For Immediate Release: August 31, 2005
Further information: Brent R. Carney (617) 514-1662, Brent.Carney@JFKLFoundation.org
Boston, MA – The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum announced today that it has processed and made available for research the personal papers of John A. Carver, Jr., lawyer and government official. The papers, a collection of approximately 37 cubic feet, consist of materials related to Carver’s work as Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Public Lands Management (1961-1964), Under Secretary of the Interior (1965-1966), and Commissioner on the Federal Power Commission (1966-1972). The collection spans from 1961 to 1972.
Among the many items included in this newly released collection are papers on America’s National Parks, the American West, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Land Management, the Democratic Party and a significant amount of material on the Public Land Law Review Commission which was formally created in 1964 to examine and suggest necessary changes to existing public land laws.
John A. Carver, Jr. was born in Preston, Idaho on April 24, 1918. He attended public schools in Preston, Pocatello and Boise, Idaho, and earned an A.B. from Brigham Young University in 1939. He went on to earn a law degree from Georgetown University in 1947. Carver returned to Boise to practice law and served as Assistant Attorney General for the state of Idaho from 1947 to 1949. In 1957 he went to work for Senator Frank Church of Idaho as an administrative assistant, a position he held until 1960 when he was nominated by President-elect John F. Kennedy to the post of Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Public Lands Management. In his capacity as Assistant Secretary, Carver oversaw the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the National Park Service. In 1965 he was promoted to Under Secretary of the Interior. In the fall of 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated him to be a commissioner on the Federal Power Commission (FPC). Carver remained with the FPC until 1972, when he left government service to become a professor of law at the University of Denver in Colorado. Carver married Ruth O’Connor, with whom he had three children. He now resides in Littleton, Colorado.
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library’s Archives include 48 million pages of documents from the collections of 340 individuals, organizations, or government agencies; oral history interviews with 1,300 people; and more than 30,000 books. The Audiovisual Archives administers collections of more than 200,000 still photographs, 7,550,000 feet of motion picture film, 1,200 hours of video recordings, over 7,000 hours of audio recordings and 500 original editorial cartoons.
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is administered by the National Archives and Records Administration and supported, in part, by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, a non-profit organization. The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum and the Kennedy Library Foundation seek to promote, through scholarship, educational and community programs, a greater appreciation and understanding of American politics, history, and culture, the process of governing and the importance of public service.
The Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is open daily from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with the exceptions of Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day. The Research Room is open 8:30 am – 4:30 pm each weekday, and is closed on weekends and Federal Holidays. Appointments may be made by calling (617) 514-1629. The Library is located in the Dorchester section of Boston, off Morrissey Boulevard, next to the campus of the University of Massachusetts/Boston. Parking is free. There is free shuttle-service from the JFK/UMass T Stop on the Red Line. The Museum is fully handicapped accessible. For more information, call (866) JFK-1960.