What is the Gore Center
The Albert Gore Research Center is a manuscripts repository dedicated to preserving and making available for research primary source materials related to Tennessee history. Through its public programming, educational activities, oral history program, and exhibits, the Center also goes beyond preservation to promote the active study of region's history by its citizens. The Center's collections focus on the history of politics and public policy and on Middle Tennessee State University and the region it serves. The papers of Albert Gore, Sr., who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1938 to 1952 and in the Senate from 1953 to 1970, form the cornerstone of the Center's collections.
The Gore Center opened in 1993. It serves a variety of researchers: undergraduates, graduate students, MTSU administrators, faculty and other scholars, the media, and citizens of the local community. In addition to serving the public, the staff prepare exhibits, record oral histories, conduct research, and supervise interns and graduate assistants from MTSU's public history program. Center staff also assist Rutherford County in operating its County Archives. In November 1997, the Center sponsored a major conference entitled "Albert Gore, Tennessee, and the New South."