Summer Prologue Highlights 75th Anniversary of the National Archives

WASHINGTON, July 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Archives celebrates its 75th anniversary with a special issue of Prologue: Quarterly of the National Archives and Records Administration.

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The issue highlights Acting Archivist Adrienne Thomas' recollections from her 39-year career at the Archives; the National Archives role in providing war planners with meteorological records and maps for use on D-Day 1944; the inside story behind the transfer of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution from the Library of Congress; the behind-the-scenes battle the agency waged in the 1980s to regain its status as an independent agency; and the pivotal role that the Archives played in preserving the records and tapes of the Nixon Presidency.

The anniversary issue offers a peek at a detail of the drawings of the bronze doors, the largest in the world, by the famous architect John Russell Pope who designed the building. It also tells the story of the early struggles to create the agency, its formative years under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and how it was transformed over the years by war, government reorganization, and changes in the way records are created and preserved.

Noting that Roosevelt was instrumental in setting the National Archives on its course as the nation's record keeper, the article states: "He likely would not recognize the National Archives of the 21st century, with its leadership role in federal records management, in the classification and declassification of government documents, and in finding ways to ensure that the government can preserve the electronic records of today as well as of the future."

The issue also features a history of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, the Archives' grant-making arm, which was also created in the same 1934 legislation that created the Archives.

Summer Prologue also contains the regular fare of articles revealing new historical insights and articles about National Archives programs and activities nationwide:

• "When the 'Enemy' Landed at Angel Island" recounts how the immigration station on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay sought to bar entry to hostile aliens and deport resident radicals during World War I.
• "Sitting in Judgment" recalls the case of Myron C. Cramer, who thought he was finished with the trial of German saboteurs who made it into the United States during World War II, only to find himself sent to Tokyo for the trials of Japanese war leaders.
• "The First Nixon Library" reveals the story of a library in Hong Kong named for Richard Nixon in honor of his visit there as Vice President in the mid-1950s, long before he became President.

For Prologue subscription information, go to www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/order. For more information about the National Archives and its programs and exhibits, go to www.archives.gov.

SOURCE National Archives