Luther Harris Evans was an American political scientist

Political science

Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...

 who served as the tenth Librarian of the United States Congress

United States Congress

The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

.

Biography

Born in Bastrop County, Texas

Bastrop County, Texas

Bastrop County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of 2006, the population was 71,700. Its county seat is Bastrop. Bastrop County is named for Felipe Enrique Neri, Baron de Bastrop , an early Dutch settler who assisted Stephen F...

 in 1902, Evans received his bachelor's (1923) and master's (1924) from the University of Texas at Austin

Austin

Austin is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas.Austin may also refer to:-In the United States:*Austin, Arkansas*Austin, Colorado*Austin, Chicago, Illinois*Austin, Indiana*Austin, Minnesota*Austin, Nevada*Austin, Oregon...

 and his doctorate from Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

 (1927). He taught political science at New York University

New York University

New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

, Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...

 and Princeton University

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

 (1927- 1935). Evans left Princeton University abruptly after a faculty dispute. Friends referred him for help to the powerful Lehman family of New York, who got him an appointment with Harry Hopkins, the advisor to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. At a meeting in the White House

White House

The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...

, Hopkins asked the young professor to propose a plan for a project Hopkins already wanted to do. Evans went back the next day and told Hopkins that the project wasn't worth doing. Instead, he pointed out that the States Archives of the United States were in a state of disarray with profound consequences to American history. Hopkins said, "Dr. Evans, you have a lot of guts -- I know you have no money and that your wife is nine months pregnant, and I have never thought about the state archives. But I hear that you have a good reputation."

This is how Evans came to organize and direct the Historical Records Survey

Historical Records Survey

The Historical Records Survey was a project of the Works Progress Administration New Deal program in the United States. Originally part of the Federal Writers' Project, it was devoted to surveying and indexing historically significant records in state, county and local archives...

 for the Works Project Administration (1935-1939). After this, he was appointed by Librarian of Congress

Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...

 Archibald MacLeish

Archibald MacLeish

Archibald MacLeish was an American poet, writer, and the Librarian of Congress. He is associated with the Modernist school of poetry. He received three Pulitzer Prizes for his work.-Early years:...

 as head of the Legislative Reference Service and later Chief Assistant Librarian of Congress.

After MacLeish resigned, president Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...

 appointed Evans as his successor, a position he held from 1945 to 1953. During his tenure, Evans opposed censorship

Censorship

thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...

 of the library's holdings, and greatly expanded the library's collection. Well versed in international relations

International relations

International relations is the study of relationships between countries, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations , international nongovernmental organizations , non-governmental organizations and multinational corporations...

, he also returned a number of manuscripts to their countries of origin. He helped draft the Universal Copyright Convention at Geneva in 1952.

He also served with various U.S. delegations during the forming of UNESCO

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

. In 1953 he resigned from the Library to accept a position as UNESCO's third Director General, the only American to hold this post.

He was active in international peace issues throughout his life, serving in many capacities with educational organizations and commissions. He served as President of the United World Federalists in 1970 - 1976, and his thinking of this period is seen in his testimony before the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the U.S. House of Representatives on February 4, 1975 concerning "The United Nations in the 1970s: Recommendations for U.S. Policy". Working with a range of other Americans prominent in foreign policy, including Father Theodore Hesburgh

Theodore Hesburgh

The Rev. Theodore Martin Hesburgh, CSC, STD , a priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross, is President Emeritus of the University of Notre Dame. He is the namesake for TIAA-CREF's Hesburgh Award....

 of Notre Dame, Norman Cousins

Norman Cousins

Norman Cousins was an American political journalist, author, professor, and world peace advocate.-Early life and education:...

 of Saturday Review, James Grant

James Grant

James Grant may refer to:*James Grant , American author, journalist, and publisher of Grant's Interest Rate Observer*James Grant , California painter and sculptor...

 of the Overseas Development Council, anthropologist Margaret Mead

Margaret Mead

Margaret Mead was an American cultural anthropologist, who was frequently a featured writer and speaker in the mass media throughout the 1960s and 1970s....

, World Federalist Chairman H. Donald Wilson

H. Donald Wilson

H. Donald Wilson was a database pioneer and entrepreneur. He was also the first president and one of the principal creators of the Lexis legal information system, and Nexis. An attorney by training who became an information industry innovator and a venture capital consultant to numerous...

, and World Bank president Robert McNamara

Robert McNamara

Robert Strange McNamara was an American business executive and the eighth Secretary of Defense, serving under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from 1961 to 1968, during which time he played a large role in escalating the United States involvement in the Vietnam War...

, Evans organized an organization called New Directions. New Directions was to be a U.S. citizen's lobby on international issues modeled on Common Cause

Common Cause

Common Cause is a self-described nonpartisan, nonprofit lobby and advocacy organization. It was founded in 1970 by John W. Gardner, a Republican former cabinet secretary under Lyndon Johnson, as a "citizens' lobby" with a mission focused on making U.S. political institutions more open and...

. It worked for a time, and helped pass the Panama Canal Treaty, but was ultimately unable to find enough funds to sustain it for the long term.

He was director of international collections at the Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 Library until his retirement in 1971.

He died in 1981 in San Antonio, Texas

San Antonio, Texas

San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...

, aged 79. He was unusual for his generation of Texans in speaking several languages fluently. He was a renowned story teller who, like his contemporary Lyndon Baines Johnson, used humor to defuse tense political situations in long meetings and build consensus.