the professional publications of staff members is printed as appendix V of this report. Members of the staff also advised or otherwise. cooperated in an unofficial capacity in the work of both public and private agencies such as the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Resources Planning Board, the United States Antarctic Service, and Colonial Williamsburg, Inc. Public relations.-Over 34,000 persons signed the visitors' register in the Exhibition Hall, including 386 visitors from foreign countries. Of primary interest to them were the exhibits of archival material on display there, most of which were selected to commemorate various historical events and the birthday anniversaries of the Presidents of the United States. Many of the documents exhibited have been reproduced as illustrations in the Annual Reports of the Archivist. Some 89,000 publications of The National Archives were distributed throughout the year. These were mostly circulars given to persons visiting the building, but there were also distributed over 4,500 copies of Annual Reports of the Archivist and more than 1,800 copies of the Guide to the Material in The National Archives, published in 1940. New publications during the year included Circular No. 5, entitled The Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, which describes the work of that establishment; the First Annual Report of the Archivist of the United States as to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, covering the fiscal year 1939-40; and the Sixth Annual Report of the Archivist on the work of The National Archives for the same period. Reviews or notes concerning the Guide appeared in 47 periodicals, most of them devoted to history, political science, and the other social sciences, to archives administration, or to library work. Indicative of the reception of the publication is the comment of Ruth K. Nuermberger, custodian of manuscripts in the Duke University Library, who, in her review of it in the Library Quarterly for January 1941, characterized it as "a compilation of inestimable value to scholars, officials, and librarians, unlocking for them a vast and growing new treasure house of the past." Margaret C. Norton, archivist in the Illinois State Library, in recommending it to even the smallest libraries in Illinois Libraries for December 1940, noted that, in addition to being "a descriptive account of what is available," it is "a useful compendium of information on the organization of the United States Government." Waldo G. Leland, executive director of the American Council of Learned Societies and the author in collaboration with Claude H. Van Tyne of a pioneer work of this character, the Guide to the Archives of the Government of the United States in Washington (Washington, 1907), observed in a review in the American Archivist for January 1941 that "One cannot fail to be impressed by the vast amount of thoughtfully directed labor that has gone into the preparation of this apparently simple Guide," labor which, in the opinion of Morris L. Radoff, archivist of the State of Maryland, as expressed in a review in the Maryland Historical Magazine for December 1940, is justified by the usefulness of the Guide "to scholars in all fields of American life." In addition to the publications and other data distributed by the Administrative Secretary in response to requests, information concerning The National Archives was also disseminated by a radio program entitled "Your Town and My Town," over radio station. WJSV and the Columbia Broadcasting System, in which the Archivist participated, and by numerous newspaper articles written by journalists on the basis of material furnished by The National Archives. Receipts and expenditures.-The National Archives Act, section 9, requires the Archivist to include in his report to Congress a "detailed statement . . . of all receipts and expenditures" on account of The National Archives. In accordance therewith the following statement is submitted: Funds available for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1941 The Independent Offices Appropriation Act, 1941, approved April 18, 1940 (Public, No. 459, 76th Cong.), provided appropriations of $906,200 for the salaries and expenses and $14,000 for the printing and binding of The National Archives for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1941, and the Second Deficiency Appropriation Act, 1940, approved June 27, 1940 (Public, No. 668, 76th Cong.), transferred the sum of $13,560 for salaries and expenses from the Veterans' Administration to The National Archives to care for personnel transferred from the Veterans' Administration to The National Archives on July 1, 1940. From the total of $919,760 thus available for salaries and expenses, $900 was transferred to the United States Official Mail and Messenger Service, Post Office Department, as a result of functions transferred to that Department under the President's Reorganization Plan No. IV, and a reserve of $8,000 was set aside at the request of the Bureau of the Budget; a similar reserve of $5,000 was also set aside from the appropriation for printing and binding. Thus there was left available for obligation and expenditure by The National Archives $910,860 for salaries and expenses and $9,000 for printing and binding. Obligations and expenditures for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1941 Obligations and expenditures for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1941-Continued The total obligations and expenditures amounted to $919,736 and the reserved funds to $13,000, leaving unobligated balances totaling $124. Miscellaneous receipts covered into the Treasury The Independent Offices Appropriation Act, 1942, approved April 5, 1941 (Public, No. 28, 77th Cong.), provided $980,940 for the salaries and expenses and $12,400 for the printing and binding of The National Archives for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1942. National Archives Trust Fund Board.-For some time the need has been felt for legislation that would enable The National Archives to accept gifts and bequests of money and other personal property. and in one recent instance the establishment was unable under existing legislation to accept the offer of a sum of money for the special purpose of transferring a collection of sound recordings in the custody of the Archivist from a temporary to a permanent base in order to assure their preservation. A bill to remedy this situation was introduced in the House of Representatives by Representative Robert T. Secrest of Ohio on May 21, 1941, and was passed by the House on June 16 and by the Senate on June 30. This bill provides for the establishment of a National Archives Trust Fund Board composed of the Archivist of the United States, as chairman, and the Chairmen of the Senate and House Committees on the Library and authorizes the Board "to accept, receive, hold, and administer such gifts or bequests of money, securities, or other personal property, for the benefit of or in connection with The National Archives, its collections, or its services, as may be approved by the Board." 'The bill was approved by the President and became a law on July 9, 1941 (Public, No. 161, 77th Cong.); the text of the act is printed in appendix I of this report. answer, being LETTER OF THOMAS JEFFERSON CONCERNING BERMUDA, 1774 The island of Bermuda, although nominally a loyalist colony during the Revolutionary War, eventually became a source of war materials for the Seborah Gannett, of Sharon in the cust ax dis to penile to ust. in the land and haint Purine of ite 5 to requin the aid of des for her support the aid of his country – Deborah Gannet DEBORAH GANNETT, REVOLUTIONARY WAR SOLDIER The participation of women in military activities is not entirely a recent phenomenon. In one recorded case in the Revolutionary War, a woman, Deborah Gannett, actually served in the armed forces. She enlisted in April 1781 under the name of Robert Shurtleff, served as a private, was wounded at the battle of Tarrytown, witnessed the capture of Cornwallis, and was honorably discharged in November 1783. The document reproduced above, dated September 14, 1818, is Deborah Gannett's deposition in her claim for a pension and is among the records of the Veterans' Administration in The National Archives. |