Prologue is a scholarly journal published quarterly by the National Archives and Records Administration. Its primary purpose is to bring to public attention the resources and programs of the National Archives, the regional archives, and the presidential libraries. Accordingly, Prologue in the main publishes material based, in whole or in part, on the holdings and programs of these institutions. In keeping with the nonpartisan character of the National Archives, Prologue will not accept articles that are politically partisan or that deal with contemporary political issues.

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ARCHIVIST OF THE UNITED STATES

Don W. Wilson

ASSISTANT ARCHIVIST, PUBLIC PROGRAMS
Linda N. Brown

DIRECTOR, PUBLICATIONS DIVISION
Charles W. Bender

EDITOR

Henry J. Gwiazda II ASSOCIATE EDITOR Mary C. Ryan EDITORIAL STAFF Sandra M. Tilley

Sherry King-Anderson

ART DIRECTOR

Serene Feldman Werblood

PRODUCTION EDITOR

Richard B. Smith

SUBSCRIPTIONS COORDINATOR Olivia Hylton

Picture credits: Cover, United States Naval Academy Museum; pp. 178, 180 (bottom), 181, 183, NA-New England; p. 180 (top), 208-PU86A-2; pp. 182, 184, 189, 192 (bottom), 199, 234, 235, Library of Congress; p. 186, U.S. Navy photograph by PH2 Gresswell, USN; pp. 188, 192 (top), 193, 194, NA-Northeast; p. 191 (left), New York Public Library; p. 191 (right), National Academy of Design, New York City; p. 196, 111-B-1521; pp. 198, 200, 201, 205, NA-Mid Atlantic; p. 202, 19-N-13841; pp. 206-211, NA-Southeast; p. 212, 111-BA-1196A; p. 216, 111-BA-1219; pp. 217, 219, NA-Great Lakes; p. 222, National Portrait Gallery; pp. 224, 225, 228, 229 (bottom), NA-Central Plains; p. 229 (top), 111-SC-93378; pp. 230-233, 237, NA-Southwest; pp. 238, 240, 242, Colorado Historical Society; pp. 241, 243, 245, NA-Rocky Mountain; pp. 246-255, NA-Pacific Sierra; p. 256, 306-NT-11882; p. 258, 208-PU-112U-8; pp. 259, 260, 263, 265, NA-Pacific Southwest; p. 261, 208-PU-68KK-1; p. 262, 208-PU-80F-3; pp. 266, 268, General Records of the Department of State, RG 59, NA; pp. 269, 270, NA-Pacific Northwest; pp. 271, 272, Portland Oregonian.

Prologue: Quarterly of the National Archives (ISSN 0033-1031) is published quarterly by the National Archives Trust Fund Board, Washington, D.C. Second class postage paid at Washington, D.C., and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: send address changes to Prologue (NEPP), National Archives, Washington, D.C. 20408.

tem, with the assistance of the federal judiciary, celebrated this important anniversary with a variety of activities, among them presentation to federal judges of a poster facsimile of the Judiciary Act of 1789, creation of a poster exhibit for display in federal courthouses throughout the United States, and preparation for this issue of Prologue of articles about federal court records. held in the eleven regional archives.

Together, these articles demonstrate the variety and scope of the tens of thousands of court cases (over 250,000 cubic feet nationwide) in the regional archives, the kinds of information the records contain as illustrated by specific cases. representative of the whole, and how the collections-which include civil, criminal, habeas corpus, bankruptcy, and admiralty case files, as well as naturalization records-can be used as sources for regional and local historical research.

Court records of nineteenth-century patent controversies and bankruptcies as a source for the study of regional business history is the topic of James Owens's article (National Archives-New England Region). Patent controversies involving such key figures as Samuel F. B. Morse, Elias Howe, Jr., Samuel Colt, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Charles Goodyear, and many others; and Bankruptcy Act of 1800 and Act of 1841 case files of merchants, farmers, and other businessmen contribute to our knowledge of the development of technology, of the nature of business practices in nineteenth-century America, and of the lifestyle of early entrepreneurs and their families.

illustrate how the bankruptcy law functioned, what the patterns of trade and commerce were, who went bankrupt, and what the impact of the law was regionally, especially in the postbellum South.

Robert Morris (National Archives-Northeast Region) reveals how admiralty court records in the regional archives "chronicle over three hundred years of political, social, economic, military, diplomatic, and even technological history." Admiralty court records form a vast collection, says Morris, ranging from cases that depict the experiences of eighteenth-century common seamen to cases concerning the importation of allegedly obscene materials such as James Joyce's Ulysses to limitation of liability suits involving such vessels as the Titanic, the Lusitania, and the Andrea Doria.

One jurisdiction of admiralty courts-questions of prize-is the focus of Robert Plowman's (National Archives-Mid Atlantic Region) "An Untapped Source: Civil War Prize Case Files, 1861-65." During the Civil War, prize courts established in Boston, Providence, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Key West, and New Orleans heard over one thousand cases. Plowman describes the variety of ships' papers, including personal correspondence offering firsthand observation of the war, found in these prize case files maintained by the regional archives.

In "Defining Disloyalty: Treason, Espionage, and Sedition Prosecutions, 1861-1946," Kellee Green and Shirley Burton (National ArchivesGreat Lakes Region) explore the ways in which

federal courts have handled the issues of disloyalty and treason through an examination of cases involving Clement Vallandigham, Lambdin P. Milligan, Eugene Debs, and others active in the Great Lakes region.

The courts' role in protecting the franchise during Reconstruction is outlined in Barbara Rust's (National Archives-Southwest Region) "The Right to Vote: The Enforcement Acts and Southern Courts." Among the cases discussed is one later heard by the Supreme Court as United States v. Cruikshank.

According to Mark Corriston's (National Archives-Central Plains Region) "Frontier History from a Judicial Perspective in Territorial Court Records," court records reveal a real "Wild West," complete with "Indians, cattle rustling, murder, mayhem, adultery, theft, counterfeiting, and all manner of lawlessness." Among the individuals appearing in these records are such colorful characters as the various "Bills"-"Wild Bill" Hickock, "Buffalo Bill" Cody, and "Shanghai Bill"—and the Dalton gang. Corriston points out that territorial court records are an unusually significant resource for regional and local historians, because in the period before state, federal, and local courts came into being, the territorial courts heard every kind of case and "tell it all."

"While yesterday's battles sometimes involve gunslingers' shoot-outs, battles between lawyers in courts of law were much more common and had longer term effects," says Susan Chambers (National Archives-Rocky Mountain Region). In "Natural Resources in the West: Documenting the Struggle for Control," she discusses how territorial, circuit, and district court records of Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming document the continuous struggle for ownership, control, and use of the natural resources-land, water, transportation routes, forests, and minerals-within American public domain lands.

Attempts to protect natural resources through litigation in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-centuries is Waverly Lowell's (National Ar

chives-Pacific Sierra Region) focus in "Where Have All the Flowers Gone: Early Environmental Litigation." Lowell looks at files from the Circuit Court for the Northern District of California (the "Old Circuit Court") involving such issues as hydraulic mining (“hydraulicking") and pollution of farm land and the Truckee River by industrial operations.

Noting that "Hollywood's success in exporting the American dream has been due, in large part, to the efforts of those who were themselves born in foreign lands," Diane Nixon (National Archives-Pacific Southwest Region), describes naturalization records, originated by the United States District Court for the Central District of California (Los Angeles) and now in the National Archives-Pacific Southwest Region, of notable Hollywood personalities including Glenn Ford, Ray Milland, Errol Flynn, Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Cary Grant, and many others.

"A Question of Citizenship," the last article in this series, by Phillip Lothyan (National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region), also concerns naturalization records, which are among the most actively researched of all court records in the regional archives. Using the Bhagat Singh Thind and Tatos Cartozian naturalization cases, Lothyan shows how the courts used history, ethnology, statute, and precedent to draw conclusions about the citizenship of members of certain minorities in the Pacific Northwest Region.

The eleven regional archives' articles prepared for this issue complement "Studying the Constitution: Resources in the National Archives Field Branches" (Prologue, Fall 1987, vol. 19, no. 3). As was amply demonstrated therein, the immense volume of court records in the regional archives is a major resource for the study of many aspects of American life. In this year of the bicentennial of the federal courts', we invite reseachers to visit the regional archives and explore the courts' rich documentary heritage preserved there.

Don W. Wilson is Archivist of the United States.