Archives Unbound:
American Studies
 
Archives Unbound: American Studies

Supporting a deep dive into American culture, primary source materials in this collection help researchers explore music, art, literature, and cinema from all regions of the country in the 19th and 20th centuries.

FBI Records

FBI File: Alger Hiss/Whittaker Chambers - No single episode did more to set off alarms of a diabolic “Red” conspiracy within the national government than the case of Alger Hiss. During the 1948 presidential campaign, the House Un-American Activities Committee conducted a hearing in which Whittaker Chambers, a senior editor at Time magazine and former Soviet agent who had broken with the communists in 1938, identified Hiss, who had worked as an aide to the assistant secretary of state, as an underground party member in the 1930s. This file traces that machinations of the many figures involved in one of the era’s most famous witch hunts. Trails of evidence are followed through correspondence between alleged Communist Party members and sympathizers, as well as interviews with associates of the accused. The archive is an invaluable resource on the Second Red Scare and the internal politics of the United States during the early years of the Cold War.

FBI File: American POWs/MIAs in Southeast Asia - This FBI file, which covers the period 1970 to 1993, began as an investigation into the Committee of Liaison with Families of Servicemen Detained in North Vietnam (COLIFAM). Included here are interviews with hundreds of Vietnamese refugees as well as information on how the North Vietnamese hoarded personal items of American servicemen to exchange for money. Information on the Women's Liberation Movement, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), and the Women's Peace Party is also contained here. Documents include teletypes, interviews, letters, memos, newsletters, and reports. The file is organized chronologically within two divisions: Domestic Security and Foreign Counterintelligence. Scholars interested in Vietnam-related government policy and domestic unrest will find this a useful collection.

FBI File: Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. - The assassination on April 4, 1968, of Martin Luther King, Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, triggered a massive manhunt culminating in the arrest of James Earl Ray. The 44,000-page case file of the Federal Bureau of Investigation documents the bureau’s role in finding Ray and obtaining his conviction. The file also includes background information amassed by the FBI on Dr. King’s social activism. This archive is of particular interest to students of the civil rights movement and of the continuing controversy surrounding Dr. King’s murder.

FBI File: House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) - The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the House Committee on Un-American Activities (later called the House Un-American Activities Committee, or HUAC) developed a working relationship in the period 1938 through 1975 that increased the authority of the committee and gave the bureau power to investigate suspected communists. The archive is divided into three parts. The first section, 1938-1945, documents clashes between HUAC chairman Martin Dies and the administrations of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman. The second section, 1946-1949, records the process by which the FBI and HUAC chose their targets. The final section follows HUAC, renamed the Internal Security Committee, in its attempt to protect the FBI from other congressional investigative committees.

FBI File: Howard Hughes - This archive contains FBI records on the enigmatic billionaire Howard Hughes (1905-1976). It documents Hughes’s activities in various enterprises including aircraft manufacture and aviation; the motion picture business; Las Vegas real estate; and the Nevada gaming industry. Hughes’s relationship with film stars, reports on his sex life, details on his disappearance in 1970, and Hughes’s contested will are also covered. Of particular interest are letters written by Hughes in his own handwriting. Documents include: “Congress Probes Ownership of Airlines Which Won Routes” (July 1945); “Background into an unnamed racketeer who was employed by Howard Hughes” (June 1946); “Report of the allegation that Howard Hughes had invited Bugsy Siegel as a guest for the inaugural flight of the ‘Constellation’ from Los Angeles to New York” (c. 1947); “Investigation in a forged handwritten will” (1981); among other fascinating records.

FBI File: Huey Long - This valuable resource for students of American political history details the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s investigation of Huey Long (1893-1935), governor and senator of Louisiana, mainly during the 1920s. Documents include reports on voting fraud; correspondences regarding “Share Our Wealth Society” (1934-1935); “Our Blundering Government,” a March 1935 speech; the investigation of Louisiana officials and crime conditions in the state (July – August 1939); as well as the investigation into Long’s assassination (May- September 1939); among other records.

FBI File: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg - Julia and Ethel Rosenberg were a nondescript couple accused in 1950 by the U.S. government of operating a Soviet spy network and giving the Soviet Union plans for the atomic bomb. The trial of the Rosenbergs, which began in March 6, 1951, became a political event of greater importance than any damage they may have done to the United States. It was one of the most controversial trials of the twentieth century. After months in prison the Rosenbergs maintained their innocence and began to write poignant letters, which were widely published, protesting their treatment. A movement began to protest the “injustice” of the Rosenberg trial. In the months between the sentencing and execution, criticism of the trial grew more strident, and major demonstrations were held. Jean-Paul Sartre, the French philosopher, called the case “a legal lynching which smears with blood a whole nation.” In spite of attempts at appeal and a temporary state of execution by U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed on June 19, 1953. Both refused to confess. Their guilt and the harshness of their sentences continue to be vigorously debated. Recent studies of the couple’s activities show that the evidence against them was overwhelming. It is difficult, however, to imagine the execution of a married couple with young children without understanding the paranoia the Cold War produced. Since the early 1950s the Rosenbergs have been viewed by many as martyrs, conveniently sacrificed by an iniquitous United States in the name of anticommunism.

FBI File: Roy Cohn - This archive covers the career of Roy Marcus Cohn (1927-1986) from the time he was the confidential assistant to the U.S. District Attorney in New York in 1952 to his indictment for participating in a possible payoff scandal involving the United Dye and Chemical Company. Materials include correspondence relating to the 1953 U.S. Army investigation by Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, newspaper clippings, memos, teletypes, reports, and affidavits. News articles include: “Roy Cohn vs. Bob Kennedy: The Great Rematch” (September 1963); “Cohn Dares Morgenthau to Prosecute Personally” (September 1963); “Roy Cohn Charges Grand Jury With Operating in a Fish Bowl” (November 1963); “Post Office Denies It Tampered with Cohn’s Mail” (February 1964); “Fugazy Testifies Cohn Induced Him to Lie to U.S. Jury” (April 1964); and “Roy Cohn Acquitted” (July 1964). The documents are drawn from the FBI’s Washington, D.C., files.

FBI File: Waco/Branch Davidian Compound - The Waco/Branch Davidian Compound Negotiation Transcripts are of interest to historians, political scientists, legal scholars, and students of criminal justice. The archive serves as a case study of twentieth-century alternative religious movements and their relationships to the U.S. federal government.

FBI File: Watergate - The Watergate scandal grew out of the scheme to conceal the connection between the White House and the accused Watergate burglars, who had succeeded in a plan to wiretap telephones at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate apartment complex in Washington, D.C. Early in the morning of June 17, 1972, a security guard foiled the break-in to install the bugs. After the election a federal judge refused to accept the claim of those on trial for the break-in that they had acted on their own. In February 1973, the U.S. Senate established the Special Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities to investigate alleged election misdeeds. This archive is a valuable resource for students studying the Watergate scandal and modern American political history. Included here are all of the reports and evidence acquired by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as data that was gathered in the campaign activities of the 1972 presidential candidates.

FBI File on America First Committee - The America First Committee (AFC), an anti-interventionist group formed in the early 1940s, advocated isolation from the war in Europe, and quickly gained a large following, with more than 800,000 members at its peak. However by 1941 it was increasingly seen as pro-German and anti-Semitic, particularly after a controversial speech by celebrated aviator and AFC supporter Charles Lindbergh. It dissolved shortly after the Pearl Harbor attacks and Hitler's declaration of war on America. This file, which covers the group's activity from 1937 to 1941, contains newspaper accounts, America First literature, speeches, letters, reports, and press releases. The group was investigated for possible communist infiltration.

FBI File on Eleanor Roosevelt - As an outspoken woman and humanitarian, Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) was a prime target for an investigation by J. Edgar Hoover. Her work with youth movements and the civil rights of minorities made many Americans of the time uneasy, and Hoover, of course, felt obligated to investigate her alleged radical, subversive, and un-American activities. This file includes the usual correspondence, memos, and newspaper clippings. The letters between Hoover and Eleanor provide fascinating insight into their relationship. Also included are many letters from "ordinary" citizens protesting Roosevelt's activities and syndicated column, "My Day," pleading with Hoover that "she must be stopped."

FBI File on Harry Dexter White - Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Harry Dexter White (1892–1948) was one of the highest-ranking New Deal officials accused of espionage. Instrumental in shaping post-war international monetary policy, White co-authored the plans which created the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and served as the American executive director of the International Monetary Fund. This FBI file contains reports, correspondence, news clippings, and four pages of White's documents that were found in a hollow pumpkin on Chambers's Maryland farm in 1948. This file is an excellent resource for the study of the anticommunism fervor in the formative years of the Cold War.

FBI File on John L. Lewis - One of the most influential figures in the American Federation of Labor (AFL), John L. Lewis (1880–1969) rose through the union ranks to become president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMW). This FBI file details John L. Lewis's career as a labor leader from the 1920s to the 1950s, with some material dating back to 1909. Much of the file relates to Lewis's tenure as president of the United Mine Workers. The bulk of the file is chronological under one subject heading "civil rights." Also included is an Official and Confidential File report written by Louis Nichols. This file will be of great interest to those researching American labor history.

FBI File on Nelson Rockefeller - In 1940, Nelson Rockefeller (1908–1979) began a long career in government when President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him as coordinator of Inter-American Affairs. He served in various federal posts until he was elected governor of New York in 1958. In 1973, after three unsuccessful runs for the Republican presidential nomination, Rockefeller resigned as New York's governor. In 1974, President Gerald Ford appointed him vice-president. This file on Nelson Rockefeller contains papers relating to the background checks conducted by the FBI in advance of his appointment to various positions in the federal government.

FBI File on Owen Lattimore - An American sinologist and college professor, Owen Lattimore (1900–1989) traveled extensively and did research throughout China, Manchuria, Mongolia, and Chinese Turkistan. From 1938-1950, he served as director of the Page School of International Relations at Johns Hopkins. In 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy accused him of being a Soviet espionage agent. A senate committee exonerated him later that year. In 1952, he was indicted on seven counts of perjury on the charge that he lied when he told a Senate internal security subcommittee earlier in 1952 that he had not promoted Communism and Communist interests. In 1955, the Justice Department dropped all charges against him. Most of the material in this file relates to Lattimore's leftist sympathies and catalogs how he became a victim of McCarthyism.

FBI Filing and Records Procedures - From the 1920s into the 1980s, the FBI maintained a complex system of records designed to prevent outside discovery of operations and investigative techniques. The documents reproduced here act as a guide to these filing procedures.

FBI Manuals of Instruction, Investigative Procedures, and Guidelines, 1927–1978 - This collection reproduces four manuals of instruction, investigative procedures, and guidelines issued to FBI agents in 1927, 1936, 1941, and 1978.

FBI Surveillance of James Forman and SNCC - This collection of FBI reports comprises the Bureau’s investigative and surveillance efforts primarily during the 1961-1976 period, when James Forman was perceived as a threat to the internal security of the United States. The collected materials also include Forman’s involvement with the "Black Manifesto" and the Bureau’s "COINTELPRO" investigations into "Black Nationalist - Hate Groups / Internal Security," which include information on the activities of SNCC.

National Security and FBI Surveillance Enemy Aliens - The Custodial Detention Index (CDI), or Custodial Detention List was formed in 1939-1941, in the frame of a program called variously the "Custodial Detention Program" or "Alien Enemy Control." J. Edgar Hoover described it as having come from his resurrected General Intelligence Division—"This division has now compiled extensive indices of individuals, groups, and organizations engaged in subversive activities, in espionage activities, or any activities that are possibly detrimental to the internal security of the United States. The indexes have been arranged not only alphabetically but also geographically, so that at any rate, should we enter into the conflict abroad, we would be able to go into any of these communities and identify individuals or groups who might be a source of grave danger to the security of this country. These indexes will be extremely important and valuable in a grave emergency."

The Mafia in Florida and Cuba: FBI Surveillance of Meyer Lansky and Santo Trafficante, Jr. - This collection comprises materials on Santo Trafficante, Jr., Meyer Lansky, and Lucky Luciano, including FBI surveillance and informant reports and correspondence from a variety of offices including, Miami, Tampa, Jacksonville, New York City, New Orleans, Atlanta, New Haven, New York City, Philadelphia, and Chicago; Justice Department memoranda, correspondence, and analyses; Newsclippings and articles; Domestic Intelligence Section reports; Transcriptions of wiretaps, typewriter tapes, and coded messages; Memoranda of conversations.