National Archives and Records Administration in the United States

National Archives and Records Administration

Introduction to National Archives and Records Administration

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government, whose purpose is to select, preserve, and make available to the federal government and the public historically valuable government records. It was established in 1984. NARA was preceded first by the National Archives Establishment, created in 1934, and then by the National Archives and Records Service, part of the General Services Administration from 1949 to 1984. The institution also publishes laws, constitutional amendments, presidential documents, and administrative regulations. It is responsible for the preservation of documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, and administers the presidential libraries and federal records centers.

The National Archives Building in Washington, D.C., is the repository of most of the permanently valuable records of the U.S. government. Such records include treaties, laws, presidential proclamations and executive orders, military reports, records of Native American affairs, census schedules, historically significant maps and charts, sound recordings, motion pictures, and still pictures, notably the valuable collection of American Civil War photographs by Mathew Brady. On permanent display in the Exhibition Hall are the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and other documents dating from 1774 to 1790. A three-year plan to move some of the archive’s collection to a research building in College Park, Maryland, began in 1994.

Presidential libraries that are coordinated by NARA include the libraries of Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Gerald R. Ford, and Jimmy Carter. NARA also has custody of the Nixon presidential historical materials.

Presidential proclamations, presidential executive orders, and general regulations issued by federal agencies are legally valid only when published in the NARA Federal Register, which appears five times a week; codification of all regulatory documents is contained in the Code of Federal Regulations. NARA also publishes the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, the United States Statutes at Large, the United States Government Manual, and the Public Papers of the Presidents.” (1)