Running head: AN ANALYSIS OF THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

An Analysis of the National Archives

Kevin Cook
LI 809 Emporia State University

The Archivist

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Anybody can visit the archives and look at their wide variety of displays and
programs for the public. Their archives are also public but I wanted to make my visit at
the Nation Archives extra special. I requested for an appointment weeks in advance to
visit and tour with Lori Cox-Paul the Director of Archival Operations at the National
Archives at Kansas City. Upon arrival, Lori Cox-Paul gave me a quick explanation of
what happens at the National Archives and what their mission was to the archives
profession.
The Archive
Security Measures
Just as you step ten feet from the vestibule inside the National Archive, security
will stop you. The security guard instructs you to empty out your pockets while they
check your backpack or purse. This procedure is necessary to ensure the safety of the
visitors and staff and to protect the sensitive materials housed at the location. Before I
could leave the building, the notebook I took notes in while handling the collection was
checked to ensure I did not smuggle any documents out of the room. The security
guard checked by bag once again before I left the building as well.
Tutorial
Visitors are free to walk throughout the entire building unsupervised. The only
places they are not allowed are the archive viewing rooms. Before entering the viewing
rooms, which are locked and need employee assistance to pass, you have to present a
researcher identification card. The researchers identification card acts similar to a
library membership allowing access to any National Archive in the nation for a full year.

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If you do not have a researchers identification card, you must take a tutorial on
how to use the archives safely and carefully. Concern about the impact of record use
and transmission over time on the eventual interpretation of archives is not only limited
to an investigation into the roles of custodians but also of other users of record and of
archivists themselves, (Eastwood & MacNeil, 2010, p. 36). Everyone including the
archives visitor can help maintain the sensitive materials housed at the National
Archives. The tutorial is a forty page document containing information on the basics
such as what is allowed in the viewing rooms to how to handle the materials.
Upon completion of the tutorial, the receptionist waiting patiently at the desk will
issue you a researchers identification card. The receptionist then gives you access to a
locker where you may place all your belongings which are not allowed in the viewing
room. Only a pad of paper and a pencil are allowed in the viewing room. Ink pens are
unpredictable and a simple accident could ruin a collection you are viewing at a table.
Then you sign the sign-in book with your name and researchers identification card
number. The receptionist unlocks the door from behind their desk allowing entry to the
viewing room.
Handling the Collection
If you forget the tutorial, an archivist is always standing close to answer any
questions that may arise. Cameras also watch your every move as to ensure you
handle the materials properly. The tutorial also mentions that only one folder may be on
the table at a time and you can only hold one item at a time. To not lose contextual
integrity of the collection, the archives provides large poster size cards that serve as
inserts to mark your place as you remove folders from the carton. If you lose a spot,

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never try to figure out the order yourself. The archives staff is always available and
trained for problems such as this.
Finding Aids
The National Archives has many different kinds of collections and will vary
depending on which location you visit. To determine the location you would like to visit,
first you must view the finding aids for the collections housed in each location to ensure
the materials held on site is relevant to research you are undertaking. The National
Archives offers many finding aids for you to access on location when you are
researching. All finding aids are available for free on the National Archives website. It is
not required that you view a finding aid before your visit but it may allow your research
to be quicker.
The finding aids offered in house are contained in large three-ring binders. Each
collection is listed out along with the list of boxes or cartons containing the materials of
the collection. Each box is titled by the name of the collection, box number and
independent ARC identifier. A supplement binder can be found with the finding aids
giving the researcher an itemized breakdown of what each box contains. Information
such as year ranges the documents were dated or created, types of documents, and
collection length in linear feet is illustrated can also be found in the finding aid. The
finding aids also give informative details about the people involved in creating the record
when possible.
A collection could be fifteen linear feet in length. Without a finding aid, finding the
appropriate documents for your research would be nearly impossible if not time
consuming. To remedy this problem, the finding aids are organized by an archival

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hierarchy. Following the necessary information down the hierarchy will give you the
sub-series containing the materials best suitable for your research. The finding aid will
also give information on any restrictions that protect the collection in any way.
Sometimes a collection will not be available for open access. Once the particular files
or boxes are narrowed down, you can ask an archivist on staff to retrieve the materials
for you. All you need is the ARC Identifier and the Box number.
The finding aids provided by the National Archives are very informative and
detailed. The records fail to indicate strenuous analysis and interpretations of the
collections. However, there are detailed lists of items in the folders and the finding gives
a synopsis to aid the researcher. Culture and society were observed when creating the
finding aids as well. It is time to focus on what we absolutely need to do, instead of on
all the things that we might do in a world of unbounded resources, (Greene & Meissner,
2005, p. 213).
The National Archives follow this principle by Greene and Meissner (2005), when
they write on the necessity to take the minimal steps when physically preserving
materials for a collection. The collection had minimal time with the archivist when
ownership was attained in order to quickly serve the interested public.
The Collection
The folders are placed open on the table revealing paper materials aged to
brown as if dyed in spiced rum. Their corners are dog-leafed and creases run down the
centers reminding me of an archaic letter style from long ago. I could not remember the
last time I actually folded a letter and mailed it. The edges are worn and torn from the
frequent turning and searching by those interested in such histories.

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The collection I chose to view was the manuscripts and telegrams from and to
the Standing Rock Agency out of Fort Yates, North Dakota. It is a collection of records
from the Bureau of Indian Affairs around the year 1896. Inside each of the thick yellow
folders were Indian censuses on notebook paper. Some pages were as thin as tissue
paper. Lori, the archival director informed me that some of the pages are tissue then
not because of age, which is a small factor, but because they are early forms of carbon
copies that we have today.
Everything written was in cursive and permanent ink. Reports of Indian births
and deaths were scribed onto what were once clean, crisp pages of wide ruled
notebook paper. Now the paper looks faded and dirty with weak creases at the tri-folds.
The Department of Interior U.S. Indian Service had numerous pages in the
contents of the folder. There were mostly telegrams to and from a Major Cramsie at
Fort Yates, North Dakota. Peppered throughout the collection, supply order and
shipment records interrupted important matters on Native American business. Letters to
and from Haskell Institute, now named Haskell University in Lawrence, about writing
and reading curriculum for Native American students also make frequent appearances
throughout the collection. The order was completely random but in almost
chronological order.
I would read some of the documents and learn that a man posing to be an Indian
on the reservation needs to be caught and sent away, then twenty documents later, I
read a telegram stating the man was caught. The story didnt stop there. The man was
then recognized as a member of the tribe. Following the story of this bureau is like

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reading an epistolary mystery novel. You wouldnt get this same effect if the collection
was organized by document type and date.
Arrangement
(Dis)respect des Fonds
The arrangement contained by the articles displayed opposing characteristics of
provenance. The collection is presented in original order. Turning through the materials
in the folder, I attempted to put some intellectual arrangement to them, but after every
time I thought an answer was found, a random document would present itself like a red
herring from an old noir mystery. The order of records established by their creator was
to be preserved (the principle, or sub principle, of original order. If disturbances had
already occurred, the original arrangement was to be reconstituted where possible,
(Eastwood & MacNeil, 2010, p. 91). To follow the original order principle, no arranging
can be allowed in this particular collection.
The order kept by the archivists is the way the collection was donated or found.
There is no intellectual or obvious order to the materials. A general classification of
records by fonds and (within fonds) by subject matter is the only way properly to assure
the immediate realization of a regular and uniform order, (Eastwood & MacNeil, 2010,
p. 25). Although this principle drives the archives to be more organized while respecting
the intended order of the creator, The National Archives promotes the context of the
collection as it was given. The creator may not have had a particular order themselves.
In addition, the collection was created around 1896, which is over one hundred years
ago, many things could have happened between the time of creation and the time the
National Archives became the owners of the collection.

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Content
The content of the materials changes with the turn of every page. The materials
were appraised differently from a special collection archive are a digital art archive for
example. One way to appraise materials by Hunter (2003), is by informational value.
Instead of focusing on evidence about the organization itself, the archivist now
considers the extent of which the records shed light upon: persons, things, and events,
(Hunter, 2003, p. 58). These principles allow the archivists to decide if the content of
the materials of the collection are valuable based on uniqueness, form, and importance
of the materials in the record as a whole.
The collection I viewed contains materials that are one of a kind. Uniqueness
remains a staple to all National Archives collections. A researcher will need to be
cautious about the collections in house because all collections are different because it is
in accordance with the location of the Nation Archives.
Disagreeing with Hunter (2010), I believe that Form is the most difficult to assess
in a collections appraisal. [Importance] by definition, involves a subjective
determination by the archivist of what is significant or noteworthy, (Hunter, 2010, p. 59).
All collections should be accepted and some attempt should be made to preserving it:
Including dead seahorses and old socks. Eastwood and MacNeil agree with Hunter and
this principle when they quote Hilary Jenckinsons (1922), A Manual of Archive
Administration, Archives are distinguished by their impartiality and by their authenticity,
(p.12). As I have already argued enough in class discussions, one mans junk is
another mans treasure. In my opinion, you cant be subjective when it comes to

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preserving for the future. Even if it would be better in another collection across the
country, the item should be accepted.
Acquisitions and Appraisal
A collection policy is a fundamental tool for archivists. Archivists who do not
have a records management program in place often find themselves educating staff
about what should be kept and what should be thrown away, (Zamon, 2011, p. 23). At
its most basic, appraisal is concerned with understanding what we are trying to
document and balancing sets of conflicting concerns, (Eastwood & MacNeil, 2010, p.
62).
Context
In the discipline of archives, some may argue the intended plan is to implement
practices that reflect the current society and for the future of that society, not the past.
Archives can be seen as objects that have a concrete reality, as tools that serve
purposes...the sum of all the dimensions of an object can never produce a global
reading of it, (Eastwood & MacNeil, 2010, p.17). The importance of upholding content
is great to an archival collection but context is what gives content more meaning.
The Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs collection truly adheres to the
principle of being organized by subject matter. The collection ignores original context
and any reference to its origins. Any reference at all is included in the finding aid. The
concept of provenance becomes virtually indistinguishable from the notion of context
itself; provenance is viewed as the umbrella under which an ever-expanding list of
contextual factors are gathered, (Eastwood & MacNeil, 2010, p. 37).

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References
Eastwood, T. & MacNeil, H. (Eds.). (2010). Currents of archival thinking. Santa Barbara,
CA: Libraries Unlimited
Greene, M.A. & Meissner, D. (2005). More product, less process: Revamping traditional
archival processing. The American Archivist, 68 (Fall/Winter), 208-263.
Hunter, G.S. (2003). Developing and maintaining practical archives: A how-to-do-it
Manual (2nd ed.). New York: Neal Schuman.
Jenkinson, H. (1922). A manual of archive administration: Including the problems of
war archives and archive making. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Zamon, C. (2011). What is this stuff? The Lone Arranger: Succeding in a Small
Repository. ALA Editions. 14-27