Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics
LAWRENCE — The Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas was awarded $5.2 million to support the preservation of Russell native and former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole’s career collections, which includes digitization of audiovisual collections as well as bolstering the technology and physical infrastructure that promotes the perpetual care and engagement with these historical materials.
The funding, secured by U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee member Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), was included in the FY2026 appropriations packages that passed Congress earlier this year. The National Historical Publications and Records Commission, part of the National Archives and Records Administration, will administer funding over the next three years.
“This funding secured by Sen. Moran is the culmination of a multiyear effort and represents the largest singular investment made in the Dole Institute since its founding era,” said Audrey Coleman, director of the Dole Institute. “It speaks to the enduring importance of Bob Dole’s history and legacy in Kansas, our nation and around the world.”
“New generations of Americans — students, scholars, teachers, Kansans — will be able to learn from Sen. Bob Dole’s leadership and bipartisan collaboration thanks to this funding, gaining perspective on American conservatism and American political development, how the Senate and U.S. Congress function, and broadly, our democracy,” said Sarah Gard, senior archivist and head of collections at the Dole Institute.
For the past decade, the Dole Archives digitized paper and photographs from its holdings, making entire collections of Dole’s speeches, press releases and record of disability advocacy available online for use by researchers and educators.
The focus now turns to preservation and digitization of moving image and recorded sound formats in these collections, such as film, VHS, audio cassettes and CDs that are at risk due to physical degradation, obsolete file formats and scarcity of playback equipment.
The digitization project funded by this award will preserve and digitize approximately 5,400 items that document Dole’s early campaigns, radio and television appearances while in the Senate, Senate campaigns, 1988 and 1996 presidential campaigns, post-Senate advocacy and media appearances, as well as work done by his Dole Foundation for Employment of People with Disabilities.
Funding will also bolster the technology and physical infrastructure that promotes perpetual care and engagement with these invaluable historical materials. Selected materials digitized through these projects will be contributed to the American Congress Digital Archives Portal, a national collaboration co-founded in 2021 among the Dole Institute, West Virginia University Libraries and the Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education.
The Dole Institute of Politics is home to the significant legacies of Sens. Bob and Elizabeth Dole. Their collections, chronicling many major milestones of the late 20th century, are fundamental to the Dole Institute mission to promote a new era of leadership that uses politics to bring people together through opportunities that emphasize bipartisan cooperation, public service, and civic education and engagement.
“This commemorative year, we celebrate not only the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, but also the 30th anniversary of Senator Dole’s retirement from the U.S. Senate and his becoming Republican nominee for president,” Coleman said. “It is an ideal time to embark on significant archival work that promotes civic education and historical learning for generations to come.”
About the Dole Institute
The Dole Institute of Politics promotes a new era of leadership that uses politics to bring people together through opportunities that emphasize bipartisan cooperation, public service, and civic education and engagement, inspired by the leadership legacies of Sens. Bob and Elizabeth Dole and the enduring civic contributions of the Greatest Generation.