Book Description

Excerpt from Guide to the Archives of the Government of the United States in Washington The guide to the archives of the government at Washington was begun in January 1903, by Mr. Van Tyne and Mr. Leland, who carried the work forward for some months. In the autumn of that year the task of completing the survey of the archives and of arranging the materials for publication naturally fell to the newly organized Bureau of Historical Research. This task was not completed until the spring of 1904, most of the work being done by Mr. Leland. The character and scope of the volume were somewhat changed and developed while the data were being collected. The purpose at the outset was to gather information as to the whereabouts of important historical materials, to discover how they were preserved and arranged, and to give descriptions of them that would be of service to the historical investigator. As the work proceeded, it was apparent that there could be no hard and fast line between historical collections and ordinary administrative records, and that every branch and division of the Government must be examined with care, even if the report on its manuscript records should ultimately be passed over with scarcely more than a word in the final report. It also became clear that a short history of each bureau or division, and a succinct statement of its duties, methods of work, and mode of keeping its records, would be of service to all students interested in the mechanism of the government or in the growth of its administrative machinery, and would at the same time be the safest guide to those seeking to know where archives of a certain character are likely to be found. As a result, the work has developed into a survey of all the branches, bureaus, and divisions of the federal government in Washington, and includes more than a mere description of their records and collections. The historical data have been gathered and the references to printed authorities and the bibliography have been prepared with care and patience, and it is to be hoped that this feature will appeal to students of history and government. The book, as we have it here, purports to be only a general survey. Only where materials are of special interest historically is there any effort to give anything approaching detailed information. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.