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Research Facilities and Materials at The National Archives
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 September 2013
Extract
The National Archives was established in 1934 as an independent agency. The primary objectives of its staff have been described by the Archivist as, first, the concentration and preservation in the National Archives Building of non-current federal archives having permanent or long-time administrative value or historical interest; and, second, “the administration of such archives so as to facilitate their use in the business of the Government and in the service of scholarship.” Operations were begun in 1935 with a survey of federal records located in and near the District of Columbia. As it drew to a conclusion in 1939, the survey had resulted in the accumulation of reports on a total of 2,729,393 cubic feet of records.
Transfer of records to the National Archives Building was begun in December, 1935, and during the next four years more than 200,000 cubic feet of paper records were received. The materials, representing accessions from all 10 executive departments, some 30 independent agencies, four federal courts, and the United States Senate, occupied at the end of 1939 about one-fourth of the available stack space in the building. Non-current materials continue to be received daily, and although there are indications that the rate of transfer is leveling off, it will probably be some years before the century and a half of record accumulations will have been completely dealt with.
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- Research and Instruction
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- Copyright © American Political Science Association 1940
References
1 48 Stat. 1122–1124. A National Archives Council and a National Historical Publications Commission also were created by the act. The Commission, as its first project, has recommended to Congress the collection and publication of original materials relating to the ratification of the Constitution and the first ten amendments. See Fifth Annual Report of the Archivist, 1938–1939, pp. 93–94.
2 First Annual Report of the Archivist, 1934–1935, p. 10. A third primary objective was added by the Federal Register Act, approved July 26, 1935 (amended June 19, 1937), charging the Archivist with responsibility for the publication and custody of rules, regulations, notices, and other documents having “… general applicability and legal effect …,” issued by federal administrative agencies. See Fifth Annual Report of the Archivist, pp. 39–41. Under this act, the Federal Register is issued five days a week. In addition, by the end of the calendar year 1939 the first volume of a “Code of Federal Regulations,” expected to run to 14 volumes and an index, had been issued. The Code will cover the several types of orders in force on June 1, 1938. Supplements will be published annually. Daily issues of the Federal Register from March 14, 1936, to June 3, 1938, have been bound in five volumes; but the place of such volumes in the future will be taken by supplements to the Code.
3 Fifth Annual Report of the Archivist, p. 3. In addition, 17,737,879 running feet of motion-picture film, 2,346,598 still-picture negatives, and 5,495 sound recordings were surveyed.
4 “The National Archives of the United States,” Bulletins of The National Archives, No. 1 (Nov., 1936), p. 13.
5 Circular No. 2, Rules and Regulations for the Use of Records, requires persons desiring to use the records to make application for admission to the search rooms, and at the discretion of the Archivist, to present an acceptable letter of introduction.
6 “The National Archives of the United States,” pp. 9–10. Films or sound recordings are exhibited to “… those who have adequate reasons for desiring to see them.”
7 A description of these finding aids may be found in the Fifth Annual Report of the Archivist, pp. 22–27.
8 The use of some records is restricted by statute. Otherwise, the more notable restrictions are those placed upon records of the Department of State, which are open to August 14, 1906, and upon records of the Department of Justice, open after a fifty-year period has elapsed (that is, open to 1890 in 1940). The use of War Department records is subject to an agreement whereby calls are processed through a War Department representative on duty at The National Archives. Particular groups of records from other departments also are covered by restrictions or by other agreements as to use.
9 The investigator is referred to the 1940 edition of the guide, in which all records received to the end of the calendar year 1939 are described. The writer is indebted to the various chiefs of custodial divisions and their associates for the information given in the table.
10 At present, in the General Accounting Office. Next to the War Department, this agency has accumulated the largest quantity of records in Washington.
11 A noteworthy addition to this material consists of records transferred and in process of transfer from diplomatic and consular posts throughout the world, a project which, begun by the State Department in 1930, now contemplates the deposit in The National Archives of all records accumulated at foreign posts prior to August 15, 1912. A list of posts from which such records had been transferred by the end of 1939 will be found in the 1940 edition of the guide.
12 See Scammell, Lt. Col. J. M., “Local Archives and the Study of Government,” The American Archivist, Vol. 2, pp. 225–243 (Oct., 1939)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, describing the work of the Historical Records Survey of the Works Progress Administration. The inventories produced by this project should be of great value to students of comparative local government. See also the Fifth Annual Report of the Archivist, pp. 89–91, concerning inventories of field records of the federal government now in process of production.
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