Service to handle congressional requests. Information and material were supplied to many congressional committees; for instance, data on the Free German movement and other subjects were obtained from Office of Censorship records for the House Un-American Activities Committee and records relating to Government airplane contracts were furnished the Special Committee of the Senate to Investigate the National Defense Program. Individual Members of Congress were supplied with information from the records on such topics as employment-stabilization plans, Negro employment in the Government during the war, and price and wage controls. Some Congressmen themselves worked long hours among records in the National Archives in connection with bills they planned to introduce. Others pursued their private research projects, chiefly in the history of their regions. There was a steady increase in the use of records by scholars and other non-Government researchers. Interest in the Gold Rush, occasioned no doubt by the hundredth anniversary of the discovery of gold in California, ran a close second to the perennially favorite subject, the Civil War, but the variety of topics on which information was sought and found in the National Archives was almost endless. Studies were made of the administration of the Treasury Department, American trade with the Orient, the Navy as an instrument of foreign policy, the history of whaling vessels, the construction of the United States frigates Constitution and Constellation, international monetary relations, the iron and steel industry in the Mahoning Valley, and the great seal of the United States. Local historians writing histories of towns or counties obtained enlightening information from Post Office, veterans', and military-post records, maps, and accounts of Indian depredations. Organized scholarship in the form of representatives of The Papers of Thomas Jefferson and the Abraham Lincoln Association, which are to publish definitive editions of the papers of these two men, found quantities of pertinent materials in the National Archives. Already, for instance, more than 5,000 documents relating to Jefferson have been located and microfilmed.

A number of books based to some extent on records in the custody of the Archivist were published during the year. Among them were The Federalists; a Study in Administrative History, by Leonard D. White; Lewis and Clark: Partners in Discovery, by John Bakeless; Woman With a Sword, the story of Anne Carroll, by Hollister Noble; Lake Okeechobee, a volume in the "Lake Series," by A. J. and Kathryn A. Hanna; The War Lords of Washington, by Bruce Catton; and The Disruption of American Democracy, by Roy F. Nichols. The entire journal of Dr. James Morrow, the scientist who was a member of the expedition to open up Japan and whose record of it is among State Department files in the National Archives, was edited by Allan

B. Cole and published as A Scientist With Perry in Japan. Materials for biographies abound in the National Archives, of course, and writers of fiction are also making use of the records to a greater extent than ever before.

Old mysteries often yield to research in the National Archives. The long-standing argument over which of two Yankee clipper ships, the Flying Cloud or the Andrew Jackson, holds the sailing record from New York around Cape Horn to San Francisco was resolved recently when an enterprising searcher found the log of the Flying Cloud in the National Archives. In 1854 the Flying Cloud made the trip in 89 days and 8 hours to set a record. In 1860, however, the Andrew Jackson arrived off San Francisco 89 days and 4 hours after dropping her New York pilot off Sandy Hook. Then the controversy began. Had the record of the Flying Cloud been from pilot-to-pilot or from anchor-to-anchor? The log of the Flying Cloud was not available to settle the argument, which continued to rage among devotees of the clipper ship for nearly a hundred years. Then the log was discovered. It revealed that the Flying Cloud's time was from anchor-to-anchor. Her pilot-to-pilot time, comparable to that of the Andrew Jackson, was only 88 days and 22 hours. Thus she was established as America's fastest clipper.

Business continued to sponsor investigations of its history in the course of which many records in the custody of the Archivist were used. The Forest Products History Foundation, for instance, had a member of its research staff working in the National Archives during the year on timber supply for the lumber industry in the Northwest. The study of the petroleum industry in the Southwest, financed by Standard Oil of New Jersey and begun last year, went forward. A centennial history of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was in preparation, and the recently appointed historian of the Illinois Central Railroad was furnished with information and copies of documents relating to the history of that railroad.

It was not just in the writing of its history, however, that business made use of the National Archives. Its lawyers consulted a variety of records in preparing cases for trial; legislative histories of acts of Congress were particularly valuable in determining the intent of Congress and in interpreting the laws. An oil company, for instance, was furnished with information about the seizure of its refinery by a foreign power for use in pressing its claims for reimbursement. Labor as well as capital obtained evidence for legal purposes; one union used WPB records to substantiate its claim for millions of dollars in back pay for its members. Representatives of manufacturers studied OPA records, for instance, to obtain information on prices and distribution useful in planning new products to add to their

firms' lines. A steamship company was able to replace some of its records destroyed by fire by obtaining copies of crew lists from the National Archives. One company in seeking to improve its own methodology even made a study of blank forms used by the War Manpower Commission.

The concern expressed last year by trade associations and journals that "business secrets" documented particularly in OPA and WPB records would be revealed subsided. It became obvious to them that not only was the National Archives bound by the same statutes forbidding the release of confidential data as were the agencies that obtained this information but that the procedures established in the National Archives for servicing records containing such data guarded effectively against unwarranted disclosures. The possession of a card of admission to the search rooms of the National Archives does not entitle the searcher to examine documents the use of which is restricted, as is pointed out in the regulations for the use of records in the custody of the Archivist of the United States that were printed in the Federal Register of January 24, 1948, and later issued as a separate publication available for general distribution.3

On March 3, 1948, the President approved an act amending the National Archives Act. Two of the three provisions of the amendatory act relate to restrictions. The authority of heads of agencies to impose restrictions on the use of their records in the Archivist's custody was revoked and it was provided instead that restrictions shall be imposed by the Archivist at the time the records are transferred whenever the head of the transferring agency specifies in writing that restrictions are "necessary or desirable in the public interest." Such restrictions cannot be removed or relaxed by the Archivist unless the head of the transferring agency agrees in writing or unless the agency has been terminated. Restrictions imposed prior to this amendment of the act are to remain in effect until removed or modified in accordance with its terms. The amendatory act also makes express provision that statutory limitations and restrictions on the use of records shall become applicable to the Archivist and his staff when such records are transferred to the National Archives. It further provides that officials of the United States Government who are authorized to make certifications or determinations on the basis of records in their custody can make such certifications or determinations on the basis of records transferred to the National Archives by them or their predecessors.

Most of the records in the National Archives are unrestricted, of course, and their use to individuals concerned with personal problems

'These regulations constitute appendix III.

The text of the National Archives Act as amended is included in appendix I.

as well as those engaged in research is considerable. The agency cannot act as a bureaucratic Dorothy Dix nor can it serve as a legal bureau for all those people who "really own" most of Manhattan Island, or Chicago, or San Francisco, but it can and does give much assistance to those seeking to prove their citizenship, their eligibility for pensions, or other legal rights. The finding of land records to protect a disputed claim, adoption papers in court records, or the names of relatives in pension files means untold happiness for some people. It was only a routine service to provide one individual with a certified copy of a passenger list for use in proving American citizenship, but that person had spent more than a thousand dollars in a fruitless search for evidence before turning to the National Archives. For supplying information in response to some requests, however, a crystal ball would be a better source than records. Not long ago a professional treasure hunter wrote for data about a ship. It carried fabulous treasure when it sank, the inquirer asserted. He had learned all about it in a seance.

Exhibits. During the year, more than 2,000,000 people throughout the United States saw some of the most priceless documents in the custody of the Archivist. About a third of the documents on the Freedom Train, sponsored by the Attorney General of the United States and financed by a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan group incorporated as the American Heritage Foundation, were lent by the National Archives. All the materials for this unique display, which illustrates how traditional American freedoms were fought for and won, were assembled at the National Archives, prepared for exhibition, and installed in the three specially equipped and safeguarded exhibit cars of the train. Extensive information for the official train book, Heritage of Freedom, was also supplied. The Archivist and the Chief of the Division of Exhibits and Publications represented the National Archives at the opening of the Nation-wide tour of the train in Philadelphia on September 16.

Scheduled to visit more than 300 communities in its year-long tour, the Freedom Train had already been in nearly 225 in all sections of the country by the last of June. In addition to the 2,000,000 that went through the train and had a chance to see such charters of liberty as the Treaty of Paris of 1783, in which Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States, the Bill of Rights, and the Emancipation Proclamation (all three lent by the National Archives), an estimated 33,000,000 took part in programs designed to reawaken Americans to their heritage and thereby to promote better citizenship. The press, the radio, the Advertising Council, and many others gave unprecedented support to this educational program, and the National Archives is proud to have had a part in it.

Only one new major exhibit was presented in the Exhibition Hall of the National Archives during the year. The one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the Department of the Navy was commemorated by an exhibit on the accomplishments of the American Navy in peace and war. It was opened on April 29 with a preview attended by the Secretary of the Navy, the Chief of Naval Operations, and many other Navy officials. A catalog of the exhibit, The Sesquicentennial of the Department of the Navy, 1798–1948, by Elizabeth E. Hamer, was published for distribution to visitors. During the year there were 65,000 visitors to the Exhibition Hall, where the World War II surrender documents remain on display. Japanese newspapers of the World War II period, photographs of German museums and masterpieces, and documentary exhibits on such diversified subjects as John Paul Jones, the Daughters of the American Revolution, and 4-H Clubs were among other displays of the year. Nonarchival exhibits were prepared for several special occasions, such as the observance of the fiftieth anniversary of Cuban independence by the American Embassy in Habana. Also the National Archives continued to cooperate with the Library of Congress in the presentation of exhibits commemorating important State anniversaries; three such exhibits, honoring Utah, Georgia, and Wisconsin, were on view at the Library during the year.

OTHER SERVICES

To strengthen relations among archivists of all nations, to promote and to facilitate the use of records, and to cooperate with other organizations in the advancement of the documentation of human experience, an International Council on Archives was established in Paris during a 3-day meeting of archivists, June 9-11, 1948. For some time the National Archives has advocated the creation of such an organization in order to provide a forum where the archivists of different countries could meet to discuss common professional and technical problems and also, in this day of "joint," "combined," and international agencies of government, to consider the many problems of record-keeping that have an international aspect. Last year Dr. Buck, at the suggestion of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, which had agreed to sponsor such an organization, sent out nearly a hundred questionnaires to leading archivists throughout the world in order to obtain their opinions as to what kind of organization was desired. The replies received were analyzed during the year under review, and a draft constitution for the proposed organization was prepared. Information and suggestions concerning the project were furnished to the UNESCO unit in the State Department, to the United States delegation to the Second General Conference of