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  • Properly Arranged and Properly RecordedThe Library of Congress Archives
  • Josephus Nelson (bio)

In the 1940s Library of Congress managers began an effort to bring order to the Library's historic records, and in 1946 the chief of the Manuscripts Division wrote: "Many years ago there was sent to the Division, material of an archival nature, representing old records of the Librarian's office … and I have consistently upheld as wise the establishment of an archival unit in the Library and have noted the advantages that would be derived from the accumulation of such records in one place…. I recommend that the care and management of archival holdings be made the duty of one high grade position in the Division of Manuscripts."1

St. George Sioussat's report to the Librarian of Congress was an early appeal for a more systematic approach to record keeping at the Library of Congress—a move away from the informal and haphazard approach of the past. This effort by Library administrators to methodically collect and preserve the Library's organizational records is a rich tale, reflecting the growth and development of the institution.

Library records were not carefully preserved until the end of the nineteenth century, and by then a large body of material had accumulated, such as nineteen volumes of Librarians' letterbooks (official correspondence), thirteen volumes of incoming correspondence, "a volume of extracts from the minutes of the Joint Committee on the Library, 1861–98, … and a group of ledgers, receipts, and correspondence relating to the construction of the Main Building of the Library, 1889–97."2 During the administration of Librarian Herbert Putnam (1899–1939) these and other records were for the most part the responsibility of the Library's Office of the Secretary. During this period that office "not only prepared the Librarian's correspondence and maintained his files but also carried on much of the Library's correspondence from memoranda written in the divisions…. As time went on the Librarian began more and more to communicate directly with the divisions and these offices began to receive the right to establish their own divisional files."3 However, it was not until [End Page 25] 1944 that Librarian Archibald MacLeish (1939–44) officially placed the record-keeping responsibility in the Office of the Secretary: "The Secretary will maintain the General Files of the Library, and will arrange with directors of departments, subject to the approval of the Chief Assistant Librarian, for the establishment, organization, and maintenance of files in various departmental, divisional, and other offices of the Library."4

On March 1, 1945, Luther H. Evans, acting Librarian of Congress, announced that Richard G. Wood, National Archives archivist, would work with the Office of the Secretary to survey records in all units of the Library. Wood's "Inventory of the Records of the Library of Congress," completed in June 1945, offered a detailed picture of the Library's records. For each of the forty-nine administrative units surveyed, Wood prepared summaries containing a brief history of the unit and a listing of the variety of records it held. The Manuscripts Division (since 1957 called the Manuscript Division), for example, kept not only the records of the division's foreign copying program and the World War II evacuation records but also a daily list of absentees. John C. L. Andreassen, director of the Library's Administrative Department, had reservations about the value of the Wood survey: "The records which have been deposited in the Manuscripts Division are of considerably more historical interest and relatively, of greater significance than the great bulk of the records which are described in the ten hundred and eighty-five series entries in the 162 page Inventory."5

Throughout the early 1950s Library administrators continued to debate the location and the role of the archives of the Library of Congress. In January 1950 Manuscripts Division curator Henry B. Dillard acknowledged that parts of the archives came to his division at intervals from 1944 to 1948 and that these allocations were probably based on the recommendations of Sioussat in the hope that "the Library would provide a security area in the north stack." Unfortunately, this never proved feasible, and Dillard...

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