Lost amid news of balloon hoaxes and political battles last week, the W.R. Poage Legislative Library at Baylor University quietly marked its 30th anniversary with a fascinating celebration of its many artifacts and holdings, not the least involving late Congressman Poage himself.

Poage comes from a pivotal era in U.S. history when voters weren’t so quick to vilify lawmakers.

Dedicated in 1979, the library — occupying modest quarters alongside the Jesse H. Jones Library on campus — is the only congressional library “honoring an individual for his service wholly in the U.S. House of Representatives.”

Not surprisingly, a visit finds plenty honoring Poage’s service, including the desk from which he worked in Congress; several much-cherished portraits of lifelong idol Gen. Robert E. Lee; a favorite rocker; and a globe given to him by the McGregor Rotary Club that lights up and reveals a far different world than we now face.

Many Poage items came from a wild auction of his historical materials where Waco civic leaders Gloria and F.M. Young sought to collect as much Poage memorabilia as humanly and financially possible.

Across from the desk he had at his home in Waco is an old campaign sign, reading: “Poage for Congress: Work for him while he works for you.”

But the Poage library is about more than Poage, who retired in 1978 after four full decades in Congress. It holds the papers of several key lawmakers and leaders, many encouraged by Poage to store their papers there. Holdings include the Judge Jack E. Hightower Book Vault; the papers of former Waco Mayor Mike Morrison; and the archives of Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock that many of us hoped would reside alongside the presidential library of his friend and ally, former President George W. Bush.

Even better, at least for the general public, is the political memorabilia that library director Ben Rogers and colleagues have tracked down, including campaign buttons and signs extending far back into the 19th century, including an 1844 newspaper touting presidential candidate James Knox Polk and trashing all comers.

The collections are real eye-openers for some, including student assistants from other lands who toil in the library. For instance, Shuang Wu, a 23-year-old business major from Beijing, is cataloguing a huge collection championing Lyndon B. Johnson, donated by George Meyer of Georgetown. It includes LBJ’s cigar box and a carton of eggs touted as being from the LBJ ranch henhouse. Oh, yes — the eggs have been removed. So have the cigars.

Leisel Walters, 20, an international studies student from Honduras, tells me she has learned much about our land by cataloguing presidential buttons and campaign materials collected by Dr. Bob Platt. That worries me a little, considering I found her cataloguing a President Jimmy Carter souvenir kit that allows one to plant peanuts. (“Water and watch it grow!”)

She also told me about a rubber image of Vice President Spiro Agnew that you can bend, snugly placing its foot into its mouth. “Apparently,” she said, “he said a lot of things he shouldn’t have said.”

Some of the materials that they and 19-year-old Vanessa Onguti, of Kenya, sort through speak of other times, other perspectives, including all those campaign buttons for Wendell Willkie, who tried to keep Franklin D. Roosevelt from a historic third term in the White House in 1940.

Buttons include “Two times is enough for any man,” “No more fireside chats,” “No third term,” “Out! Stealing third” and “Boy. Do we need change!”

There’s also memorabilia from the 1920 presidential campaign of James M. Cox who, with apologies to Republicans out there, steered the Ohio newspaper company that once owned this paper and would have probably made a better president had he beaten Warren G. Harding, whose administration proved hopelessly corrupt.

“Keep faith with our sons,” one Cox button reads. “Bring America into the League of Nations. Vote for Cox and Roosevelt.”

And, yes, Rogers confirms that things are getting snug in this oft-overlooked campus library. But at least that proves this marvelous collection is ever growing, ever rich in history, politics and surprises.