Civilian Personnel Records Open to the Public

From The National Archives' National Presonnel Records Center in St. Louis:

The National Archives’ National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) opened more than 6 million individual personnel files of former Federal civilian employees from the mid-1800s through 1951. These records will be of special interest to genealogists, family members, researchers, sociologists, and historians.

Among the records are the files of prominent individuals who worked for the federal government, such as Walt Disney, Ansel Adams, Eliot Ness, Calvin Coolidge, J. Edgar Hoover, Gifford Pinchot, Walker Evans, and Albert Einstein.

Ronald L. Hindman, Director of NPRC characterized these records “as a veritable treasure-trove of information for researchers and genealogists.” He continued, “There are records from more than one hundred government agencies now available for discovery. They showcase the careers of government employees who investigated bootleggers; taught at Indian schools; worked in Japanese-American interment camps, in prisons, and on anti-prostitution boards, and created and implemented initiatives in Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal agencies, among others." Read the rest of the announcement here.

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Students make historical find in Richmond. .

Without so much as a map or an "X" to mark the spot, a group of William & Mary students recently uncovered some historical "treasure" that is expected to shed new light on the lives of early 20th-century African-Americans, including Maggie L. Walker, the first woman to found a bank in the United States and a black woman who worked tirelessly to improve the lives of other black women.

Click here to read the full story.

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The National Archives reaches its 75th year!

2009 marks the 75th anniversary for the National Archives. A new website was launched on January 8th to celebrate. You can check it out here.

But the celebration doesn’t end there. The Archives is featuring a new exhibit called BIG! that will open in March of 2009. You can read up on the exhibit here.

From the National Archives:

Throughout 2009, in addition to BIG!, the National Archives is planning a wide range of events to celebrate the 75th anniversary of its establishment. A special web site will shine a spotlight on defining moments in the agency’s history through the decades with photo galleries, notices of special events at dozens of agency sites nationwide, a new National History Day award for middle and high school students, and a new Excellence in Genealogy Scholarship award. The web site will also feature a guest book for researchers to share their stories of discovery and of how the agency has a made a difference in their lives. Check www.archives.gov in the coming months for full details.

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In the News. . .

"Israel to Display the Dead Sea Scrolls on the Internet" by Ethan Bonner
From The New York Times, August 26, 2008

JERUSALEM — In a crowded laboratory painted in gray and cooled like a cave, half a dozen specialists embarked this week on a historic undertaking: digitally photographing every one of the thousands of fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls with the aim of making the entire file — among the most sought-after and examined documents on earth — available to all on the Internet. Read More. .

See Also:
"Dead Sea Scrolls go from parchment to the Internet" from CNN
"Dead Sea Scrolls to be displayed on Internet" from The Associated Press

Contributed by Stephanie Bayless, Manuscripts Department.

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