Raymond Smock stands unrecognized in Signer’s Hall of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. That’s because he served as the model for the statue of Benjamin Franklin.
Smock, director of the Robert C. Byrd Center for Legislative Studies at Shepherd University and former historian of the U.S. House of Representatives, always loved science. He even thought he wanted to be an astronomer. Unfortunately, he said, “I was no good at math. But I liked to read biographies, and I could write well. History is a reading and writing discipline, and my teachers inspired me to consider it as a profession.”
Booker T. Washington was the subject of Smock’s Ph.D. in history at the University of Maryland in College Park. He worked with Pulitzer Prize-winner Prof. Louis R. Harland on a project to publish Washington’s papers. It ended up as a 15-year undertaking, and Smock co-edited a 14-volume documentary series, The Booker T. Washington Papers.
Smock’s hobby is photography, which led to an audio-visual business that he and his wife operated from their home. He copied historical images that were in the public domain and produced slides for educational institutions worldwide. He sold his interest in the business in 1983 when he became the first historian of the U.S. House of Representatives.
There had been a nationwide search run by the House Rules Committee for the newly created historian position. The first duties would be plans for the upcoming 200th anniversary of the Constitution and Congress. “They advertised the job in scholarly journals,” said Smock. “The applicants were kept secret, and there was no political pressure on them.”
More than 100 people applied, and a reception was held for 17 finalists. “I was really nervous,” Smock recalled, “meeting people that I had only read about in the paper—congressmen, the Speaker of the House. It was very exciting.”
He said that nobody asked him about his politics, only about how he would run the bicentennial. “I had done my homework,” he said. “I laid out a seven-year plan for ceremonies, commemorative stamps and coins, working with the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress on exhibits, and events in Philadelphia.”
Smock got the job and accomplished everything outlined in his plan. However, there was controversy in Washington over his office from the beginning. “It was nothing personal,” Smock maintained. “It was a way to attack the Speaker for having too much staff—but I never had more than five people on my own staff.”
Because of the criticism, the position was set up as a temporary one, but in 1989 it was made permanent. However, Smock said, it was always brought up at budget time as a frivolous waste of taxpayer money. Smock recalled Rep. Bill Frengell of Minnesota saying, “The Speaker needs a historian like he needs a golf pro or a plumber.”
Smock had found Rep. Newt Gingrich, a fellow history Ph.D., to be friendly and cooperative. Then, when Gingrich became Speaker of the House, Smock and his staff were unceremoniously fired during the 1994 Christmas season and told to be out by January 2, 1995. There was no nationwide search for his replacement, and Gingrich put in a political activist from Georgia who did not work out. The position was left vacant but was resurrected in recent years.
Smock returned to his entrepreneurial roots and became a consultant for history projects, including the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. He worked on exhibits for the museum, including 42 life-sized statues for Signer’s Hall, for which he researched height, weight, hair styles, clothing, and general appearance of the subjects. It turned out that Smock was the same size as Ben Franklin, so he was cast as a model for the statue.
During his Washington years, Smock got to know West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd. While working on the Constitution Center project, he was approached by staffers about working on the planned Byrd Legislative Center. It was first visualized as a separate building, but it was decided to attach it to the library. “That was a good idea,” Smock said. “It made it easier to get funds because the library was being updated.”
Smock defined the mission of the Center as “to foster better understanding of the United States Congress, Constitution, and representative democracy.” They focus on public outreach with programs and lectures. There are specialized collections, archives for research, and all the papers of Senator Byrd and the senior and junior Reps. Harley Staggers. There is a fascinating collection of the first constituent mail to Congress, some of which is available online, consisting of 25,000 handwritten petitions dated 1789 through 1817, from diverse parties such as Indians, abolitionists, and whalers.
Smock noted that a lot of money is spent promoting the presidency through presidential museums, but there is nothing comparable for Congress. “Congress is a co-equal partner,” he said, “so we should study Congress, keep an institutional memory, and encourage research into that branch. Because Senator Byrd is interested in history and the importance of the Constitution, our focus is on history.”
Smock is on the adjunct faculty of Shepherd University, teaching Reconstruction history and public history. He defines public history as making history available to the public—and as one of the few history fields that actually provides jobs. It includes archival, conservation, and museum work, consulting on preservation issues, and interpretation in historic parks. Smoch brings in people to discuss careers with students, and his students get into local history projects, learn to do oral histories, and work in the Center archives.
Smock is currently writing a short biography of Booker T. Washington for classroom use.