by Mr. James Carroll IEA Area Subject Files (RG 306 U.S. Information Agency – Record Entry ID: HS1-65869038. Finding Aid: UD-2010 44). Records that have been recently declassified include cultural presentations, fairs, expositions, and educational and cultural exchanges. While recently processing declassified materials at the National Archives, College Park location, I came across some fascinating [...]

by Ms. Rania Mahmoud Patent records (RG 326 – Records of the Atomic Energy Commission, Office of the General Counsel: Subject File Relating to Patents, 1942-1965, Entry A1 66) that have recently been declassified include signed original documents by several renowned Nobel Prize-winning scientists associated with the Manhattan Project.      These AEC records from the [...]

By Michael Rhodes Last year, the National Declassification Center released, scanned, and posted several pages from declassified U.S. Air Force reports. Digital copies of those same documents are now available, in full, on the National Archives Archival Research Catalog (ARC) [http://www.archives.gov/research/arc/] Project 1794 Final Development Summary Report, 06/1956 [ARC ID 6920770] Program Planning Report, Project [...]

  By Ms. Brewer Thompson While going through boxes of documents for declassification, we occasionally come across things that are interesting, though unclassified. This comes from Record Group 326: Atomic Energy Commission, entry P 14-B, Subject Files of John McCone, Chairman; box 20 folder 3, O & M 2-2 R Correspondence with Individuals “RICKOVER”. It [...]

Aero Sys Div, 1969 (RG 342 UD-UP 138; NND 63253; Boxes 35 and 58) By Michael Rhodes Recently declassified records from the Aeronautical Systems Division, USAF (RG 342 – Records of United States Air Force Commands, Activities, and Organizations) reveal some surprising, perhaps never-before-seen images:   The above illustration was discovered in the pages of [...]

  Records Relating to Civil Disturbances, 1968 (RG 319 A1 1695; NND 57082; 1 box) By Dr. Trichita Chestnut Forty-four years ago on April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, TN. Despite appeals for peace, race riots [...]

By Ms. Jenny Namsiriwan Crabb The National Archives has numerous gems in its collection.  We are discovering more of them as we continue our work in the National Declassification Center.  I discovered one such gem as I was working with a project regarding the Cuban Missile Crisis in February 2012.  The collection in its entirety [...]

On October 27, 2011, the National Declassification Center held a one-day conference on the Berlin Crisis of 1961.  The conference focused on events leading up to and following the Vienna summit between Khrushchev and Kennedy, the height of tension during August with the construction of the wall and the eventual standoff between the U.S. Army’s Berlin Brigade [...]

The autumn of 2011 marks the 50th anniversary of the political crisis that resulted in the erection of the Berlin Wall and created a divided city for 28 years.  The National Declassification Center of the National Archives and Records Administration and the Historical Publications Office of the Central Intelligence Agency have partnered together to publish [...]

The National Declassification Center will be holding a declassification conference from November 7 – 10, 2011, at the National Archives II at College Park.  The theme of the conference is “Releasing and Protecting National Security Information through Declassification.”  The conference is in keeping with the NDC’s mandate to develop effective, transparent, and standard declassification work [...]