JOHN TANNER RECORDS MADE AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC

JOHN TANNER RECORDS MADE AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC
MARTIN, Tenn. – The University of Tennessee at Martin hosted a reception Feb. 23 to honor
John Tanner, former U.S. representative for Tennessee’s 8 th District, and thank him for the
donation of his Congressional papers to the university’s Alliene and Jimmie S. Corbitt Special
Collections. Tanner’s documents have been digitized and are now available online for research
use around the world.
Tanner hopes this record of his work with the U.S. House of Representatives and the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization will help future generations learn from the past.
“I hope this collection of papers and so forth will benefit young people in the future,” said
Tanner. “We live in a different time, perhaps, than some of the work that I did through NATO,
but if people can look back and see what happened then, it might give them a better perspective
of what happens now.”
Tanner filled the seat vacated by Rep. Ed Jones in 1989 and represented the district until 2010.
“It is our mission to conserve, preserve and make available the historical record of this university
and West Tennessee,” said Sam Richardson, university archivist and head of the Corbitt Special
Collections. “We here at the Corbitt Special Collections consider ourselves the caretakers of the
8 th District and the 8 th District’s historical record. We, today, are making public a large part of
that history.”
“This collection will bring great interest to researchers who are interested in Tennessee and 8 th
District politics, as well as national and foreign affairs in the late 20 th and early 21 st centuries,”
Richardson continued, addressing the Tanner family. “We here at UT Martin appreciate your
generous donation, and we appreciate that you have trusted us to bring that to the public.”
The Tanner documents can be accessed online through the Paul Meek Library website.
For more information, contact Karen Elmore, senior library assistant with special collections, at
731-881- 7094 or kelmore@utm.edu.