THE FEDERALIST Newsletter of the Society for History in the Federal Government Second Series Summer 2008 Number 18 IMPROVEMENTS TO DECLASSIFICATION PROPOSED BY PIDB By William C. Carpenter he Public Interest Declassifica- whose career includes service as the tion Board (PIDB), an advisory Inspector General of the Central Tcommittee established by Intelligence Agency.In open and closed ses- Congress to advocate for the fullest possible sions held throughout 2006 and 2007, the public access to the records that document board heard the concerns of advocacy the national security decisions of the U.S. groups such as the National Security government, issued a report to the President Archive and the National Coalition for in January 2007 entitled Improving History and received briefings from the Declassification. This report was simultane- declassification and historical establish- ously distributed to the committees and ments of Executive branch agencies includ- members of Congress with an interest in the ing the Department of State, the Department topic as well as to the public at large through of Energy, the Department of Defense, and the board’s web site hosted by the National NARA. The board found that Executive Archives and Records Administration Order 12958, as amended, “Classified (NARA). The report is a frank assessment of National Security Information,” (the the state of the declassification system of the Order)—which in 1995 established the prin- federal government, and is the distillation of ciple of the automatic declassification of the board members’ experience in public policy, academia, historical records once they are 25 years old unless those and the intelligence community, as well as of the testimony records are specifically identified as containing information before the board from historians, openness advocacy groups, exempted from automatic declassification—has clearly suc- federal agency declassification program managers, and the ceeded in effecting the declassification of an unprecedented general public. The report identifies 15 areas of concern and volume of records. The success of the Order in prompting the offers 49 recommendations for structural and procedural review and declassification of over 1 billion pages of records improvements—some of which are far-reaching in scope—to since 1995, however, has not led to a coherent declassification the ways in which classified national security information system across the government in which the declassified becomes declassified, and is of interest to anyone concerned records of highest interest to the historical community and the about access to the historical record of the U.S. government. general public are being made available.The board states in its The board, established by the Public Interest report, “Though the Government is committed, as a matter of Declassification Act of 2000 (Public Law 106-567), first met policy, to making historically significant information available in February 2006 under the chairmanship of L. Britt Snider, See “PIDB” continued on page 3 INSIDE Improvements to Declassification, William C. Carpenter 1 National Library of Medicine, Philip M. Teigen 11 President’s Message 2 Black Studies Catalog, Benjamin Guterman 12 New Deal Conference at LC, Nancy Groce 5 Life After Federal Employment, Fred Beck 13 Oral History Issues, Pamela M. Henson 7 Internships in Federal History 15 Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Franklin Noll 8 From the Archives, Charles Downs 16 Underground Railroad Network to Freedom, Diane Miller 9 Making History 17 2 THE FEDERALIST PRESIDENT’S reference to the history offices that exist in many agencies. Well, at this point the reactions were not what I had MESSAGE expected. The two dozen participants were thrilled! Not one by Lee Ann Potter of them—nearly all of whom were classroom teachers— knew that federal agencies had history offices, or that a com- Last summer, I conducted a munity of historians (with titles such as “curator,” “educa- “Teaching With Documents” tion specialist,” “public affairs specialist,” “archivist,” or any workshop as part of the week- number of other interesting designations) exists. long Eisenhower Academy in So, all kinds of questions followed: What do they do? Gettysburg, PA. In preparation, I Would they respond to a question from me or my students? had assembled packets of docu- Do they ever speak at conferences? Do they all post infor- ment facsimiles from the holdings of the National Archives mation online? Can I really tell my students that if they related to Dwight D. Eisenhower. These included a photo of study history, they might get an interesting job someday? him talking to the troops on D-Day; his “In Case of Failure” Also, in the dozens of other teacher workshops I have message; a letter he sent to the Archivist of the United States conducted over the past year, when asked if they were aware related to the Freedom Train; his father’s “permission slip” that a community of federal historians exists, 9 times out of allowing him to attend West Point; a 1910 federal census 10, the participants responded with “I had no idea,” or “It schedule for Abilene, KS, listing the Eisenhower family; never occurred to me.” and a few others. These repeated responses helped me form my SHFG I had three primary objectives for this half-day session: presidential term objectives: (1) to highlight the diverse format and content of govern- (1) to increase the visibility of this organization and the ment documents, (2) to illustrate that relevant government community of Federal Historians—particularly to the educa- documents can be found in a number of Record Groups—in tion community. multiple National Archives facilities, and (3) to demonstrate (2) to build a more formal learning community within some creative document-based teaching methods—ones SHFG, so that we are all more knowledgeable about the designed to convey both historical content and reinforce his- important work that we collectively do and how we do it. torical thinking skills. I feel pretty confident that I achieved As many of you are aware, this coming year, the Society these three. But I did not expect to leave the workshop with will celebrate its 30th anniversary. I am confident that this a glimmer of two objectives for my term as President of occasion will allow us to embark on many exciting initia- SHFG. tives. At the Executive Council’s planning meeting in July, I led the participants in some simple analysis activities we discussed plans for 2008–2009: the October 23 Hewlett and demonstrated some teaching approaches that could be Lecture, the upcoming publication of the Guide to Federal used with each of the documents. One of the participants History Programs, our new online Journal (Federal History), asked for more information, specifically on the history of the the new-and-improved SHFG web site, our updated mem- Census Bureau. Using the Internet, I accessed NARA’s bership list, the holiday party, and our spring conference. Guide to Federal Records and emphasized that the Guide We also began discussion of launching a professional provides administrative histories for all agencies, bureaus, development program series—inspired by Dick Myers’ dis- and commissions. Next, I pulled up the Census Bureau’s web cussion of SHFG’s series in the mid 1990s, and some inde- site and pointed out its History section, and made a minor pendent brainstorming that Ben Guterman, Dave Waltrop, SHFG Officers THE FEDERALIST THE FEDERALIST (ISSN 0736-8151) Co-editors . .Benjamin Guterman Newsletter of the Society for History in the Federal Government President . Lee Ann Potter 202-357-5439 [email protected] Published Quarterly Vice President . .Michael Reis Terrance Rucker The Society is a national professional organization open to all who are interest- [email protected] ed in federal history programs. Annual membership fee is $35 and includes a 301-279-9697 subscription to The Federalist and the Society’s Occasional Papers. Contributors Secretary . .Anne Rothfeld John Lonnquest [email protected] are encouraged to submit articles, news listings, and photographs to the editors. 301-402-6134 Issues one-year-old and older (Second Series) are available, along with an index Treasurer . Peter Kraemer John W. Roberts to articles, on the Society’s web site at www.shfg.org. 202-663-1985 [email protected] Opinions expressed in articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily Executive. Kathleen Franz Archivist/Photographer . .Charles Downs reflect the positions of The Federalist, the SHFG, or the agencies or organiza- Council Benjamin Guterman tions where the authors are employed. John Parascandola Web Site: www.shfg.org Matthew Wasniewski Society for History in the Federal Government Printed by Welsh Printing Corp. P.O. Box 14139, Benjamin Franklin Station Membership . Juliette Arai Falls Church, VA Washington, DC 20044 [email protected] Summer 2008 3 and I had done. We are excited to move forward! Vice (Secretary), Peter Kraemer (Treasurer), Juliette Arai President Mike Reis, came up with a title for this profes- (Membership); Kathleen Franz, Ben Guterman, Matt sional development program series. In this silver anniversary Wasniewski, John Parascandola (Council Members); Bill year (commemorated with pearls), our series will be the Williams, Rick Peuser; Beth Boland (Nominating “Pearls of Wisdom” series. Now, we need your pearls of wis- Committee); as well as Jennifer Lavasseur and Charles dom in planning the sessions. We are thinking that we will Downs (SHFG web site); Henry Gwiazda (Awards pro- host unique sessions in November, January, and May. The gram); Terrance Rucker, Ben Guterman, John Roberts, and Executive Council will figure out the logistics. But, if you John Lonnquest (editors of The Federalist); John Roberts have specific ideas for program topics, we would welcome and Don Steury (past presidents). your suggestions. Thank you for selecting me to serve as this year’s SHFG I am pleased to be working with this year’s outstanding President.