Evening star., 1935-11-03
NEW BIOGRAPHY CASTS CEZANNE IN CLEARER LIGHT
ARCHIVIST STARTS HUGE TASK
Connor Promises That Building Repository of Valuable
Federal Records Will Be One of Most Alive in Washing
ton; Job Left Undone l25 Years Tackled With Vgor.

cials. of Congress and the public as to
what would be an adequate archival
eStr Jlishment. In 1878 it seemed to
Il. secretary Of War that a 100000
aiding would be sufficient, but with
tie passage of years the estimates
grew until the expenditure Of millions
was found quite justified.
These changes in the official con-
ception of an adequate archives estab-
lishment, important as they are. re-
late only to the size and character o.
the physical plant. Even more i'm
portant, If more slowly evolved, was
the change gradually taking place in
the conceptions of its functions. At
first proponents of hall of records
seem to have been thinking only of a
| building of the warehouse type, to be
used primarily for storage, but never,
| so far as have been able to discover,
did it occur to any that a far more
important object was efficient admin
! lstratlon OF its contents for service t.
! the Government and to scholars.
THE storage idea dominated Gov.
ernment officials thinking until 1908
Then the American Historical Asso-
ciation entered the picture. Its coun-
Gil pointed out that lack of provision
for the orderly keeping of these pub =
lie documents made them unavaiIabI q,
for historical work and created a COM
mittee to call TO the attention OF tn,
President and of Congress the i'm
portance of archives for historical re-
| search
THE period of agitation was now
drawing to close and 1918 market
the turning, but not the end of the
road. In that year Congress author
lied plans and speciflca tions for a
building to cost not more than $780,
600. 1t was also stipulated a study o.
European archival methods should b
made: The outbreak of the war in
1914 disrupted this program and Con-
gress authorized construction of the
building without such inspection and
consultation in Europe Our Archive,
Building then was to be 100 per cent
American.
But then came 1917 and the United
| States became more concerned in writ
ing new records than in housing old
ones and another decade of deferred
hope ensued. Meantime, expansion of
Government records was at a highly
accelerated rate, driving officials
almost to frenzy in vain efforts to find
space"
THIS situation increased the pressure
upon Congress for a real archives
| building. In the meantime Congress,
| in 1916, had launched its great tri-
angle building program. 1t was halted
by the war activities but revived after
the armistice. and among the build
ings included was the National Ar
chives Ground was broken Septem-
Der 9, 1881. and the corner stone was
laid by President Hoover February
| 19. 1882
Speaking with all due moderation"
says Mr.. Connor. Il think it can be
said that when finished and fully
| equipped the Archives Building will
be the finest of its kind in the world.
This is natural for. while the United
States Jagged far behind other nations
in making provisions for its archives,
the delay has had at least one ad-
vantage; namely, it has enabled us to
profit by the experience of others.
After the war and before blue prints
were made, architects and other ex-
perts visited the great archival estab-
lishments of Europe and we therefore
were able to avoid such mistakes as
they disclosed, and to introduce in
this structure many new devices for
dealing with old problems"
In the course of discussion about
the archives this interviewer inadver-
tently refererd to "embalmment" Of
the Nations historic papers. Mr..
Connor Immediately demurred to this
as smacking too much of the NOR
tuary, of dead things in general.
This is to be one of the livest places
in Washington" he declared firmly.
demonstrating that at last scholars
and others entitled to inspect the
country's original records will be able
to pursue their researches under ap-
propriate facilities and conditions"
In anticipation Of the erection of
the National Archives, former Presi-
dent Hoover appointed an advisory
committee to survey the records Of the
Government for the use of the archi-
tect in designing the structure. The
survey disclosed tremendous growth.
From 1889 to 1860, for instance, the
Government accumulated l08, ,70l cubic
feet of archives: from 1861 to 1916 it
grew to 1,103,956 cubic feet. and by
1880 the total was 2,641 .678 cubic feet.
In other words, during 13 years, from
1917 to 1880, the Government accumu-
lated more than twice the volume Of
archives than during the whole pre-
ceeding 127 years. How it has in
creased since, and particularly be-
cause of the New Deal and its multi.
plicity of emergency recovery organiza-
tions, only can be connected at this
time and will constitute still another
problem for Mr.. Connor and his
assistants to solve.
THE question sometimes has been
raised whether old and seemingly
useless Government papers are worth
preserving. In answer to this Mr..
Connor quotes Waldo c. Leland, an
authority on the subject, who says
these records are composed of the
letters. orders, reports. accounts and
other documents produced in the
course of transactnig the public busi-
ness. The value OF these archives
may truly be said to be inestimable. In
the transaction of current business
those Of recent date are in constant
use, while those of earlier origin are
frequently referred to. They consti.
tute the chief protection of the State
against unfounded or ill-founded
Continued on Eleventh Page.)