SHAFR Statement on What Congress Can Do to Address the Mismanagement of Public Records

Safeguarding classified material is a national challenge that must be confronted by Congress and the Executive branch, both to protect national security and ensure democratic accountability. Long before the current controversy, it was clear that neither the Presidential Records Act nor the Federal Records Act were preventing the concealment, removal, and mutilation of public records.

The mishandling of classified documents continues to make headlines, first with the FBI's Aug. 2022 raid of former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago home and, more recently, with the revelation that classified documents had been found at President Biden's private office and also in his home. Historian Matthew Connelly says one reason we see problems like this is that far too many government records are being categorized as "classified."

On average, Connelly says, records are marked as classified three times every second, generating so many secret documents that it's practically impossible to preserve them all.

Call for Proposals:
Peace & Protest, Past & Present
Peace History Society Conference
October 26-28, 2023 

Gwynedd Mercy University
Gwynedd Valley, Pennsylvania

SHAFR Award-Winners Announced at the 2023 American Historical Association annual meeting

The Stuart L. Bernath Memorial Lecture Prize was established through the generosity of Dr. Gerald J. and Myrna F. Bernath, in memory of their late son, to recognize and encourage excellence in teaching and research in the field of foreign relations by scholars at the beginning of their historical careers. 

Press Statement on Third Public Release of NARA Records Concerning the 15 Boxes Received from Mar-a-Lago in January 2022

WASHINGTON, December 20, 2022 – Today, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is making its third release of documents processed in response to nearly 50 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests seeking NARA records related to the 15 boxes of materials we received from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in January 2022. 

The IEHS presents two awards of $1,000 each to help graduate students with their dissertations on American immigration, emigration, or ethnic history, broadly defined. These awards are intended for students in the process of researching and writing their dissertations, and not for students completing and defending in 2023. For the 2023 award, the committee invites applications from any Ph.D. candidate who will have completed qualifying exams by 2022.

Application materials and the supporting letter must be received by the submission deadline: December 31, 2022.

Association for Documentary Editing 2023

Theme: Modalities of Text and Editing

National Archives Releases New Group of JFK Assassination Documents

WASHINGTON, December 15, 2022 – In accordance with President Biden’s memorandum of December 15, 2022, the National Archives today posted 12,879 documents containing newly released information subject to the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 (JFK Act). Released documents are available for download.

Call For Papers

 Collaborative Research Workshop on the History of the New World Information and Communications Order (5-9 June 2023)

You will remember earlier this summer, NCH urged the transfer be delayed pending further review by Congressional overseers. The agreement between NARA and the George W. Bush Library Foundation includes amendments to ensure that the public will be presented with "a balanced presentation of the historical record."

Here is a link to a press release by House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney and Government Operations Committee Chairman Gerry Connolly.

Press Statement on Second Public Release of NARA Records Concerning the 15 Boxes Received from Mar-a-Lago in January 2022

WASHINGTON, November 9, 2022 – Today, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is making its second release of documents processed in response to numerous Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for NARA records related to the 15 boxes we received in January 2022 from former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, Florida estate. 

Media Contact:
Elisabeth Marsh
[email protected]
(812) 855-9864

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Bloomington, IN—November 9, 2022—The Organization of American Historians (OAH) and the American Historical Association (AHA) have jointly co-sponsored an amicus curiae brief in the Supreme Court case Haaland v. Brackeen. This brief, based on decades of study and research by professional historians, aims to provide an accurate historical perspective as the court deliberates the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).

My name is Marty D. Matthews and I am co-editor along with Monica Henry of a new NHPRC funded project, The Papers of William Short, a born-digital documentary edition, hosted by the Institute for Southern Studies at the University of South Carolina, focusing on Virginian William Short (1759-1849), who was a U.S. diplomat and fiscal agent in Europe, a successful businessman and philanthropist in the United States, an early advocate of the emancipation of enslaved people in Virginia, and Thomas Jefferson’s “adoptive son.” Our website is at go.sc.edu/williamshortpapers.

Marty D. Matthews, Ph.D.

I'm writing today to ask for your help in circulating our call for a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Security and Foreign Policy. The post-doc is open in terms of discipline and is intended to foster viewpoint diversity, with a focus on applicants who engage seriously with debates about the future of U.S. security and foreign policy.

The Global Research Institute (GRI) at William & Mary invites applications for a two-year Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Security and Foreign Policy. GRI brings high quality researchers to W&M, supports intellectual diversity, and provides mentored research opportunities for undergraduate students, especially those from under-represented groups. 

Dear NCH Member,

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is developing a draft Customer Research Agenda to guide the agency’s customer research and service improvement efforts in the future. The plan will center on identifying the wants, needs, and expectations that individuals, organizations, and communities have when interacting with the National Archives. NARA is soliciting feedback on which of the customer research questions are the most important, which don’t make sense, and which are missing.

2023 Research Fellowships at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture

The Virginia Museum of History & Culture (VMHC) offers research fellowships of up to three weeks a year to promote the interpretation of Virginia and access to its collections. Thanks to a matching grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and generous gifts from individuals, fellowships carry a weekly stipend of $1,000 and $500 for local mileage. A week is defined as five days in the Mr. and Mrs. E. Claiborne Robins, Jr. Research Library, which is open 10am to 5pm, Monday through Saturday. The deadline for applications is Friday, January 27, 2023. For information about the research fellowships and how to apply for 2023, please visit the following page on the VMHC website: https://virginiahistory.org/research/research-resources/research-support

Call for Proposals to host the 2026 SHAFR Annual Conference