National Archives of the United Kingdom

“ The Reports of the Historical Manuscripts Commission afford much information as to every type of document in private or local custody. Ireland and Scotland have archives of their own; but there are no systematic records in the Register House at Edinburgh before the War of Independence. Among the enterprises now abandoned of the Public Record Office were Calendars of Documents relating to Scotland and Ireland. ”

“ Classified information or material transferred to the General Services Administration for accession into the Archives of the United States shall be downgraded and declassified by the Archivist of the United States in accordance with this order, directives of the President issued through the National Security Council and pertinent regulations of the Departments. ”

“ All the principal nations of Europe, and even the Dominion of Canada, have an archivist, or custodian of manuscripts, responsible for keeping, indexing, and increasing these collections, whose importance as original documents illustrating the history and biography of the nation can hardly be overrated. ”

“ We doubt the necessity, and indeed the advisability, of the formation of any such Society.
Mr. Peacock (antè., p. 117.) has already wisely suggested, that "in time a copy of every inscription in every church in England might be ready for reference in our National Library," and we have as little doubt that the MS. department of the British Museum is the proper place of deposit for such records, as that the trustees would willingly accept the charge of them on the recommendation of their present able and active Keeper of the Manuscripts. ”

“ When we find the authorities at the British Museum, and the Guildhall, and other repositories open to us, and giving every facility with their records, which, after all, embrace priceless treasures and quite as worthy of safe custody, the restrictions placed upon literary research by the Master of the Rolls and the Record Office officials is really worthy a Royal Commission of inquiry. ”

“ Federal record includes all books, papers, maps, photographs, machine-readable materials, or other documentary materials, regardless of physical form or characteristics, made or received by an agency of the United States Government under Federal law or in connection with the transaction of public business and preserved or appropriate for preservation by that agency or its legitimate successor as evidence of the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations, or other activities of the Government or because of the informational value of data in them. ”

“ Yet the record far excels the chronicle in scope, authority, and objectivity, and a prime characteristic of modern research is the increasing reliance on the record rather than the chronicle as the sounder basis of historical investigation. The medieval archives of England, now mainly collected in the Public Record Office, are unrivalled by those of any other country. From the accession of Henry III. several of the more important classes of records have become copious and continuous, while in the course of the reign nearly all the chief groups of documents have made a beginning. ”

“ In England the first system has been preferred; almost all the records that can be collected have been gathered into the central office. In the future, indeed, it is inevitable that collections of administrative records should grow up for each county; but there is at present no means of ensuring their arrangement and preservation. Many towns possess old and valuable collections of municipal archives, and over these also the central office has no control. It would be absurd to affirm that such control is needed for the preservation of the documents ”

“ Chadwyck-Healey, 1985– ) records submitted directly by repositories links to online finding aids Repositories can be searched by name, location (city or state; county for the United Kingdom) , country, and holdings keyword; results can be sorted by repository name or location. Collections can be searched by keyword, collection name, repository name, repository location (city or state; county for the United Kingdom) , country, NIDS or NIDS UK/Ireland number, NUCMC number, index terms, and date; searches can be limited to NIDS UK records, NIDS US records, NUCMC records, or submitted records. ”

“ Next to France, Germany and Austria are distinguished as countries where activity has been displayed in the systematic study of diplomatic archives, more or less with the support of the state. In Italy, too, diplomatic science has not been neglected. In England, after a long period of regrettable indifference to the study of the national and municipal archives of the country, some effort has been made in recent years to remove the reproach. ”

“ When the Archivist considers it to be in the public interest, the Archivist may solicit and accept gifts or bequests of money or other property for the purpose of maintaining, operating, protecting, or improving a Presidential archival depository. ”

“ Touting for gifts is to be avoided. It is not only undignified, but often results in failure and a certain loss of status to the library which employs a general begging policy.
State papers and public documents are carefully preserved in many libraries in the United Kingdom. Many of the best parliamentary papers and reports can be obtained free on application to H.M. Stationery Office in London, but other valuable public documents, such as some of the Record Office publications, the Ordnance Survey, etc., must be purchased. ”

“ There are immense numbers of documents, some of them dating back to Norman and even earlier times, still in existence. The Record Office, in London, has many thousands of documents connected with the king's business; the borough towns and cities and the monasteries each had their own records, but most of these latter records disappeared in the sixteenth century; every old estate has such documents; and many of the old manors have still records going back many centuries. ”

“ A central office, in which papers from all departments of the Government are lodged after they have passed out of current use, examined, classified, and filed by a staff familiar with their contents, need only be brought into use to become indispensably serviceable in the carrying on of public business; but in addition, the archivist, knowing the contents of the documents in his custody, is able to direct and help in a manner that can not otherwise be done, that portion of the public interested in the information contained in the Government archives. ”

“ Entities and individuals that have transferred, donated, or deposited archival records to archival repositories may enjoy priority in the use of said archival records and may propose restrictions of use as to the parts that are not suitable for public access. ”

“ The people's governments at all levels shall enhance the archival work, incorporate the cause of archives into national economic and social development plans, finance the cause of archives with government budgets, and ensure that the development of the cause of archives is compatible with the development of national economy and society. ”

“ These, with the legislature itself, are the departments of government in which our archives originate.
Archives we have defined as the records, the business papers, of the province having a permanent value. All archives need not be of historical value in the narrow sense. Public documents may have a business or record value apart from history, yet it would be hard to say that any given document might not be found useful in some way in connection with history. The main value of a document is as an evidence of truth. ”

“ Parliamentary Archives; Public Record Office of Northern Ireland; Royal Archives; Royal Armouries; Royal Collection Trust; Royal Museums Greenwich; Science Museum Group; Tate Gallery; Victoria & Albert Museum ”

“ The first care, therefore, of the custodian of records should be to preserve this connexion, where it exists. In the majority of countries a previous task awaits him; it has been his duty to collect and arrange his documents. There are few countries in which records have not passed through a period of neglect; each office of state has kept or rather neglected its own papers; each court of justice has been the keeper of its own records; the student has been paralysed by a multitude of repositories among which he vainly sought the documents he required. ”

“ The Public Record Office is a modern building, constructed for the purpose of keeping the [Pg 120] valuable State documents and archives, which, during the present reign, have been moved from the Tower and the Chapter House of Westminster Abbey. ”

“ Review procedures developed by the Archivist shall provide for consultation with agencies having primary subject matter interest and shall be consistent with the provisions of applicable laws or lawful agreements that pertain to the respective Presidential papers or records. Agencies with primary subject matter interest shall be notified promptly of the Archivist's decision. Any final decision by the Archivist may be appealed by the requester or an agency to the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel. The information shall remain classified pending a prompt decision on the appeal. ”

“ The British Museum is a huge repository of material. In scope it is universal. Its purpose is accumulation, preservation, and the aid of research by accredited persons, upon its own premises. Its service is purely responsive. ”

“ The increasing needs of the government have made necessary the erection of several other buildings and an effort has been made to bring as many of these as possible into a harmonious group. The Archives building and the Royal Mint stand on the commanding eminence of Nepean Point, to the eastward of Parliament Hill, the Rideau Canal lying between. Two large departmental buildings occupy ground south of the Archives building and facing Parliament Hill, one containing the Supreme Court as well as the Federal Department of Justice. ”

“ Archæological research was very much prevented in Scotland by the attorneys, who told the people not to let any documents be seen that were in their charter- chests, or they would lose their property; the consequence was, that the very valuable documents in the charter-chests were not available, and we could get no knowledge of the manners and customs of the people through such direct agency. It is nothing but the want of such records which renders our history so incomplete. All our histories are nothing but compilations. ”

“ After serving his native city as secretary and archivist, he became archivist to the national archives in Paris in 1866, and later librarian to the faculty of law. In 1890 he was appointed professor of civil and canon law at the ecole des chartes. ”

“ Compliance with section 1 (1) (a) in relation to any record is not to be taken, at any time after the end of the period of one hundred years beginning with the year following that in which the record was created, to be capable of prejudicing any of the matters referred to in section 31 (1) .
Removal of exemptions: historical records in public record offices. 64.— (1) Information contained in a historical record in the Public Record Office or the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland cannot be exempt information by virtue of section 21 or 22. ”

“ Greeting, Whereas the Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses, and Commissioners of Shires and Boroughs in Our Parliament of Great Britain assembled, having taken into their consideration the State of the Public Records of this Kingdom, and the necessity of providing for the better arrangement, preservation, and more convenient use of the same, have unto Us, that the Public Records of the Kingdom are in many Offices unarranged, undescribed, and unascertained; that many of them are exposed to erasure, alteration, and embezzlement, and are lodged in Buildings incommodious and insecure ”

“ Que d'ouvrages restent enfouis dans les dépôts publics, dans les divers ministères, aux archives des chambres législatives, qui proviennent des publications et des souscriptions, qui n'ont aucune valeur pour la France, parce que toutes les bibliothèques les possèdent, et que les collections étrangères accepteraient avec empressement et recueilleraient avec soin et réciproquement. ”

“ Library of Congress National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC) . 29 vols. Washington: Lib. of Congress, 1962–94. Former title: National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (1962–85) . Z6620.U5 N3.
A union catalog of collections of manuscripts held in public or quasi-public libraries, archives, historical societies, museums, and other institutions in the United States and its territories. NUCMC records created between 1959 and 2009 can be searched through Archive Finder (F280) , and records created since 1986 can be found in WorldCat (E225) ”

“ Every document does not contain truth, yet even such a document may, in effect, be a fact in history, and training and experience lead to a reasonably true interpretation.
The Ontario Bureau of Archives, organized in 1903, is equally related and attached to all the Government departments, and receives all papers and documents of record value or of historical interest, not in current use, from all branches of the public service. When possible, these documents are classified, calendared, and indexed. ”

“ The archives are apart from the library, and are quite inaccessible to the public; no catalogue is known to exist. Leo XII. has appointed a committee to consider what documents of general interest may expediently be published, and a greater liberality in the use of them is said to be contemplated. ”

“ British Museum.The British Museum ranks in importance before all the great libraries of the world, with the single exception of the Bibliotheque Rationale at Paris, and far excels the latter institution in the systematic arrangement and accessibility of its contents. Recent changes have some what limited its former universality of character, but it still remains the grand national repository of literature and archaeology. The library consists of over 1,550,000 printed volumes and 50,000 manuscripts. ”