Imagine yourself to be a historical scholar coming to Washington to search the Federal Government’s records before the National Archives opened in 1937. Who would be here to help you? How would you know where to look? Where would you stay, and how would you get around the city? Who would make you feel comfortable in an ocean of bureaucrats?
Morey Rothberg, co-editor of the papers of the distinguished American historian and Washingtonian, J. Franklin Jameson (1859–1937), will take you on a guided tour of the federal bureaucracy in the first third of this century, as it was seen by scholars in search of the nation’s past.
It was Jameson as director of the Department of Historical Research in the Carnegie Institution of Washington who, more than any other individual, brought the National Archives into being. Using slides of Washington scenes from more than fifty years ago, and with the expert assistance of J. Franklin Jameson, Rothberg will escort you to the Library of Congress; the State, War, and Navy building; the Smithsonian Institution; the National Archives as it was constructed, and to many of the familiar and exotic places visitors might find: restaurants, hotels, saloons, museums, Center Market, and the C&O Canal. Along the way, you will gain a better understanding of the tremendous difficulties under which scholars labored in dealing with an often hostile bureaucracy, and of the tremendous advance for scholarship represented by the National Archives and other contemporary re search institutions in Washington, DC. This hour-long lecture will be presented at the annual meeting of the American Historical Association in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, December 29, at 8 p.m. Those interested in attending must preregister before December 1 by calling Morey Rothberg at 202/488-0899.
