Creative Historical Archives

 The role of the archivist is to discover history. But sometimes an archivist makes history.

An article in the Greensboro News and Record by Nancy McLaughlin on February 10, 2025, has this title:

THE JIMMY CARTER WE NEVER KNEW?

She reports that archivist Jim Lutzweiler has initiated a bidding war for his correspondence with former President Jimmy Carter who died December 29, 2024. “Bidding starts at $100.00,” writes McLaughlin, “although Lutzweiler says he has a minimum selling point, which he won’t say because the bidding isn’t over.”

Since that article appeared, the auction has been completed. The seventy letters and memos from former President Carter sold for $21,000.00.

“I have written a book about this correspondence between Carter and myself,” Jim wrote when he sent me the article. Jim’s first correspondence with President Carter dates to October 31, 2000. From there, a friendship developed through letters which included both serious and humorous conversations. Many of the interactions involved poetry which they both loved. The accumulated correspondence over the years provides an insight into the humor and thought of a President in a way others had not come to know him.
The book is called Jimmy C. and Me: Jimmy L. Jim has graciously offered to make the ebook available free to all of my subscribers. Simply click on the link below and download a copy of his book.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HPAmo2agcv4Q2Vbx7IIORygiqP5fSz1s/view?usp=sharing

The archivist, who has spent a lifetime recording history for libraries and colleges, has also become the creator of history, revealing a side of Jimmy Carter we never knew.