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Vol. 26:4 ISSN 0160-8460 December 1998
The Executive Director's Column
by Ann C. Newhall
As I prepared for my first meeting of the NHPRC, I was struck anew by the remarkable membership of the Commission, past and present. Where else do representatives of the three branches of our government regularly sit down with representatives of professional societies of historians, archivists, and documentary editors and, chaired by the Archivist of the United States, discuss the preservation of our nation's documentary heritage? The current membership of the Commission constitutes an extraordinary collection of individuals by any standard.
Since its establishment in 1934, the Commission has been noteworthy for its membership. Indeed, the list of former members of the Commission reads like a Who's Who of American History - the "movers and shakers" (including Justices Felix Frankfurter, William J. Brennan, Jr., Harry Blackmun, and William H. Rehnquist; Senators Leverett Saltonstall, Mark Hatfield, and Paul Sarbanes; and members of the House of Representatives John Brademas and Lindy Boggs); the "keepers of the record" (including J. Franklin Jameson, Solon J. Buck, Elizabeth Hamer Kegan, Charles E. Lee, Mary Lynn McCree, and H. G. Jones); and the historians who publish and scrutinize that record (including Dumas Malone, Donald Jackson, Janet Wilson James, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Julian P. Boyd, and Arthur Link).
At its November 17 meeting, the Commission acknowledged the service of Dr. Alfred Goldberg, who has ably represented the Department of Defense on the NHPRC for 25 years. Dr. Frank G. Burke, the only individual to have served as President of both the Association for Documentary Editing and the Society of American Archivists, was honored with the Commission's 1998 Distinguished Service Award. The Commission congratulated retired Justice Harry Blackmun, who served as a Commission member for many years, on the occasion of his 90th birthday. And the Commission bade a reluctant farewell to Arizona State Archivist David Hoober, who is stepping down after twelve years as the representative of the American Association for State and Local History, and extended a warm welcome to me, on the occasion of my first Commission meeting.
Then the Commission set to work, recommending grants totaling $2,642,341 for 26 projects to improve the understanding of America's past. These projects included founding-era documentary editing projects, and the publication subvention of volumes produced by those projects; state board planning, implementation, regrant, and collaborative projects; and electronic records and technologies projects. The meeting was noteworthy, too, for the differing perspectives brought to the table by the Commissioners in stimulating discussions on how best to address the problems posed to archivists and documentary editors by electronic technology and by the impact of the new copyright law on NHPRC projects.
This unique and fascinating mix of viewpoints, agendas, and backgrounds continues to provide energetic and capable leadership to the effort to ensure America's documentary heritage. As we approach the millennium, the Commission can look back with pride upon its many achievements and forward with confidence to the many challenges still to come.
Justice David H. Souter listens as Chris Runkel of NARA's Office of General Counsel, Nancy Smith of NARA's Office of Presidential Libraries, and Melissa Smith-Levine, Legal Advisor of the Library of Congress' National Digital Library Project, discuss copyright issues affecting NHPRC projects at November Commission meeting. Photo by Amy Young, NARA.
