Gray was known for his leadership in banking and government service until he became director of the Autry Museum of Western Heritage in Los Angeles. He enlarged the museum’s mission and scope, and, in 2002, merged the museum with Colorado’s Women of the West Museum and, in 2004, with Los Angeles’ oldest museum, the Southwest Museum of the American Indian. The new organization became the Autry National Center of the American West based in Los Angeles.

The Autry National Center has more than 500,000 objects, a 130-member staff and an annual budget of about $16 million. It is accredited by the American Association of Museums and gained national prominence during Gray’s tenure.

Gray spent 25 years in commercial banking, serving as executive vice president of First Interstate Bank of California in Los Angeles from 1987 until 1996. He worked for the Small Business Administration in Washington, D.C., for two years, 1997 to 1999—when he moved back to the West Coast to serve as president and CEO of the Autry Museum in Los Angeles. This was the beginning of his career in non-profit cultural organizations, which culminated in the creation of the Autry National Center of the American West, formed by the merger of three organizations.

He retired from the Autry National Center in late 2010 and currently lives in New Mexico.

Gray has a bachelor’s degree from C.W. Post College at Long Island University and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Colorado. He is currently enrolled in the master’s program in Eastern classics from Saint John’s College in Santa Fe.

“It is a great honor to be selected as steward of our national treasures,” said Gray. “Learning and understanding our shared histories as Americans are vital to living in and developing the American experience.”

Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough said, “John pulled together three organizations with different missions, leadership and boards, to form one new center whose mission is to tell the story of the American West as a place created by cowboys, Native Americans, women, Chinese laborers, Mexicans and many others. His passion for American history and scholarship is obvious, and it’s what will make him a great leader for our American History Museum.”

Clough made the appointment based on recommendations made by a search committee chaired by Richard Kurin, Under Secretary for History, Art and Culture at the Smithsonian. The search committee included American History Museum board chair John Rogers; vice chair Nick Taubman; board member and former Smithsonian Regent Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.); museum staff members Judith Gradwohl, Marvette Perez and Jeffrey Stine; National Museum of African American History and Culture director Lonnie Bunch; the Smithsonian’s director of advancement Ginny Clark; and Nina Archabal, former director of the Minnesota Historical Society.

Gray succeeds Brent Glass, who retired as director in August 2011. Marc Pachter, former director of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, has served as interim director since last August.

Gray will oversee 234 employees, a budget of more than $34 million and the renewal of the museum’s 120,000-square-foot west exhibition wing with its new exhibit spaces, interior public plazas, a Hall of Music for live performances, a modern education center and a gallery for the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation.

Key findings of the report include:

• Most agencies do not have adequate controls for major activities of their records management programs;
• Many records management staff have insufficient knowledge and understanding of electronic records, which leads to the continued implementation of poor recordkeeping practices;
• The majority of respondents provided materials that did not support their responses to one or more questions in the self-assessment;
• Nearly a quarter of the respondent agencies do not conduct records management training for their senior officials, and;
• Agencies risk improper management and disposition of records or, in some cases, they are saving their records but not taking the necessary steps to ensure that they can be retrieved, read, or interpreted.

In May 2011, NARA issued the mandatory annual records management self-assessment (RMSA) to Federal agencies. The goal of the self-assessments is to determine whether Federal agencies are compliant with statutory and regulatory records management requirements.

The report also revealed some positive trends. There was a slight increase in the number of agencies that scored in the Low Risk category. In addition, a number of agencies have in place or are working on guidance for managing records in social media and web 2.0 platforms as well as cloud computing environments. Federal agencies recognize the need for performance metrics for their records management programs, and several agencies have established sophisticated metrics that can serve as a model for others. Also, agencies are increasingly transferring their permanent electronic records to NARA using the Electronic Records Archives, NARA’s strategic initiative to preserve and provide long-term access to the electronic records of the Federal Government.

Agencies can use RMSA data to chart their own programs. NARA uses the annual RMSA as a tool to monitor and oversee Federal records management programs. The work reflected in this report was accomplished prior to the issuance of the Presidential Memorandum on Managing Government Records, which requires each agency to designate a senior official to supervise an evaluation of the agency’s records management program. Data from the RMSAs and agency submissions in response to the Presidential Memorandum, will give NARA a Government-wide base of information from which to develop the Records Management Directive.

NARA has the authority to inspect the records management programs and practices of Federal agencies under 44 U.S.C. 2904 and 2906. NARA evaluates agencies for compliance with requirements stated in 44 U.S.C. Chapters 31 and 33 and the regulations in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) – specifically Subchapter B – Records Management of 36 CFR Chapter XII.

The report may be downloaded from NARA’s website [http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/resources/self-assessment-2011.pdf].

Mayer brings to this assignment more than 20 years of experience working in dynamic research environments, most recently having served as the University Librarian at American University in Washington, DC. Prior to his work at American University, Mayer served from 2001 to 2007 as the Associate University Librarian for Information Technology and Technical Services at George Washington University. He was directly responsible for the development, implementation, and integration of information technology services across the entire library system operation. He also served as an adjunct faculty member for the School of Library and Information Science at Catholic University.

Mayer’s library career began in 1990 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries, and later moved to the Harvard Business School Library as access services manager. He came to DC in 1999 to serve as the systems librarian for public services for the Washington Research Library Consortium. Mayer is an international speaker and leader on the changing face of services in research organizations, management of organizational change, and innovative applications of technology in information systems. He was George Washington University’s first Frye Leadership Institute Scholar in 2005.

He earned a BA in English Literature from the University of Washington and a MLS from Simmons College in Boston.

The IMLS is seeking comments to assess how well these guidelines accomplish the following goals:

• Make federal dollars more accessible by reducing complexity;
• Increase clarity and readability;
• Make it easier to see where a project idea fits best;
• Make it easier to articulate the impact of project ideas;
• Allow grantees greater ability to pursue comprehensive collections care projects by combining the purposes of the current Conservation Project Support and Museums for America programs;
• Allow grantees greater ability to pursue professional development activities by combining the purposes and funding for the current 21st Century Museum Professionals and National Leadership Grants for Museums programs;
• Provide greater ability for museums and organizations that serve museums to pursue National Leadership Grants that have broad impact for their communities and create models that can be adapted by others;
• Make it possible for IMLS to continue to support the full range of museums, large and small, and representing every museum discipline and every geographic area.

To see the guidelines use these links:
Museums for America
National Leadership Grants for Museums

The comment period will end on Friday, July 6, 2012. Please send comments to comments@imls.gov. Final guidelines will be posted no later than October 15, 2012.

Grossman told the subcommittee that the current level of support going to NEH was “akin to plowing under our seed corn,” as young scholars find themselves unable to complete the research that goes into the books that launch academic careers. This has wide implications, Grossman argued. Without an understanding of our own heritage, those of other nations, and of foreign languages, he stated, “We can neither formulate informed foreign policy or even military strategy, nor compete in a global marketplace.”

Reminding the subcommittee that the NEH works outside the campus as well, he underscored the important role of the NEH in developing digital resources to make history more accessible to a wider audience. “To this generation of students, if it isn’t online, it doesn’t exist,” Grossman said. “Digital humanities programs supported by the NEH help ensure that students have ready access to the best scholarship.” One example, he continued, was the EDSITEment website , which allows teachers to quickly find high-quality, authoritative materials, lesson plans, and curricula suitable for use in K–12 classrooms.

Grossman pointed out that the NEH has been struggling to continue its important work under significant budget cuts (13.2%) between fiscal years 2010 and 2012. He called the reversal of this trend a “vital investment in the nation’s global competitiveness, the strength and vitality of our civic institutions, the preservation and understanding of our diverse cultural heritage, and the lives of our citizens.”

The subcommittee heard testimony from a diverse group that included Deborah Tannen of Georgetown University; Hunter R. Rawlings III, President of the Association of American Universities; Paul Ulrich, board member of the Wyoming Humanities Council, speaking on behalf of the Federation of State Humanities Councils; and many others.

This article, written by Allen Mikaelian, appears here courtesy of AHA Perspectives.

Written by four historians—Anne Mitchell Whisnant, Marla R. Miller, Gary B. Nash, and David Thelen—Imperiled Promise: The State of History in the National Park Service, which is based on a study started in 2008, also reports finding about 150 “effective, inspiring models” of how history is being done well in the National Park Service, and offers 14 case studies of “lamps lighting the path ahead.” The authors of the study gathered information from NPS employees conducting historical work, retired NPS employees at all levels, and professional historians outside the NPS who became stakeholders by virtue of their contributions to NPS programs and sites.

The report’s criticisms are not directed only at the National Park Service. According to the authors, the historical profession “must also examine itself and find ways to strengthen, support, engage, and partner with the agency most central in the presentation of its work to the American public.” The “culture and structure” of isolation in the academy have tended to reinforce a similar isolation of historians with the Park Service, according to the authors, and “the profession and the Park Service must face the future as full partners.”

Robert Sutton, chief historian of the National Park Service, wrote in an e-mail to Perspectives, “For many years we have been very interested in learning from our National Park Service historians what they think of the practice of history throughout the National Park Service,” and, “We wanted to find out what we were doing well, and what we were not doing well.” He added, “The survey team did an outstanding job of analyzing the survey results.”

Although history is central to about two-thirds of all National Park sites, the report claims history is underemphasized in favor of “natural resources, law enforcement, and other concerns.” Further, among the study’s other findings were an “artificial separation of natural resources interpretation from cultural and historical interpretation,” and “A misperception of history as a tightly bounded, single and unchanging ‘accurate’ story, with one true significance, rather than an ongoing discovery process…”

As an example of how an interpretation can help eliminate the artificial separation of nature and culture, the authors turn to the Martin Van Buren National Historic Site which has expanded its grounds and broadened its scope to put on display Van Buren’s later life as a farmer, an occupation he “saw as an important expression of his political and personal values.” The site further serves as a way to demonstrate the “dynamic history” of farming and “engage the public in a more sophisticated discussion about past and present food-supply systems.” Other case studies cover reinterpretation of slavery and the Civil War, and the need to include a park’s own checkered past within its historical offerings, as is being done in Shenandoah National Park.

Robert Sutton wrote to Perspectives that the Park Service is “determined that this survey will not just sit on a shelf somewhere.” Although he underscored that some recommendations, “although absolutely valid, simply are not feasible at this time,” he pointed to several actions that the Park Service is undertaking, including providing access to the American Historical Review and the Journal of American History for NPS historical staff and improving the ability to search the “over 4000 studies, reports, books, articles, etc.” on the NPS web site. In response to the recommendation for improvements in history education and training, Sutton wrote, the Park Service is “working with our Harpers Ferry Training Center to create a historians academy that will provide distance training opportunities for our historians.” In conclusion, he remarked, “we will establish committees to further implement as many of the recommendations as possible.”

This report joins many other recent reports on the National Park Service, published in advance of the 2016 NPS centennial, including Park Service Director Jon Jarvis’s book, A Call to Action, The State of America’s National Parks, by the Center for Park Research, and Advancing the National Park Idea by the National Parks Second Century Commission.

According to the report, released through a Freedom of Information Act request by the National Security Archive, historical records and artifacts are housed in a precarious environment and invaluable archival material is in danger. The History and Heritage Command’s leadership has not been using due diligence to ensure that naval commands and fleets are creating historical records on their ongoing activities. Moreover, according to the IG report, the Navy’s professional historians, archivists, curators, and librarians who work for the history command feel “disenfranchised” because of “their marginalization in decision processes and lack of advancement opportunity.”

The Navy Times reports that Jay DeLoach, a retired rear admiral and director of the Navy’s historical command has resigned in the wake of the damning inspector general report. The Navy Times article stated, “The IG also reported a growing chasm between the command under DeLoach and the academic and museum community, with whom the center works to provide official Navy records and artifacts to the public. DeLoach had let an advisory committee of esteemed naval historians expire in 2010.”

Specific problems cited include damage to historical paintings, lack of accreditation to museums, a huge backlog of unprocessed archival collections, and lack of awareness that workers at the Naval Aviation Museum had been exposed to toxic metals. The IG did not make specific recommendations but advised the Navy leadership to establish a panel of historians to provide guidance on a “way ahead” for the program.

For background on the report and information on the crisis in the Navy’s history program, National Security Archive staffers William Burr and John Prados, and Larry Berman, dean of the Honors College at George State University, have prepared detailed comments. The “Unredacted” blog invites further comments from readers.

NCH would like to thank Bill Burr and the National Security Archive for their permission to reprint portions of this article.

The annual lecture, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is the most prestigious honor the federal government bestows for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities.

NEH is currently inviting nominations for the 2013 Jefferson Lecture. More information about the lectureship, including a list of previous lecturers and instructions for submitting your nomination, is available at: http://www.neh.gov/about/awards/jefferson-lecture-nominations.The deadline for nominations is Friday, May 25, 2012.

In his lecture, entitled “It All Turns on Affection,” Berry lamented the increasing divergence of modern man from the environment and local communities. Invoking the words of his mentor, the writer Wallace Stegner, Berry observed that throughout history Americans have been divided into two kinds: the “boomers” who “pillage and run,” and the “stickers” who “settle, and love the life they have made and the place they have made it in.”

The full text of Wendell Berry’s lecture is available here. This year, for the first time, NEH live streamed the Jefferson Lecture for those unable to attend. Watch the archived video of the lecture here.

The Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities recognizes an individual who has made significant scholarly contributions to the humanities and who has the ability to communicate the knowledge and wisdom of the humanities in a broadly appealing way. Wendell Berry will deliver the 41st Jefferson Lecture. Past Jefferson Lecturers include Drew Gilpin Faust, Jonathan Spence, John Updike, Tom Wolfe, David McCullough, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Arthur Miller, Bernard Bailyn, Toni Morrison, Vincent Scully, Gwendolyn Brooks, Saul Bellow, John Hope Franklin, Robert Penn Warren, and Lionel Trilling. A complete list of past Jefferson Lecturers is available here.

This is the 16th decennial census, marking the 150th anniversary of the census. The 3.9 million images constitute the largest collection of digital information ever released by the National Archives. The website, hosted by Archives.com, includes a database of Americans living within the existing 48 states and 6 territories on April 2, 1940.

The census database is now only searchable at the enumeration district level. An enumeration district is an area that a census taker could cover in two weeks in an urban area and one month in a rural area.

However, within six to nine months, a host of volunteers will have completed a name index, allowing researchers to completely bypass the enumeration districts. FamilySearch.org is coordinating the volunteer effort, and claims that over 100,000 volunteers have already stepped forward for this massive undertaking, including the members of 612 genealogical societies. The coordinators of this effort hope to ultimately “crowdsource” the work to 300,000 volunteers. Volunteers can sign up and receive documents online.

A National Archives video short on YouTube http://tiny.cc/1940Census and on provides a “behind-the-scenes” view of staff preparations and gives viewers tips on how to access the data once it is launched on April 2. This video is in the public domain and not subject to any copyright restrictions. The National Archives encourages the free distribution of it.

The White papers, which total 183,500 items in 858 boxes (361.4 linear feet), document cases heard during his tenure on the Supreme Court, including material on cases involving the Miranda law, abortion, child pornography, freedom of speech, homosexuality and racial bias. A finding aid to the collection is accessible on the Library’s website.

White (1917-2002) was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1962 by President John F. Kennedy. He served until his retirement in 1993, after more than three decades on the court. That year White gave the final installment of his papers to the Library of Congress, where they joined the papers of 39 other associate justices and chief justices of the court, including John Marshall, Roger B. Taney, Charles Evans Hughes, Thurgood Marshall, Earl Warren, Harry Blackmun and Hugo Black.

White’s dissenting opinion in Miranda v. Arizona (1966) opposed the court’s ruling that people who are arrested must be told of their constitutional right against self-incrimination before police may question them.

White issued a dissent to the landmark 1973 case of Roe v. Wade that established a constitutional right to abortion. He suggested that decision was “an exercise in raw judicial power” and he criticized the court majority for “interposing a constitutional barrier to state efforts to protect human life.”

White’s majority opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick, which he wrote for the court in 1986, stated that consenting adults have no constitutional right to private homosexual conduct and legislatures can make such conduct illegal.
White’s majority opinion in Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Atonio, written in 1989, established criteria for the use of statistical evidence by workers claiming racial bias.

In the 1992 Mississippi desegregation case, United States v. Fordice, White’s majority opinion was that to desegregate state-run colleges and universities, a state has a responsibility to do more than simply “[abolish] the legal requirement that whites and blacks be educated separately and [establish] racially neutral policies.”

Other landmark cases in which White wrote opinions include the New York Times v. United States, in which he concurred that the government could not enjoin the New York Times from publishing the Pentagon Papers; Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, in which White concurred in part and dissented in part in the Court’s decision that numerical quotas in support of affirmative action were unconstitutional; Griswold v. Connecticut, in which he wrote a concurring opinion that a state law proscribing contraception violated married couples’ due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment; and Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Chadha, in which he dissented from the Court’s ruling that the legislative veto was unconstitutional.