‘I Wish to

Acknowledge . . .’
Extraordinary Tributes
To NARA’s Archivists
In Selected Nonfiction Works
By Jason R. Baron, Jeffery Hartley, and Ezequiel Berdichevsky

T
he names Claudia Anderson, Walter Hill, Michael Musick, Timothy
Nenninger, Trevor Plante, John Taylor, and Steven Tilley may not be as well
known as some famous historians. But in the words of the New York Times’
Maureen Dowd—writing about NARA in another context—each of these archivists,
and many more colleagues, are “macho heroes” in his or her own right.
They’ve been acclaimed for providing “invaluable assistance,” being “especially
helpful,” serving as a “friendly and exceptionally knowledgeable guide,” offering
“wise suggestions and extraordinary assistance,” acting as a “patient and assiduous
pathfinder,” and cited as proof that “the taxpayer is getting a good deal.”
But even if the names aren’t familiar, you’ve seen and admired their work.
That is, if you’ve read some books by well-known historians like Michael Beschloss,
Rick Atkinson, David McCullough, Robert Caro, Douglas Brinkley, or Robert Dallek.
Or even less famous authors like DeAnne Blanton and Lauren M. Cook, Jon T.
Hoffman, and Edgar Leo Anderson. The compliments are from people like them.

Top: Civil War expert Michael Musick (center), retired, at a 2004
Abraham Lincoln Institute symposium with authors Nelson Lankford
(left) and Douglas L. Wilson (right). Above left: Steven Tilley, director
of NARA’s Textual Services Division finds archival work assisting
authors “interesting and worthwhile.” Above right: Richard Boylan
(right) assists Army Colonel Wayne Johnston with records of the 16th
Infantry. Opposite: David McCullough, Pulitzer Prize–winning biogra-
pher of President Harry Truman, researching at the Truman Library,
ca. 1990. Below: A forum on the 90th anniversary of the end of World
War I held at the National Archives Building in November 2008 fea-
tured (from left), Edward M. Coffman, Mitch Yockelson, Richard
Boylan, Douglas C. Waller, and Timothy Nenninger.
Taylor, Plante, and the others are or were staff archivists at
the National Archives to whom these noted historians, some
of them Pulitzer Prize winners, have turned for guidance and
help when they were researching their books, many of which
are now “must” reading for students of history.
These names represent just a few of the hundreds of
archivists, past and present, who work with authors and
researchers every day to search the vast holdings of the
National Archives nationwide—in Washington, D.C.,
College Park, and at regional archives and presidential
libraries around the country. They help historians pursue
the information they need to add new layers and new
details to the story of America and its people.
Occasionally, the archivist heavily influences the out-
come of the research and the book that results; more
often, he or she plays an important role in guiding the his-
torian through the winding, and sometimes little-traveled,
path through NARA’s holdings. Sometimes authors thank
these archivists by name and at other times they merely
cite the “staff at the National Archives” or at a presidential
library or regional archives.
“Extraordinary research assistance.”

The late John Taylor (seated) was an institution at the National Archives for over six decades, advising countless authors in the areas of World War II, the Cold War,
and espionage. Pictured with him are former OSS agents (from left) Elizabeth McIntosh, Fisher Howe, and Barbara Podoski.

Two-time Pulitzer Prize–winner McCullough
summed up his feelings about the staff at
the Truman Library in his acknowledg-
ments in Truman, a biography of the 33rd
President: “There is no part of this book in
which they have not played a role, both in
what they have helped to uncover in the
library collection and in what they them-
selves know of Truman’s life from years of
interest and study.”
Vincent Bugliosi, writing in Reclaiming
History: The Assassination of John F.
Kennedy, noted that there was no way the
book could have ended up being what it
turned out to be “without the wonderful
cooperation” he received from Tilley, who
is director of the Textual Services Division
in the Access Program Unit of the Office of
Records Services at NARA, as well as
NARA archivist James Mathis.
Bugliosi’s requests for large amounts of
documents were continuous, the author
recalls. “I kept wondering whether I’d soon
be getting a letter from Steve or one of his
assistants, saying, ‘Vince, please. Enough is
enough,’ but I never did. What I always
got, never accompanied by a complaint,
was a very large envelope in the mail con-
taining everything I had requested.”
Tilley says he has “always gotten satisfac-
tion from reference service, in providing help
and guidance to researchers who came to the
Archives for that help.” He adds, “It is a sense

28 Prologue Fall 2009

“Unfailingly helpful and imaginative.”

Above: Trevor Plante has been praised by numerous authors for his diligence and invaluable assistance in finding key records. He introduces Drew Gilpin Faust (top),
and poses with Anthony Pitch (inset). Right: Two highly respected archivists, recently deceased: Milton Gustafson (top) was an expert in State Department records.
Walter D. Hill, Jr. (bottom), was a subject area specialist in African American history. Both assisted numerous authors and produced important finding aids in their
subject areas.

of satisfaction in knowing that the author felt
that my efforts were beneficial for the book
or article, whether or not I agree with the
conclusions reached.” And that, he says,
makes the job “interesting and worthwhile.”
For 75 years, NARA archivists have found
themselves contributors in the writing of
American history, providing valuable guid-
ance, expertise, and assistance to thousands
of authors looking to assemble the story of a
particular aspect of the American experience.
“Historians rely heavily on archivists to
orient them to new archives, to identify
information not easily accessible, and to
discover the research value of particular col-
lections,” wrote Catherine A. Johnson and
Wendy M. Duff in “Chatting Up the
Archivist: Social Capital and the Archival
Researcher,” in the Spring 2005 issue of
The American Archivist.
This article goes on to trace the often
underappreciated symbiotic relationship
wherein archivists build up “intimate
knowledge” of historical sources and help
direct historians to sources and subjects
that they would not have thought of on
their own. In those cases, the archivist’s
intimate knowledge, what Duff and
Johnson term his or her “strong mental
image,” of a collection’s holdings becomes
essential. Without that knowledge, critical
sources would otherwise be overlooked.
Similarly, Elsie Freeman Finch, in her book
Advocating Archives, describes how the
archivist plays multiple roles, simulta-
neously acting as “servant,” “gatekeeper,”
and “partner” to the historian.
Civil War expert Plante says working with
historians makes him a better archivist.
“I really enjoy talking to historians about
the latest books that have come out on var-
ious topics to get their opinions of the

I Wish to Acknowledge . . . Prologue 29

books,” he says. “I enjoy the back and forth
conversation that takes place, of their
telling me about books I was unaware of
“Consistently generous.”
and vice versa. The conversations with his-
torians definitely help keep me up to date
in the field as I usually end up reading their
recommendations, be it books on Civil
War history or military history in general.”
At the National Archives and Records
Administration, archivists develop their
“strong mental image” of a certain collec-
tion from the moment records are trans-
ferred to NARA for permanent storage.
Traditionally, records have come to the
Archives in boxes from their originating
agency, which has honed the shipment down
to its most important records. Overall, only
about 2 to 3 percent of all records generated
by the federal government are deemed impor-
tant enough to be permanently archived.
Depending on where an archivist works,
he or she may be responsible for helping
with the initial accession of the records, the
Historian Robert Caro (right), biographer of Lyndon Johnson in Master of the Senate, offered the highest
review of those records, and the develop- praise for Johnson Library archivist Claudia Anderson (left), stating that he cannot imagine “any biographer
ment of finding aids for those records. As a who owes her more.”
result, the archivist develops a comprehen-
sive knowledge of the particular accession an important asset to the study of military a tribute to Nenninger that reads: “Virtually
he or she is working with, such as records history in this country and a true friend to every page of this book bears Tim’s imprint,
relating to a particular government function those who practice the craft.” and I am deeply grateful for his expertise,
(e.g., foreign relations), stored in a particu- Jon T. Hoffman in Chesty: The Story of humor, friendship, and willingness to read a
lar medium (e.g., still pictures), or originat- Lieutenant General Lewis B. Puller, writes portion of the manuscript.”
ing in a particular branch of the govern- that Nenninger “performed his usual ster- Working with people like these,
ment (e.g., the Department of Commerce). ling service in unearthing boxes of records Nenninger says, is not difficult because
Archivists at locations all around NARA that otherwise seemed buried forever” and they were already knowledgeable about
have been doing this for years. Although also cites archivist Richard Boylan for hav- their subject, had realistic expectations
authors who have benefited from their ing “worked similar miracles” at the about working with archival records,
work often acknowledge them in the final Washington National Records Center in understood that NARA doesn’t have every-
product, archivists view helping these Suitland, Maryland. thing, were receptive to advice, guidance,
authors as simply part of their job as stew- Both Robert K. Griffith, Jr., in Men Wanted and direction—and “were not in a hurry.”
ard of certain valuable records belonging to For the U.S. Army, and Kathleen Broome Researchers working on long-term, com-
the people of the United States of America. Williams, in Grace Hopper—Admiral of the plex projects, Nenninger says, account for
For example, Timothy Nenninger, who is Cyber Sea, tell stories of Nenninger’s efforts to less than 30 percent of all on-site
chief of the reference section at the find new documents inspiring them to go on researchers. Most others, he says, are look-
National Archives at College Park, receives after these authors were “ready to give up” and ing for something “pretty specific and easi-
plaudits from military historians. In Corps “hit brick walls,” respectively. ly identifiable.”
Commanders of the Bulge: Six American And Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Then there’s the late John Taylor, for
Generals and Victory in the Ardennes, Rick Atkinson’s The Day of Battle: The War whom Nenninger once worked. Taylor was
Harold Winton writes that Nenninger “is in Sicily and Italy, 1943–1944, begins with an institution unto himself during his six

“Fount of information and advice.”

30 Prologue Fall 2009
 David Nichols (top left), historian of civil rights in the 1950s, acknowledged invaluable help at the Eisenhower
Library from then-director Dan Holt and archivist David Haight, whose “uncanny ability to find obscure doc-
uments made all the difference.” Historian Michael Dobbs (left) expressed particular thanks to archivist Greg
Bradsher. Historian David Brinkley (above) has cited critical help and encouragement from Elaine Didier,
director of the Ford Presidential Library, and David Horrocks.

decades at the Archives and is mentioned in
the prefaces and acknowledgments of
countless books dealing with World War II,
the Cold War, and the history of espionage
over that period.
Michael Dobbs called him an “inex-
haustible fount of information on World
War II” in Saboteurs: The Nazi Raid on
America. John Costello and Oleg Tsarev’s
acknowledgments section in Deadly
Illusions referred to him as the “paradigm
for all historical researchers,” while
Beschloss in The Conquerors referred to him
as “redoubtable.”
In 50 Days of War and Peace: July 16 to
September 3, 1945, or Why Harry Dropped
the Atomic Bomb, Edgar Leo Anderson
recounts how Taylor gave him “the impetus
to persevere over the years and complete
the manuscript.”
Iris Chang called Taylor “a friend and
cherished fixture at the National Archives
for more than half a century” and “one of
the best allies an author could hope for,” in
The Chinese in America: A Narrative History.
Chang further described Taylor as “compas-
sionate,” “profoundly wise,” and “endlessly
helpful,” and credited him with playing a
“special role” in the research of her book.
In Allen Dulles, Gentleman Spy, author Peter
Grose notes, “I am only the latest in a long line
of researchers to recognize a unique national
resource in the person of John E. Taylor, who
valued the fundamental freedom of informa-
tion long before it became recognized in law.”
Perhaps Edward S. Miller’s acknowledg-
ment in Bankrupting the Enemy: The U.S.
Financial Siege of Japan before Pearl Harbor
expressed it most succinctly when he called
Taylor a “national treasure.”
The late Walter B. Hill, Jr., who was a
senior archivist and subject area specialist
in African American history, was cited
often. Hill was described by Gerald Horne,
author of Black and Brown: African
Americans and the Mexican Revolution, as
someone who not only provided “extraordi-
nary assistance” on the writing of the book,
but had also “become a good friend.”
Other historians, such as Jeffrey Bolster,
offer poetic tributes. In Black Jacks: African
American Seamen in the Age of Sail, Bolster
thanks Hill, John Vandereedt, and Aloha
South as “archivists who steered me
through the shoals of their collections.”
Hill provided guidance to many individu-
als researching African American history
with his finding aids and guides to records
pertaining to African Americans at the
Archives.

“Supplied noteworthy assistance.”

I Wish to Acknowledge . . . Prologue 31
 Abraham Lincoln and Civil War–
Reconstruction scholars have found much
help at the Archives. In They Have Killed
“Unfailingly cooperative.”
Papa Dead: The Road to Ford’s Theater,
Abraham Lincoln’s Murder and the Rage for
Vengeance, Anthony Pitch thanks a host of
archivists by name, but reserves his most
interesting praise for Plante.
He notes that it was Civil War specialist
Plante who “unwittingly” led him to “the dis-
covery of an unpublished letter from Samuel
Arnold asking Secretary of War Edwin
Stanton for a job three months after he had
agreed to help Booth kidnap Lincoln.”
Pitch notes that after he “had told Plante
[he] was on the lookout for correspondence
from prisoners on the island garrison of Dry
Tortugas,” Plante suggested that Pitch look
at records in the Office of the Quartermaster
General. Shortly thereafter, Pitch “stumbled
upon Arnold’s sensational letter.”
Plante and fellow Civil War expert
Musick were singled out by Drew Gilpin
Faust, who was a dean at the Radcliffe
Institute working on a book, The Republic
of Suffering: Death and the American Civil
War. Plante, she said in a Prologue interview
last year, helped her dig out the stories of
casualties during the Civil War. Musick
greeted her on one of her visits to the Timothy Mulligan (left), now retired, receives the 2006 Lifetime Achievement Award from Archivist Allen
Archives, with a couple of boxes of records, Weinstein. Mulligan is a specialist in World War II, including captured German records and naval records, and
and the comment: “This will interest you.” has compiled numerous finding aids.

Plante cites the relationship he developed

with Faust while working on the book as
typical of those that develop between
authors and archivists who work together
over longer periods.
“One of the things I enjoyed most about
working with Dr. Faust was that after our
initial meeting, in which we discussed sev-
eral secondary sources such as books and
articles on death, dying, and burial in the
Civil War, she sent me several articles that
she had written on the subject,” Plante
recalls “It’s not every day that a hard-work-
ing historian takes time out of her busy day
to send an unsolicited and unexpected
package to an archivist.”
Musick’s expertise on the Civil War is
known far and wide. Blanton and Cook sin-
gled out Musick, now retired, in They Fought
Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the American
Civil War, where they noted that he “knows
more about the Civil War and its sources
than anyone else on earth.” In The Army of
the Potomac: Birth of Command, November
1860–September 1861, Volume I, Russell H.
Beatie stated that Musick’s “willing assistance
is truly encyclopedic and always available.”
Musick was also cited by Thomas P. Lowry in
Confederate Heroines as “legendary” and pro-
viding various good suggestions to make on
alternative sources of records—without the
use of a Ouija board—when the author’s
“séance with one of the Old Army consult-
ants” left the subject of his work “still lost in
the mists of time.”
Another Civil War author, Tom Wheeler,
recounted the unique “aha” moment he had at
the National Archives that inspired him to
write Mr. Lincoln’s T-Mails: The Untold Story of
How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph to
Win the Civil War. Wheeler found himself
standing with a “half dozen other people
amidst the miles of files in the vaults,” as mili-
tary records archivist Rick Peuser showed “a
book of glassine pages, each of which con-
tained a handwritten telegram in the precise,

“Truly dedicated public servants.”

32 Prologue Fall 2009
forward-leaning cursive of Abraham Lincoln.”
As Wheeler “turned the pages in awe,” he pro-
claimed ‘These are Mr. Lincoln’s T-Mails.’”
Also known for expertise on a particular
subject is Claudia Anderson of the Johnson
Library. Few tributes to NARA archivists
can match what Robert Caro said about
Anderson in his Pulitzer Prize–winning
work, Master of the Senate, the latest and
the third of his four volumes on the life of
President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Caro notes that the title “senior
archivist” fails “to do her justice.” She has
“made it her business to know” the materi-
als in her charge “as thoroughly as it is pos-
sible for a single human being to know
these thousands of boxes of documents.”
Caro goes on to praise her commitment to
access, in the sense that she wants histori-
ans to know said material, her “rare integri-
ty and generosity of spirit,” and ends his
encomium by stating that he cannot imag-
ine “any biographer who owes her more.”
Presidential library staff also have
received numerous heartfelt plaudits to
staff, named and unnamed alike. Arnold J.
Rotter in his Comrades at Odds: The United
States and India, 1946–1964, writes that
the Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy
presidential libraries received him “with a
spirit of generosity and a willingness to help
that still takes my breath away.”
Adam Cohen, author of the recent work
Nothing to Fear: FDR’s Inner Circle and The
Hundred Days That Created Modern
America, states his “enormous thanks to the
staff of the Roosevelt Library Presidential
Library . . . who do a laudable job of tend-
ing to the New Deal flame.” Robert Dallek
in his An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy,
1917–1963, praises the Kennedy Library’s
staff as “essential.” Author Gary Dean Best,
writing in Herbert Hoover: The Post-
Presidential Years, stated that the staff were
“unfailingly helpful” and that working
there was a “delightful experience.”
Not every author or researcher who avails
himself or herself of the expertise and
“Highly professional and efficient.”
I Wish to Acknowledge . . .
time—sometimes quite a bit of both—of a
NARA archivist acknowledges that help in
the book, and sometimes there will be effu-
sive praise from authors that the archivist
can’t remember.
Sometimes archivists get mentioned for
special kinds of things they do or provide
for the authors.
For example, in Democratizing the
Enemy: The Japanese American Internment,
Brian Masaru Hayashi notes that NARA
archivists, including Aloha South, Larry
McDonald, William Mahoney, David
Pfeiffer, and Barry Zerby, challenged him
“to inspect alternative sources” that he ini-
tially did not consider and “widened [his]
horizons substantially.”
Michael L. Krenn, in Black Diplomacy:
African Americans and the State Department,
1945–1969, writes that Regina Greenwell of
the Johnson Library “pointed me to several
collections I might have overlooked and never
blinked an eye at in my hundreds of declassi-
fication requests.” Similarly, Michael Long’s
publication of the Civil Rights Letter of Jackie
Robinson recognizes a debt “to Paul Wormser
of the National Archives in Laguna Niguel,
California” for encouraging the author “to
take a look at the Jackie Robinson file in
Richard Nixon’s pre-presidential papers.”
And Dobbs, in his book Saboteurs,
begins his acknowledgments by saying he’d
“particularly like to thank Greg Bradsher,
who whetted my interest in the case by giv-
ing me a tour of the stacks.”
In Hitler’s Last Chief of Foreign Intelligence:
Allied Interrogations of Walter Schellenberg,
Reinhard Doerries captures the occasionally
tense dynamic between driven researcher and
patient archivist. Doerries not only gives
thanks for the “ceaseless efforts” of Nenninger,
but also explains that Boylan and Bob Wolfe
“never lost patience when I was impatient and
surely unkind under the pressures of research.”
Author David Nichols’s A Matter of
Justice, about the history of civil rights in
the 1950s, states that staff at the Eisen-
hower Library, particularly then-director
Dan Holt, “encouraged the project at every
junction, and archivist David Haight’s
encyclopedic knowledge and uncanny abil-
ity to find obscure documents made all the
difference.”
Erika Lee, author of At America’s Gates, a
book on Chinese immigration policies, said
that writing her book was “made even more
enjoyable by the camaraderie and valuable
assistance” provided by “Neil Thompson,
Waverly Lowell, and the entire staff of the
National Archives, Pacific Region, in San
Bruno,” who “generously shared their own
findings, greatly facilitated my research,
and provided a second home to me.”
Edwin Black’s timely study of the oil cri-
sis, Internal Combustion, praises NARA
Great Lakes Region archivists, specifically
Donald Jackanicz, Martin Tuohy, Scott
Forsythe, and Peter Bunce for performing
“miracles.” Black notes that after these
archivists discovered that “they held crucial
forgotten court records,” he called one day
at noon and raced to the airport where “the
next morning more than a dozen boxes
were waiting on trolleys.”
In his book about Betty Ford, Candor and
Courage in the White House, John Robert
Greene noted that “Writers only write
alone. . . . Indeed, one of the greatest plea-
sures of any writing project is to freely
admit that there is a list of names without
any of whom this book could not have been
written.” He goes on to mention Dennis
Dallenbach, David Horrocks, Helmi
Raaska, William McNitt, and Nancy
Mirshah, of the Ford Library, who “went far
beyond the call of duty in helping me track
down the photos that add to this book.”
Martha Gardner, author of The Qualities
of a Citizen: Women, Immigration, and
Citizenship, 1870–1965, was grateful to
staff archivists Waverly Lowell, Neil
Thomsen, and Robert Ellis for being
allowed “to rummage through the records
of countless immigrant women.”
Kenneth D. Ackerman, in Young J.
Edgar: Hoover, the Red Scare, and The
Prologue 33
“ Wa l k i n g m i n e s o f k n ow l e d ge. ”
Assault on Civil Liberties, a book about the
1919–1921 Palmer Raids to round up sus-
pected radicals, thanks archivists Fred
Romanski and Alan Walker, who “came
through for me time after time when I
needed help in deciphering the complex
systems of records from the era.”
In The Burning of Washington: The British
Invasion of 1814, Anthony Pitch provided
the prototypical acknowledgment to an
archivist when he expressed his gratitude to
archivists Rebecca Livingston and Rod
Ross for “plucking dusty files from shel-
tered safekeeping.”
And James W. Hurst extolled NARA
archivist Mitchell Yockelson’s “vast knowl-
edge” of archival holdings in Pancho Villa
and Black Jack Pershing: The Punitive
Expediton, while recounting the role
Yockelson played in answering e-mail
queries, telephone calls, and “digging out
the boxes and boxes of documents.”
Perhaps the strangest acknowledgment
was written by author Andrea Tone, whose
Devices and Desires: A History of Con-
traceptives in America recounts that the topic
“imposed research challenges that might have
been insurmountable were it not for the
expertise, support and timely intervention of
numerous archivists and scholars.”
Tone goes on to thank Aloha Smith, for
guiding her through postal records in
Washington, D.C., as well as Tab Lewis
who “located Federal Trade Commission
transcripts—and registered appropriate
combinations of enthusiasm and alarm
when decaying diaphragms and condoms
appeared glued to the transcript pages!”
This brief sampling of citations does not
do justice to the hundreds of extraordinary
members of NARA’s archival staff who
have been similarly mentioned in books
not recounted here. In recent decades,
acknowledgments sections have become
more fulsome.
“Models of professionalism.”
34 Prologue
But there are notable examples from a half-
century ago. When Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.,
took the time in 1957’s The Age of Roosevelt:
The Crisis of the Old Order, 1919–1933, to
express “special acknowledgment” to
Herman Kahn, then director of the
Roosevelt Library, for demonstrating “with
spectacular success how a library can serve
the cause of scholarship,” this was indeed an
exception to the practices of the time.
And finally, author R. A. Ratcliff ’s words
in Delusions of Intelligence: Enigma, Ultra,
and the End of Secure Ciphers, while giving
special praise to retired NARA archivist
Timothy Mulligan, have special import as
NARA (and all of government) finds its
way in the future, awash in all manner of
new forms of records on electronic media,
residing side by side with vast and still
growing collections of textual holdings:
The use of technology in archives
has improved the researcher’s lot
tremendously; but no technology,
however advanced, can provide a
researcher with the depth of informa-
tion . . . and numerous gentle nudges
toward crucial documents that [he]
has provided for more than a decade.
Archivists such as he are a national
resource, and they are retiring unre-
placed. In the midst of its rush to
acquire all things electronic, NARA’s
administration should not neglect this
most valuable resource of all.
In fact, NARA is not neglecting this
“valuable resource” known as the archivist,
even as its lurches into the future of elec-
tronic records that will be available to any-
one, anywhere, anytime via the Internet.
The Archives has in the past few years hired
a number of new archivists and given them
intensive training in handling both tradi-
tional paper records as well as electronic
records of all forms that are now being cre-
ated by the federal government.
Sometimes the work of the archivist is so
important it leaves the author wondering
what Gabor Boritt asked in The Gettysburg
Gospel: The Lincoln Speech That Nobody
Knows: “[H]ow does one thank a learned
archivist who finds precious items a
researcher cannot locate and who, after a
long exhaustive day of work, stays well
beyond closing time to help? How?”
Ultimately, archivist Plante says, it doesn’t
make any difference whether the author
thanks him or not. “I know that I have con-
tributed to several books, some whose
authors have thanked me, and others who
have not,” he says. “I know that I assisted
them in the research they conducted which
led to their final product, so I feel like I
helped them in writing the book.” P
A full list of the citations in this article as well as
additional acknowledgments to NARA archivists
may be found at www.archives.gov/publications/
prologue.
Author
Jason R. Baron has held the
position of director of litigation
in NARA’s Office of General
Counsel since coming to NARA
in 2000. He holds degrees from Wesleyan
University and Boston University School of Law.
Author
Jeffery Hartley is chief librarian
for the Archives Library
Information Center (ALIC). A
graduate of Dickinson College
and the University of Maryland’s College of Library
and Information Services, he joined NARA in 1990.
Author
Ezequiel Berdichevsky is an
assistant general counsel at the
National Archives. He is a gradu-
ate of the University of Maryland,
the University of Michigan, and The George
Washington University Law School. He has worked
at NARA since 2007.
Fall 2009
 HAT’S NEW IN THE PAST?
W FOR 40 YEARS, Prologue: Quarterly of the National Archives and Records Administration
has been telling readers about the rich resources and programs of the National Archives, its regional
facilities, and the presidential libraries.
In every issue you will find thought-provoking and entertain-
ing articles—based on research in the Archives’ magnificent
holdings of original documents—on American history and on
the activities of the agency.

SOME RECENT ARTICLES IN Prologue INCLUDE:

✭ How the National Archives evolved over its 75-year history
by adapting to change and meeting new challenges.
✭ How Harry Truman’s love of history influenced his political
and personal decisions as well as the design for his presidential
library.
✭ How the EPA’s DOCUMERICA project chronicled
American life in the 1970s through photographs.
✭ How the United States dealt with potentially hostile aliens
at the Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco
during World War I.

COMING UP: Prologue will have articles that will describe a

major exhibit on the Civil War to honor the war’s sesquicenten-
nial; reveal how a mapmaker had fun with President James K.
Polk’s 1848 map of the United States; discuss the Eisenhower
Administration’s efforts to spy on the Soviet Union; and explain
the preservation efforts for panoramic photographs.
VISIT US ONLINE AT:
www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/.
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Prologue Quarterly of the National Archives and Records Administration

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