diverse people, events, and ideas that shape Georgia’s modern political landscape.
The Russell Library holds more than 300 collections of papers of post-1900 elected officials, political appointees, and individuals and groups representing, persuading, or observing the political and public policy processes in Georgia and the nation. These collections include the personal papers of numerous federal and state appointees, members of Congress, governors, state legislators, judges, elected officials, political activists and observers, and the records of the state Democratic and Republican parties, the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, Leadership Georgia, the ACLU Chapter of Georgia, and the Athens-Clarke County League of Women Voters.
