The National Historical Publications Commission states and affirms its continuing position that the official records of the nation, the states, and other government units and the papers of present and former government officials having continuing value for research should be retained and maintained for the benefit of all who study the history of the United States.

The commission holds that official records and papers include handwritten and typewritten documents, motion pictures, television tapes and recordings, magnetic tapes, automated data processing documentation in various forms, and other records that reveal the history of the nation.

In this regard, the commission views with alarm the unprecedented provision contained in the agreement announced by the president on September 8, 1974, which requires the destruction of magnetic tapes or other materials of value

for historical research, and calls for remedial action with respect to the aforementioned agreement.

The second volume of the documentary history of the first federal Congress, Senate Executive Journal and Related Documents, was published July 12, 1974, by the Johns Hopkins University Press. The first Senate maintained a separate journal to record its executive actions apart from its legislative actions. The Senate's executive actions were the exercise of its constitutional powers of "advise and consent" in making treaties and confirming federal appointments. The Executive Journal and related letters, draft treaties, and reports examined by the senators in their deliberations on executive matters are here published together. Linda Grant De Pauw of George Washington University is editor of the documentary history of the first federal Congress, a project of the NHPC.

The commission has undertaken a revision of the Guide to Archives and Manuscripts in the United States, edited by Philip Hamer (1961). Anne Harris Henry, who worked with Hamer on the first edition of the guide, has been appointed to coordinate the early work on the revision, which will produce a comprehensive survey of manuscript resources in the United States.

The NHPC and the Center for Textual and Editorial Studies in Humanistic Sources, University of Virginia, will sponsor the fourth institute for the editing of historical documents to be held in Charlottesville, Virginia, for two weeks in June 1975. The deadline for applications is February 15, 1975, with fellowships to be announced within a month. For information and application forms, write the Executive Director, National Historical Publications Commission, National Archives (GSA), Washington, DC 20408.

Persons interested in attending a two-week institute on archives administration to be held March 10-21, 1975, should write: Thirty-second Archives Institute, Department of History, The American University, Washington, DC 20016, or call (202) 686-2401 for further information.

The National Archives sponsors the institute in the spring and the fall cooperatively with the American University, Library of Congress, and Maryland Hall of Records. Each institute, limited to forty persons, is held in the National Archives Building.

The next National Archives conference will be on the subject of local history, and the American Association for State and Local History will be cosponsor. Scheduled for May 8-9, 1975, it will be the fifteenth NARS conference on subjects of interest to archivists and to users of archives. Sessions will be conducted at the National Archives Building, and the papers and proceedings will be published later. For information contact James D. Walker, Director, Conference on Local History, National Archives (GSA), Washington, DC 20408.

The Military Archives Division of the National Archives was recently reorganized. The preparation of finding aids and microfilm publications is now the function of the Military Projects Branch (NNMP). The Navy and Old Army Branch (NNMO) will handle reference work on all Navy records and on Army and Air Force records up to 1940. The Modern Military Branch (NNMM) will handle reference requests on captured World War II records and on military records for the period 1940-54.

Plans are under way for publication by the Belknap Press of Harvard University of a multivolume edition of the letters of Henry Adams, American historian and novelist, 1838-1918. Editor-in-chief is Ernest Samuels, author of the prize-winning three-volume biography of Adams. Charles Vandersee of the University of Virginia is associate editor. Adams's letters are, among the finest in the English language. About four thousand have already been found, only half of which have been published. The editors will be grateful for copies of or information about any letters still in private hands. Kindly write Prof. Charles Vandersee, Department of History, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22903.

A conference on women in the era of the American Revolution will be held at George Washington University, July 24-26, 1975, sponsored by the Institute for Early American History and Culture and the Women's Coalition for the Third Century. Scholars are invited to submit proposals for sessions and papers on topics relating to women in eighteenth-century America. Send working title and a two-page precis to Prof. Linda Grant De Pauw, Department of History, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20006. The deadline for proposals is January 15, 1975.