National Archives

Historical government files that chronicle the lives of immigrants in the U.S. will become part of the National Archives instead of being destroyed, officials announced Wednesday. The files could reveal the untold stories of millions of immigrants, including scores of Jews who fled Europe after World War II and Chinese who came to the U.S. as part of the diaspora.

During his five-year overhaul of the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, Cold War historian Timothy Naftali won wide praise for transforming a much-ridiculed institution into a house of serious scholarship under the auspices of the National Archives and Records Administration. Yet nobody was surprised that the private Richard Nixon Foundation — run by fierce loyalists of the former president — didn't honor Naftali when he left as director last month to join a think tank and write a book.

In the article "Pinkerton's Nuggets" (Metro, Feb. 20), staff writer Amy Pyle incorrectly identified the National Archives as the repository of some of the original Pinkerton National Detective Agency material. This collection, approximately 2,000 items, is in the possession of the Library of Congress. The National Archives, which is the repository of permanently valuable documents created by the federal government, does not have any Pinkerton material in its holdings, with the exception of the wanted poster for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid!

It's still unclear whether Sarah Palin's road trip is an educational family tour of historical America or a dry run for her potential Republican presidential bid. But Monday, two things became clear: She will not shy away from unscripted encounters, and she isn't going let anyone know in advance where she's going as she wends her way across the country this summer. In an impromptu news conference Monday evening in the parking lot of her Gettysburg hotel shortly after taking a four-mile run in steaming heat, Palin said she thought the current crop of Republican presidential contenders is "strong" and that any campaign she might wage "would definitely be unconventional and nontraditional, yes, knowing us, yeah, it would have to be. " And that was as far as she would go, leaving the former Alaska governor's intentions, like much of her bus tour, a mystery.

The public will be able to purchase copies of thousands of historic films and videotapes via the Internet under an agreement the National Archives has reached with Amazon.com Inc. and one of its subsidiaries. The nonexclusive arrangement allows Amazon and its CustomFlix Labs Inc. to make digitized copies of some footage and make it available in DVD form. The DVDs will sell for $19.99 on Amazon.com and will be manufactured at CustomFlix's facility in Scotts Valley, Calif.

It's still unclear whether Sarah Palin's road trip is an educational family tour of historical America or a dry run for her potential Republican presidential bid. But Monday, two things became clear: She will not shy away from unscripted encounters, and she isn't going let anyone know in advance where she's going as she wends her way across the country this summer. In an impromptu news conference Monday evening in the parking lot of her Gettysburg hotel shortly after taking a four-mile run in steaming heat, Palin said she thought the current crop of Republican presidential contenders is "strong" and that any campaign she might wage "would definitely be unconventional and nontraditional, yes, knowing us, yeah, it would have to be. " And that was as far as she would go, leaving the former Alaska governor's intentions, like much of her bus tour, a mystery.

The National Archives agreed to seal previously public CIA and Pentagon records and to keep silent about the role of U.S. intelligence in the reclassification, according to an agreement released under the Freedom of Information Act. The 2002 agreement, requested three years ago by the Associated Press and released this week, shows archivists were concerned about reclassifying previously available documents -- many of them more than 50 years old -- but nonetheless agreed to keep mum.

Google Inc. started offering films from the U.S. National Archives as part of an effort to expand the content offered on its online video service. The free clips include World War II newsreels and the Apollo 11 landing on the moon, the Mountain View, Calif., company said. The agreement, which includes a pilot program of 103 films, isn't exclusive. Google has digitized the films at no cost to the government, a National Archives spokeswoman said.

Professional archivist Don W. Wilson took over as head of the National Archives on Friday and pledged "a broader office and an expanded mission" for the agency that keeps historical records and runs presidential libraries. Wilson, who has held key posts at the Dwight D. Eisenhower and Gerald R. Ford presidential libraries, took his oath of office in a ceremony in front of the display cases holding the Constitution and Declaration of Independence in the rotunda of the Archives building.

John E. Taylor, a scholar known for his encyclopedic knowledge of World War II intelligence records and his ability to find the most arcane material in the National Archives, where he worked for 63 years, died of congestive heart failure Sept. 20 at his home in Washington, D.C. He was 87. Thousands of scholars, writers, journalists and other researchers relied on Taylor's grasp of history and his familiarity with archival material. Writers who depended on his expertise included Stephen Ambrose, James Bamford and Barbara Tuchman.

The National Archives is like a safe-deposit box for America's really important papers -- the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the $7.2-million canceled check for the purchase of Alaska, the picture of Richard Nixon and Elvis Presley shaking hands in the Oval Office. Copies of that photo -- the president in his charcoal suit, the king of rock 'n' roll in his purple velvet cape -- are requested more than just about any of the archives' treasures, including the Constitution.

The men are wearing neckties. The women are in hats, many of them holding babies. There are 187 people in the black-and-white photograph standing in front of a building, all of them Japanese except for three white people, a man toward the back with a long white beard and two partly obscured women. The photo was taken Nov. 24, 1923. "Commemorative photograph of the dedication ceremony for the farm cooperative hall at the Port of San Pedro, Calif., U.S.A." is the caption, written in Japanese.

Robert Thomas, 83, breezed into the National Archives with a smile, a white hankie peeking out of his suit coat pocket and an old briefcase containing the two rare books he filched in Germany 64 years ago. He was a World War II GI then, fresh from the horrors of combat. He had blundered into one of the notorious salt mines where the Germans stashed their national treasures. And this one contained books. Millions and millions of books from institutions across Germany. Thomas poked around, saw two that looked old and took them.

It was a historian's nightmare. During the change from the Clinton to the Bush administration, websites affiliated with the Clinton White House went dark, and an unknown number of online documents and files were forever lost. Such Internet deaths inspired the Cyber Cemetery at the University of North Texas, which preserves government websites in their final form. The Cyber Cemetery archives sites when commissions or panels expire, allowing the online work of defunct government bodies to live on and remain accessible to the public.

National Archives visitors know they'll find the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights in the main building's magnificent rotunda in Washington. But they won't find the patent file for the Wright Brothers' Flying Machine or the maps for the first atomic bomb missions anywhere in the Archives inventory. Those are among the many historical items the Archives once possessed that are missing, as are: Civil War telegrams from Abraham Lincoln; original signatures of Andrew Jackson; presidential portraits of Franklin Delano Roosevelt; NASA photographs from space and on the moon; presidential pardons.

Historical government files that chronicle the lives of immigrants in the U.S. will become part of the National Archives instead of being destroyed, officials announced Wednesday. The files could reveal the untold stories of millions of immigrants, including scores of Jews who fled Europe after World War II and Chinese who came to the U.S. as part of the diaspora.

Homes are aglow with Thomas Edison's electric light bulb. Billions have flown since Wilbur and Orville Wright invented the flying machine. But whatever happened to Charles Hess and his piano that unfolds into a bed? Maybe Hess should have hired a good salesman. Come to think of it, Christian Henry Eisenbrandt of Baltimore never struck it rich with his "Life-Preserving Coffin in Doubtful Cases of Actual Death." His casket came equipped with an air vent and pop-open lid, just in case.

Robert Warner, who led the National Archives to independence while dealing with Reagan-era budget cuts and criticism over the release of Oval Office recordings, died of a heart attack April 24 at Arbor Hospice and Home Care in Ann Arbor, Mich. He was 79.

The Obama administration must be given copies of documents the Bush White House has been withholding from Congress on the firings of nine U.S. attorneys, U.S. District Judge John Bates ruled. The House Judiciary Committee has sought the documents as part of an investigation that led to the resignation of Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales. The Bush administration contended that it was required to give the documents to the National Archives. The House panel wanted them left at the White House.