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Carol Schwartz papers

 Collection
Identifier: MS2006

Collection Scope and Content

The papers of Carol Schwartz relate to her term as a member of DC Council. The collection primarily contains documents relating to legislative proceedings that Schwartz was involved in as a member of the Council of the District of Columbia. These documents are contained in the series, Legislative History. This series includes a number of memoranda correspondence, notes, financial documents, reports, and official legislative documents. Some of the subjects addressed in this series include AIDS, Rent Control, and Tax Reform.

The second series Correspondence/Statements/Subject Files contains materials that do not relate to specific legislation, but relate to administrative issues and those of a more personal nature. These include correspondence, personal statements, and personnel files, as well as subject files on suicide prevention fences on bridges and South Africa. There seems to be gaps in some of the legislative proceedings. Materials within this collection date from 1983 to 1988, the bulk of the records date from 1985 to 1987.

Dates

  • 1983-2008

Creator

Restrictions on Access

Series 1 and 2 are closed to research for 25 years from date of record creation. Constituent files are closed to research.

Restrictions on Use

Some material may be copyrighted or restricted. It is the patron's obligation to determine and satisfy copyright or other case restrictions when publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the collections.

Historical or Biographical Note

Carol Schwartz (1944- ) has devoted many years of her life to serving the citizens of the District of Columbia both as an elected and appointment official including a considerable amount of work related to the education system in D.C. First elected to the Council of the District of Columbia in 1984, she served a four-year term from 1985 to 1988, during which she helped pass key legislation that had a lasting impact on the District. She ran again for the At-Large seat in 1996 and won elections to that position in 2000 and 2004. In 1986 and again in 1994, she ran unsuccessfully as the Republican Mayoral candidate in the District of Columbia.

Schwartz was born in Greenville, Mississippi and raised in Midland, Texas and later graduated from the University of Texas, where she received a Bachelor of Science degree in Special and Elementary Education. Schwartz was first elected to public office as a member of the District of Columbia Board of Education in 1974 and served two terms in office. She was then appointed by President Gerald Ford to the National Advisory Council on the Education of Disadvantaged Children in October of 1974. Ms. Schwartz was appointed as the Vice Chairperson of that council beginning in 1977 and continued serving in this capacity until 1979. Her political career continued as she became the Vice Chairperson of the District of Columbia Delegation to the 1980 Republican National Convention, and a member of the Presidential Transition Team for the Reagan Administration from 1980 to 1981. Schwartz also served as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Education, as a Press Secretary in the U.S. House of Representatives, and has participated in an exchange program with political leaders from various countries.

Schwartz's work with the Council of the District of Columbia has included the chairmanship of the Council's Committee on Public Works and the Environment in serving on the Council's Committee on Human Services, the Committee on Government Operations, and the Committee on Education, Libraries and Recreation. She has also served as Chair of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments' (COG) Board of Directors in 2001 and as Chair of COG's Homeland Security Task Force. She was also elected Co-Chair of the Washington Area Housing Trust Fund in December of 2003, after serving as its Vice Chair.

Extent

6.5 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

The papers of Carol Schwartz relate to her term as a member of DC Council. The collection primarily contains documents relating to legislative proceedings that Schwartz was involved in as a member of the Council of the District of Columbia. These documents are contained in the series, Legislative History. This series includes a number of memoranda correspondence, notes, financial documents, reports, and official legislative documents. Some of the subjects addressed in this series include AIDS, Rent Control, and Tax Reform.

Collection Organization

Organized into three series: Legislative History; Correspondence/Statements/Subject Files; and Chronological Files

Acquisition Information

Carol Schwartz donated this collection in 1993.

Explanation for folder titles derived by staff

This collection was part of a legacy folder title creation projection in the early 2000s. The following is an example from a different collection, but one that matches folder titles found in this collection.

Example: Jan Van Dyke collection, folder title Performance Files: Marvin Center, George Washington University, Washington, DC, the portion of the title before the colon “Performance Files” came from a subseries in this collection that was eliminated as an organizational level. The former subseries title “Performance Files” was added to the original folder title by staff. For this example, the titles for the folders 1-21 in box 1 all have the “Performance Files” prefix. One important clue in determining if the folder title contains the former subseries title is to look for the colon after the word or words that are repeated for numerous folders. It is the portion of the folder title before the colon that is derived from staff and not the creator of the archival materials.

The explanation:

In 2004, Special Collections transitioned our collection management system from paper finding aids in our reading room to an automated system. This system, Re:Discovery, was designed for use in museums and lacked the capability to fully utilize all hierarchical levels in an archival collection (i.e. collection, series, subseries, folder, item). The Director of Special Collections made the decision to remove subseries from most collections and effectively collapse one level of hierarchy. In order to retain the description afforded by the subseries the title of the subseries was added as a prefix to each folder title that had been in that subseries.

Title
Guide to the Carol Schwartz papers, 1983-1988
Status
Folder Inventory
Author
Special Collections Research Center, The George Washington University
Date
2005
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English

Repository Details

Part of the Special Collections Research Center, The George Washington University Repository

Contact:
2130 H Street NW
Washington 20052 United States of America