New Exhibit in Special Collections Highlighting Additions to the Church Collection

Frank Church on the campaign trail in 1976 in Nebraska,
seeking the Democratic Nomination for President.

Boise State University houses the papers of Frank Church (1924-1984), a four-term senator from Idaho (serving 1956-1980), former head of the Church Committee and the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, conservationist and advocate for the environment.

Bethine Church, political activist and widow of Frank Church, has graciously donated some important additions to BSU's collection.  They include scrapbooks highlighting Senator Church's 1976 campaign for the presidency, Frank and Bethine Church's trip to Cuba, candid pictures of Church with John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and photographs of Bethine with several First Ladies. The exhibit windows of the Senator Church and Governor Andrus Rooms in Special Collections display items from these new donations, including a pen that President Lyndon B. Johnson used to sign the Wilderness Act of 1964, a landmark piece of legislation which became a law with the help of Senator Church’s floor sponsorship of the bill.

More pictures from the Bethine Church collection can be found at Albertsons Library Digital Collections website (http://digital.boisestate.edu/). The guide to the Frank Church Papers is located at: http://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/uni_books/2/

Kent Randell & Jim Duran,
Special Collections/Archives