Lindy Boggs" legacy thrives in student"s presentation

Florida high school student Macy Mateer wanted to look and sound like the late Lindy Boggs for her entry in the National History Day Contest, and she did — so convincingly that she won a silver medal and was the one student chosen to give her presentation at a VIP reception. She credits help from the Louisiana Research Collection at Tulane University for the background material that helped make it possible.

“I would like to thank everyone at the Louisiana Research Collection (LaRC) for your guidance and help researching Corinne "Lindy" Boggs,” Mateer wrote to staff members at the collection. “You all played a pivotal role in this incredibly memorable experience. I could not have done this without you.”

Mateer contacted Howard-Tilton Memorial Library several months ago seeking background material on Boggs, a Newcomb College alumna and the first woman elected to Congress from Louisiana. She served in the House of Representatives from 1974 to 1991 and later was named U.S. ambassador to the Holy See in Rome. She died in 2013.

The high school freshman visited the Tulane uptown campus in March, working with Sean Benjamin, public services librarian in the LaRC, to comb through research materials and develop her presentation, called “There"s No Need to be Rude: Lindy Boggs" Legacy of Leadership.” LaRC holds the papers of Lindy Boggs as part of its extensive collections pertaining to Louisiana political figures.

“The judges were impressed with my research, especially my primary sources,” says Mateer, who is from Gulf Breeze, Florida, but has Tulane ties through her extended family.

At the competition in Washington June 14-18, she won the silver medal in the “senior individual performance” category.

Tulane provost Michael Bernstein congratulated the LaRC staff members on their assistance to the young historian, saying that “their commitment, their professionalism, and their wonderful spirit are deeply admired and profoundly respected.”