صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني
[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed]

PUBLICATIONS OF THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS SERVICE

The National Archives and Records Service publishes a variety of descriptions and guides to its holdings that are of use to scholars and the general public. These include inventories of record groups, special lists, and reference information papers. Inventories are general descriptions of and guides to documents in a record group. They provide a brief history of the agency that created the records and describe each series of records. Frequently, the National Archives publishes a preliminary inventory of a record group to facilitate access to its holdings. Preliminary inventories are less detailed than inventories but are similar in format.

Special lists are detailed descriptions of a series of records within a record group or of a subject or activity of an agency. Reference information papers describe material on a given subject that may be found in several record groups. As a rule these lists and papers follow no established form but vary according to the nature of the records to which they relate.

Earlier publications are listed in the leaflet Select List of Publications of the National Archives and Records Service. Microfilm publications may be purchased from the Publications Sales Branch (NEPS), National Archives (GSA), Washington, DC 20408, for $12.00 per roll. Most other publications may be obtained from the same branch at no cost.

MICROFILM PUBLICATIONS

Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832September 30, 1971 (M841, 145 rolls), introduction by James A. Paulauskas, shows the dates of establishment and discontinuance of post offices, their changes of name, and the names of and the appointment dates of their postmasters. It shows since 1870 the names of post

offices to which mail from discontinued offices was sent. The record also shows the dates of presidential appointments of postmasters and the dates of their confirmation by the Senate, usually the dates that post offices were authorized to issue money orders, and occasionally the dates on which the locations of offices were changed. Until 1844 the names of sureties for postmasters and the dates and amounts of their bonds are also given.

Purport Lists for the Department of State Decimal File, 1910-44 (M973, 654 rolls), introduction by Ralph E. Huss, reproduces the principal finding aid for the central files of the Department of State. The purport lists consist of abstracts of each document in the decimal file, arranged by subject and thereunder chronologically. Included are purport lists for all categories of the decimal file, ranging from administrative matters to internal and external affairs of foreign states.

Records of the Department of State Relating to Political Relations Between China and Japan, 1930-44 (M976, 96 rolls), introduction by Ralph E. Huss, contains Department of State Decimal File 793.94, which is part of the central files of the department. It consists of documentation from a variety of sources, including diplomatic and consular dispatches, internal memorandums, and correspondence with other U. S. Government agencies, other governments, and private individuals and organizations.

Act of 1800 Bankruptcy Records of the U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 1800-1806 (M993, 24 rolls), reproduces case files, commissioners' commissions, bonds

for costs, and certificates of discharge pertaining to litigation under the first national bankruptcy act, passed in 1800. The act of 1800 was an emergency measure in effect for about three and one-half years.

Central Treasury Records of the Continental and Confederation Governments Relating to Foreign Affairs, 1775-1787 (M1004, 3 rolls), introduction by Hope K. Holdcamper, reproduces fiscal records that document activities of officials representing the United States abroad during the American Revolution and the period of the Confederation. The first two rolls comprise foreign ledgers of public agents, 1777-87. Arranged by title of account, the entries concern salary accounts, bills of exchange drawn for supplies, foreign loans, interest accounts, expenditures for the care of American prisoners of war, commissions on cargo of ships delivering tobacco to the Farmers General of France, and sundry accounts. Roll 3 contains miscellaneous accounting books, including a ledger showing the accounts of French banker Ferdinand Grand with Thomas Barclay, Silas Deane, Arthur Lee, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Paul Jones, and John Jay; a ledger of moneys received and expended for which the Secretary of Foreign Affairs was accountable, 1782-83; and copies of Silas Deane's papers used in the settlement of his accounts and claims of his heirs, 1775-1835. The originals of the latter papers are in the Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford, Conn. The papers document transactions between Deane, Robert Morris, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, Pierre Beaumarchais, and others. Also reproduced on this roll is a volume of lithographic facsimiles of selected Deane papers, including his commission to purchase and equip two armed vessels, his commission to negotiate, together with Benjamin Franklin and Arthur Lee, a treaty of commerce and friendship with the king of France, and agreements with the Marquis de Lafayette and the Baron de Kalb to serve with the Continental Army.

Project Blue Book (T1206, 94 rolls), is now available for research in the National Archives

building. It consists of the documentation relating to investigations of unidentified flying objects, excluding names of persons involved in the sightings. The sightings are indexed by date and location, and the last two rolls contain photographs.

MISCELLANEOUS

The Office of the Federal Register has published the 1976-77 edition of the United States Government Manual. It describes the major programs of most government agencies and lists their executive personnel. The manual includes an expanded list of boards, committees, and commissions, a list of federal information centers manned by the General Services Administration, and a subject index. Addresses and telephone numbers are given for use in contacting an agency to obtain specifics on employment, environmental programs, goverment contracts, publications, reading rooms, and other matters of interest to the public. The volume sells for $6.50 from the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402.

Japan Surrenders, 1945 may be purchased from the Publications Sales Branch of the National Archives for $2.00. A 44-page booklet of text, documents, and translations, it was published earlier this year as successor to the 1945 booklet The End of the War in the Pacific: Surrender Documents in Facsimile. It attempts to present the material in a more objective manner than had the earlier work.

Two new National Archives conference papers volumes are available for purchase from the Archives or from Howard University Press, 2935 Upton St., NW., Washington, DC 20008. Each is priced at $15.00. They are: World War II: An Account of its Documents, edited by James E. O'Neill and Robert W. Krauskopf, and Indian-White Relations: A Persistent Paradox, edited by Jane F. Smith and Robert M. Kvasnicka.

NEWS AND NOTICES

Agriculture in the United States during the

19th and 20th centuries will be the topic of the next history conference sponsored by the National Archives. The conference, 17th in the annual series, will be held April 28-29, 1977, at the Archives building and is titled "Farmers, Bureaucrats, and Middlemen: Historical Perspectives on American Agriculture."

Speakers will include Wayne Rasmussen, senior historian of the United States Department of Agriculture; Gilbert Fite, professor of history at the University of Georgia; James T. Bonnen, formerly senior staff member of the President's Council of Economic Advisers; and James Hightower, codirector of the Agribusiness Accountability Project.

Sessions will examine the influence of radical farm organizations, the social and political origins of leaders in the Department of Agriculture, and migrant workers, sharecroppers, tenant farmers, and women. Also to be examined are the controversy over agricultural chemicals, the role of the federal government in determining wartime agriculture policy, and problems of surplus disposal and marketing.

Trudy Peterson, a member of the staff of the Office of Presidential Libraries and an agricultural historian, is conference director.

Congress has authorized domestic distribution of seven United States Information Agency films made in celebration of the nation's bicentennial anniversary. Ordinarily shown only overseas, the films are now available from the National Audiovisual Center of the National Archives. The films, all 16mm and in color, are: The Copland Story, a portrayal of one of Ameri

ca's most acclaimed composers, Aaron Copland; The Numbers Start With the River, a portrait of a small Iowa town; Santa Fe, a view of the city's diverse culture from Indian days onward; Echoes, an impressionistic portrayal of American ideals; 200, a brief look at our national symbols; Century 3: The Gift of Life, a presentation of developments in medical technology; and Rendezvous, a reenactment of the life of frontier fur trappers in Wyoming.

For further information write Lynn McCloud, National Audiovisual Center (NAC), General Services Administration, Washington, DC 20409, or telephone her at 301-763-1850.

The Harry S. Truman Library Institute will sponsor an invitational conference next May 5-7 on President Truman as an administrator and on White House operations during the Truman administration. Participants will include Truman administration White House staff members, other Executive Office officials, and scholars who have made this period the subject of their research.

[blocks in formation]

CONTRIBUTORS

Keith Alan Sutherland died in March of injuries received in an automobile accident. He was professor of history at Texas A & M University. He held degrees from the University of Maine and a Ph.D. from Cornell University. Earlier, he had been secretary to symphony orchestra conductor Pierre Monteux for more than ten years. He was the author of several books and articles.

John Daniel Langer holds a B.A. from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in history from Yale University. His dissertation was on the subject of American aid policy toward the Soviet Union during World War II. At the present time he is teaching American history at Bennington College.

Stephen W. Stathis, an analyst in American history with the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress, received his undergraduate and master's degrees from Utah State University. He is presently working toward a doctorate at Georgetown University. Articles he has written have appeared in American Heritage, the New York Times, Utah Historical Quarterly, and the William and Mary Quarterly.

Bruce Kuklick, associate professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania since 1972, received the B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the same institution, also an M.A. from Bryn Mawr College. He was instructor of philosophy in the American Studies Program at Yale University, 1968-69, and assistant professor there from 1969 to 1972. He has written The United States and the Division of Germany (1972) and Josiah Royce (1972).

« السابقةمتابعة »