Joe Samuel Barker graduated from the Foundation School in 1950 and attended Berea College (1950-1953, 1961).  Barker served in the U.S. Army in Japan and Korea and would go on to, amongst other things, work for the State Department, teach at the Friendsville Academy, and be self-employed.   Materials in this collection consist of autographed letters written to Barker (ca. 200 items), many of which relate to a project he undertook to elicit the principal concerns of prominent American political leaders. These concerns were to be compiled and published, but apparently this was not completed. Included here are brief statements by such figures as Edmund G. Brown, Orval E. Faubus, Herbert Hoover, J. Edgar Hoover, Hubert H. Humphrey, John F. Kennedy, and Eleanor Roosevelt, among others.

Other items in the collection include Christmas greetings from a number of governors and U.S. Senators, and letters from numerous members of Congress concerning public and personal matters.  A longtime resident of Maryville, TN, Barker passed away on October 20, 2012.