Key NASA History Web Sites
Interdependence of Archivists, Records Managers, and Historians
A Select Sampling of Model NASA History Publications
Tips on Writing an Unsolicited Proposal
How a Manuscript Becomes a NASA History Publication

Interdependence of Archivists, Records Managers, and Historians

The NASA History Office maintains over 2,000 cubic feet of historical documents. A civil servant and two contract archivists oversee this material, referred to as the NASA Historical Reference Collection. In general, this collection includes photocopies of “official records,” but not the original documents.

Permanent official records of the Agency are required by law to be transferred to the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Records schedules, agreed upon by NARA and NASA, are specifically written for NASA records. NASA records managers at Headquarters and the Field Centers work with staff in all NASA offices to preserve official records. In accordance with instructions in the schedules, permanent records are transferred to NARA when they reach a certain age, depending upon the nature of the specific records.

In the interim, records may be stored at a regional Federal Records Center (FRC), part of the NARA system. NASA retains custody of the records while they are stored at the FRC and must give permission to anyone outside of NASA who wants to use the records. When materials are finally transferred to the National Archives, legal title passes to NARA, and researchers must contact appropriate NARA personnel to access the materials.

The NASA History Office maintains copies of key correspondence, memoranda, press releases, reports, and other documents from the official Agency files in our Historical Reference Collection. History Office staff also comb through newspapers and magazines to augment our holdings. Donations of documents also come from individuals at NASA Headquarters and the Field Centers, retirees, and outside sources.

The Historical Reference Collection is primarily arranged by subject and includes biographical files on astronauts, NASA officials, presidents, legislators, and aviation and aerospace pioneers. A small portion of our holdings consists of audiovisual materials such as oral-history interviews and conference proceedings. Our files date from the early 1900s to the present and are searchable in an online database accessed from our office. We have a large collection of materials documenting the work of NASA’s predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. History Office staff have scanned and placed in our database hundreds of documents for research use, making our database part finding aid and part electronic document repository.

Historians visit the NASA History Office, Center history offices, FRCs, and NARA to conduct research for their books. In doing so, they analyze the primary and secondary sources preserved in NASA and NARA repositories, provide interpretation, and produce written works for peer and editorial review and for eventual publication. Typically, they conduct oral-history interviews with key individuals to supplement the written record available to them.

The research process goes full circle: Historians who are under contract to NASA donate research materials to the NASA History Office after the completion of their manuscripts. And the archivists’ work begins again—appraising, organizing, indexing, and providing reference service.

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