In the 1970s William B. Royer, Jr. was the assistant director of the Iran-America Society, a cultural organization dedicated to the promotion of understanding between the two peoples. The Iran America Society, founded in the 1950s, was based in Washington D.C., and had cultural centers in Tehran, Isfahan, and Mashad. The society closed after the Iran-Hostage Crisis in 1979. Royer was one of sixty-six Americans captured by Iranian militants after the seizure of the U. S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979. Royer was detained in Iran until January 1981, when the hostage crisis ended with the release of the fifty-two remaining captives. Following his liberation, Royer returned home to Houston, Texas.
John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters,
Jimmy Carter Library & Museum. “The Hostages and the Casualties,” Jimmy Carter Library & Museum, http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.org/documents/list_of_hostages.phtml (accessed June 25, 2010).
Correspondence, ephemera, published documents, sound recordings, drawings, posters, and printed materials comprise the Wiliam B. Royer, Jr. Collection, 1979-1981, which relates to the Iranian Hostage Crisis of 1979 to 1981. Much of the material in the collection was given to Royer and his mother as gifts during and after the hostage crisis. The letters in the collection are addressed to Dorothy Royer, Royer’s mother, and include autographed letters from many famous Americans, such as President Jimmy Carter, President Ronald Reagan, fellow hostage Bruce Laingen, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, Reverend William Sloan Coffin, Jr., Senator Jacob Javits, and Rita Clements, the wife of Texas governor Bill Clements. Furthermore, the collection contains Royer’s message to his family via one of the clergymen who visited the hostages in Tehran during Christmas 1979.
Unrestricted access.
A portion of these papers is stored remotely. Advance notice required for retrieval. Contact repository for retrieval.
William B. Royer, Jr., 1979-1981, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.
Some material has been separated to the Artifact Collection.
Basic processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with funds from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for the Briscoe Center’s “History Revealed: Bringing Collections to Light project,” 2009-2011.
This collection is unprocessed.