ment area in the stacks, were accessioned. These records came from 9 executive departments, 10 independent establishments, 1 court, and the Senate. The space released in other Government buildings by the records so transferred represents an annual saving to the Government of some $25,000.

During the year about 44 cubic feet of motion-picture film, 36 cubic feet of still-picture negatives, and two-thirds of a cubic foot of sound recordings were accessioned. Because of the difficulties of examining film in the field, a plan was approved whereby, if conditions in the depository are not suitable for the preparation of identification inventories, material recommended for transfer may be brought into the building on a simple receipt. This receipt describes the material in general terms and stipulates that if the Archivist decides not to requisition the collection it is to be returned to the agency. During the year a total of some 71 cubic feet of motionpicture film was brought into the building on this type of receipt.

OTHER ACTIVITIES

One of the most interesting undertakings of the Division has been the preparation of unit reports when records of agencies have been completely surveyed. These reports contain data upon the histories of the agencies and information designed to facilitate the orderly transfer of records, their proper arrangement in accordance with archival principles, and their use for research or administrative purposes.

Several of the deputy examiners have served on special committees appointed by the Archivist or the Director of Archival Service. A study was made of the archival applications of microphotography, and a full report thereon was submitted. Studies were also made of the records of the Supreme Court, of the Senate, and of the House of Representatives; and the resulting report on the records of the House of Representatives was published as a Congressional document. In the early part of the past fiscal year, a statistical study of the sizes of records surveyed was completed, the results of which helped in determining the number of containers of each type to be ordered for the stack areas. All members of the staff and those former members who had been promoted to the position of chief of a division aided in this study.

Another important activity of the Division has been the watching of the progress of moves of Government agencies. Last year an arrangement was made whereby the Division of Government Space. Control notifies this Division when the removal of agencies is planned. and more particularly when records are to be transferred. Since that time in nearly every instance where records have been moved from one building to another some representative of this Division has

been on hand, and it is believed that greater care is now given to records being moved than was formerly the case. The deputy examiners prepare special memoranda describing each move in order that a permanent record may be maintained.

The Chief of the Division and seven of the deputy examiners attended the annual meeting of the American Historical Association and were present at the conference at which the Society of American Archivists was organized. The first annual meeting of the Society of American Archivists was attended by practically the entire personnel of the Division.

DIVISION OF REPAIR AND PRESERVATION

(From the report of the Chief, Mr. KIMBERLY)
REHABILITATION OF RECORDS

Fumigation. The policy of fumigating all boxed material, as well as all records coming from insect-ridden depositories, has been followed during the past fiscal year with good results. A total of 35,673 units, ranging in size from single volumes to wooden boxes weighing 1,200 pounds, have been treated. In order to eliminate overtime work and to avoid the necessity of holding untreated records overnight in the receiving room, the installation of a second fumigating chamber was decided upon. The contract for this vault, which will be a duplicate of the one now in use, has been let and installation is expected shortly.

Cleaning. A total of 73,440 units containing approximately 45,000,000 documents and 30,479 bound volumes were cleaned during the fiscal year. The airbrushing equipment and the especially designed cleaning tables have functioned perfectly, and the cleaning process has been found to be easily adaptable for use on the wide variety of records so far encountered. Considerable interest in this machinery has been shown by archivists and others, and it is expected that similar equipment will shortly be installed in other institutions.

Unfolding and flattening.—This phase of the work of preparing records for filing was started in October 1936. The process used is to spread the documents on stainless trays and expose them to air containing a large amount of moisture (85 to 95 percent relative humidity) in a humidifying chamber. As soon as the papers have absorbed sufficient moisture to render the fibers flexible, they are removed from the vault and dried by the application of heat and pressure. If they are in good condition, this drying operation is performed in a special mangle, equipped with a thermostatically controlled, electrically heated shoe and with a moving roll, which forces the document against the shoe under uniform pressure. This mangle was placed in operation in May 1937. If the material to be dried is fragile,

each sheet is placed between white blotters and dried in a hydraulic press. A total of 198,214 sheets were unfolded and flattened during the fiscal year 1937.

Lamination. The excellent permanence qualities of documents treated by the lamination process and the higher production attainable through its use having led to the adoption of this process for repairing unbound records, the necessary equipment was purchased and installed during August and September 1936. The principal item of machinery was a triple-opening hydraulic press having steamheated platens 21 inches by 36 inches. This press, which weighs 19,000 pounds, is so constructed as to maintain automatically any desired pressure from 50 pounds per square inch to 2,900 pounds per square inch on the platen area. The deflection of the platens under full load is less than .002 inch. It is estimated that the press is capable of processing 400,000 documents annually.

Considerable time and effort were spent training operators in the technique of lamination. A number of different paper specimens were used in this work, and the resulting series will be of assistance in determining the optimum pressure and temperature for processing records in the future. During the fiscal year 7,077 sheets of records were laminated.

Repair of bound records.-The repairing of bound volumes of records was initiated in August 1936, and by the end of the fiscal year 2,426 volumes had been processed. The rehabilitation of these volumes was carried out in accordance with current archival practice, which demands the reconstruction of existing bindings rather than rebinding. A record of operations on each volume is made for future reference.

INSPECTION OF FLOOD-DAMAGED RECORDS

For the purpose of inspecting Federal, State, and county records damaged by flood, the Chief of the Division visited Louisville, Frankfort, Paducah, Mayfield, Carrollton, and other points in Kentucky at the request of the Honorable A. B. Chandler, Governor of Kentucky; the Department of Justice; the Bureau of Public Roads, Department of Agriculture; the Bureau of the Census, Department of Commerce; the Works Progress Administration; and the Social Security Board.

The greatest volume of records actually submerged was in the Federal building at Louisville, where the sub-basement and basement were flooded by the backing up of water in sewers. In this depository files were thoroughly soaked and were coated with filth. Close inspection showed that, because of the swelling of the documents upon wetting, the dirt had not penetrated between the pages to any great extent; the cleaning problem, therefore, was not so great as was estimated at first sight. Washing with clear water to remove the surface dirt, followed by drying either by exposure to warm dry air or by

ironing, was recommended. It is believed that most of the inundated records have been rendered usable by the prescribed treatment.

The Bureau of the Census was greatly concerned about 2,430,000 birth and death certificates in the custody of the State Board of Health at Louisville. These certificates are the primary source of vital statistics for the entire State, and their loss would have been irreparable. It was found, however, that through the foresight of Dr. J. F. Blackerby, registrar of vital statistics, these valuable records had been moved above the flood level and had suffered no damage. Two of the storage vaults had been completely submerged and had to be thoroughly dried before the records were replaced in them. The use of anhydrous calcium chloride was recommended for removing the last traces of moisture from these storage spaces.

In the company of Walter M. Hoefelman, State Director of the Historical Records Survey of the Works Progress Administration, flood-damaged county records in the courthouse at Carrollton were inspected. These records were mainly bound volumes containing deeds, wills, mortgages, and similar documents. Each volume was stored in a separate compartment, and the swelling due to the wetting of the books wedged them so tightly as to make removal exceedingly difficult. To avoid damaging this material, the storage cases were dismantled, and the volumes were then spread out to permit the free access of air and to allow drainage of the excess moisture. After the pages had become partially dry, various methods of completing the drying under pressure were tried. As a result of these experiments, a satisfactory method of treatment was formulated. A piece of sheet metal was used as an ironing board and the pages were pressed successively with an electric iron from the front of the book to the back. A suitable dressing for treating leather bindings was recommended. According to the latest reports from the Works Progress Administration, county records at Maysville, Vanceburg, Greenup, and Ashland, as well as those at Carrollton, have been rehabilitated by the methods prescribed.

OTHER ACTIVITIES

Federal Fire Council.-The Chief of the Division participated in a survey of buildings occupied by the Social Security Board and the Works Progress Administration in Washington, D. C., and Baltimore, Md. As a result of this work, increased protection against fire hazards to life, property, and records has been provided.

Advisory services.-Considerable time and effort have been devoted to answering inquiries relating to various phases of the preservation of records. Among the organizations served by this Division were the following Government agencies: The Senate, the Departments of the Treasury, War, the Navy, the Interior, Agriculture, and Com

merce, the Federal Trade Commission, the Social Security Board, the Works Progress Administration, and the United States Constitution Sesquicentennial Commission. Others assisted during the year include the following: The Maryland Hall of Records; the City of Boston; Colonial Williamsburg, Inc.; The Mariners' Museum; the North Carolina Historical Association; Thomas A. Edison, Inc.; the American Philosophical Society; the Baltimore Sun; Notre Dame University; the Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery; Fonds Bibliotheque Albert 1", Brussels, Belgium; Duke University; the American Society of Heating and Ventilating Engineers; the Kentucky Department of Welfare; the University of Michigan; the Bridgeport Public Library; the National Library of Peiping, China; the Minnesota Historical Society; the McCormick Historical Association; the Newberry Library; Zaehnsdorf, Ltd., London; the Darlington Memorial Library, University of Pittsburgh; and Harvard University.

DIVISION OF STATE DEPARTMENT ARCHIVES

(From the report of the Chief, Mr. SHIPMAN)

At the completion of its first full year of existence the Division of State Department Archives (formerly the Division of Department Archives, No. 2) has in its custody 43,417 cubic feet of records occupying 1,015 shelves and 86,717 trays, of which 71,369 are original containers transferred from the Veterans' Administration. Additions for the past year amounted to 7,291 cubic feet.

The principle of provenance has been strictly followed in placing the records in the National Archives containers, and the papers have been so segregated and arranged by the office of origin that the significance of the document in the routine of the office in which it originated may be readily understood. This work was done at the time of the transfer of the records with the aid of identification inventories and other informational lists supplied by the Division of Accessions. The new accessions have been carefully checked against these lists by stack assistants charged with the responsibility of placing records in the National Archives containers. As the papers have been stored each container has been properly labeled and preliminary reports in the form of general descriptive lists, which are used as finding mediums by the professional divisions prior to the classification and cataloging of the records, have been compiled. With some collections, however, notably those of the United States Railroad Administration and the Weather Bureau, it has been necessary to compile temporary indexes in order to expedite service.

More analytical studies of the series of records of the Board of Mediation and Conciliation, the Board of Railroad Wages and Working Conditions, and the National Commission on Law Observance