It’s amazing, but evidently Spiro Agnew is important enough to have an archive. Today’s Washington Post reports about the strange things contained in the archive at the University of Maryland.
Researchers dig through the documents for insight into Richard M. Nixon’s vice president, who resigned in 1973 after pleading no contest to tax evasion charges stemming from bribes he allegedly took while governor of Maryland. But so far, no one has mined any of the other memorabilia that might offer a different kind of portrait of the man.
Undiscovered are dozens of gifts that Agnew collected from foreign dignitaries during state visits and exotic presents sent by his fans. Some are homemade, like the bust with Agnew’s head on one side and Nixon’s on the other, and the intricate robot penholder with swiveling body parts made from bolts, screws and other garage castoffs.
What’s interesting about this for me is that in my father’s basement, somewhere in boxes, are metal houses and other buildings, which once belonged to Spiro Agnew. They go with his boyhood model train set. The set of buildings were given to my father by Agnew’s sister. He was painting her house, and she wanted to get rid of the stuff in her basement.
