HONR 269I
To the Moon and Back: The Apollo Program
Spring 2019
E3: Exploring the Archives
HONR 269I
To the Moon and Back: The Apollo Program
Spring 2019
E3: Exploring the Archives
The goal of this Exploring the Archives team experience is to look at the Apollo program from the perspective of an organization. The National Archives catalog lists fifteen sets of Apollo Records at Archives 2 that still have not been processed, but that have no known access restrictions. A very extensive collection of processed records is also available to researchers at Archives 2 from the Review Board formed after the Apollo 1 launchpad fire. Together, these records offer an unparalleled opportunity for students to study the actual operation of a complex enterprise.
To get to NARA 2 you can drive (they have free parking), you can take metro bus C8 from campus or from the College Park Metro station (or on the Red line form the Glenmont Metro), you can take campus bus 108 (and then walk 10 minutes), or you can walk (45 minutes from Hornbake).
The first time you go to NARA 2 you will need to get a researcher card. That takes about 20 minutes. You will show that card every time you enter and exit the research areas in NARA 2 (i.e., before you get on the elevator, and in every research room you enter). You'll review a short presentation to learn about how to take proper care of the records that you are working with, and then they will issue you your card.
Usually, records are processed by archivists to arrange and describe them before they are requested by researchers, but there are also provisions for researchers to request access to unprocessed records. In such cases, the Archivist does a quick check to see if the materials in the boxes that have been requested can be released. For Apollo-era records, the most common reasons for withholding records would be security classification markings (which apply to only a small fraction of the records) and International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), which is more often an issue. ITAR is a concern because the same technology that is used to build spacecraft and rockets can be used to build weapons. So archivists take about 15 minutes to look through any unprocessed records that are requested to see if they are likely to contain classified or ITAR information; if so, they will not release them (although there is an appeal process if you believe that a more careful review is warranted). If they do release them, they mark them as released so that they can skip the review if the same box is requested again.
We'll be using text records (as opposed to photographs, digital records, or motion pictures), so you will go to the textual reading room. Ask at the desk to be directed to the consultation room. There you will show an archivist what you are looking for, and the will help you fill out the request form. If you get your form in by one of the posted pull times, they should be ready for you to sign out a couple of hours later.
Once you get your records, you should take them to another desk where you can get permission to photograph them. This permission is needed because some records have been declassified, and when photographing those you need to put a strip alongside them so that the declassification details are in the photograph. For other records, they just give you the permission (a sign you put up that indicates you have the necessary permission). Bring a phone or a camera to take photos with.
Then you bring your records to a table, take out one folder (or bound document) at a time, look through it, photograph what you want, and take notes (with a pencil or a laptop -- no pens allowed!) for your later use.
You should plan to spend about 12 hours at the archives over a couple of weeks, optimally in three four-hour sessions. The first time you'll need to wait for your records to be pulled; in later visits (within the same week) they will have your records already pulled and waiting on a cart for you. You'll want to do this in multiple sessions both because the archives is only open normal working hours on normal workdays and because having some time to think about what you have learned and then to look at the records anew will allow you to see them in ways you might not have thought of at first.
The remaining four pages should be two stories, one written by each student, told from the records. The story must name specific people. You can tell any story that you want. For example, in one set of records that I reviewed there were letters of appreciation sent by the manager of an office to organizations that had loaned people to the Apollo Program during its busiest time. From those letters we can learn how an organization reshapes itself to meet new challenges, and how it later reshapes itself to adjust to changing circumstances. As another example, another set of records I examined documented the changes over time in the design and intended operation of a component that flew to the Moon. From those records we can learn how, why, and by whom specific decisions were made.
The three parts of your report do not need to be connected in any way -- they are three separate two-page papers. You should each do some writing on the first part, and each of you should author one of the last two parts individually (and put your name on it). Of course, your should each read and comments on the two-page parts that the other writes. Submit all three parts of your report as a single file on ELMS before class on the date indicated in the schedule.