Prologue Magazine

Wayne Grover: Shaping the National Archives

Winter 2009, Vol. 41, No. 4

By Greg Bradsher

 

refer to caption

 

Archivist of the United States Solon J. Buck met with soon-to-be Archivist Wayne C. Grover in June 1948. (Record Group 64, 64-NA-1-116)

The small staff of the newly created National Archives had just moved into its new building in Washington's Federal Triangle in 1935 when the call went out for more help. Some 15,000 applications were received, and several hundred were hired to help the first Archivist of the United States, R.D.W. Connor, get the new agency rolling.

One of those hires was a native of Utah, a former journalist and Senate aide named Wayne Clayton Grover. His first job at the new agency was accessioning clerk, assisting in the physical transfer of records to the Archives, but he rose quickly, becoming a junior archivist the next year, and an archivist handling War Department records the following year.

For the next four years, he spent most of his time handling War Department records, earning a master's degree and passing the examination for a doctorate in public administration. He would spend World War II dealing with War Department records and eventually wind up as the top assistant to the second Archivist of the United States, Solon. J. Buck.

Then in 1948, Buck resigned and recommended Grover as his successor. President Harry S. Truman took Buck's recommendation, and Grover became the third Archivist of the United States.

Grover would serve as Archivist for 17 years, longer than any other Archivist before or since. And he would leave a lasting legacy at the agency, just as Connor did in starting the agency from scratch, and Buck did in leading the agency during World War II. Grover's tenure saw the agency shaped into today's recognizable form, with a national network of records centers, a system of presidential libraries, the preeminent role as the government's record manager, stewardship of the nation's Charters of Freedom, and a broad array of public programs that reach out to the public and to the agency's stakeholders throughout the nation. When he retired in 1965, he had established the general shape of the Archives as it is known today.

His work prompted Waldo Gifford Leland, often called the father of the archival profession in the United States, in congratulating Grover on his 10th anniversary as Archivist, to say, "It is in you that we see the very model of a modern archivist general."

These observations might be hyperbole, but certainly Grover, as the Archivist of the United States from 1948 to 1965, by combining scholarship with practical and progressive executive action, probably more than any other individual, shaped the National Archives into the leading institution of its kind in the world.


Grover was born in Garland, Utah, in 1906. After graduating from high school in Salt Lake City in 1924, he worked as a railway clerk to earn money for college. In 1931, he graduated from the University of Utah with a degree in English. While in college he worked part-time for the Associated Press in Salt Lake City and as a reporter for the Deseret News. In 1933, however, he struck out for Washington, D.C. There, with the help of a former college professor, Elbert D. Thomas, who had been elected to the U.S. Senate in 1932, he got a job in the Senate post office, where he met and proposed to the senator's daughter, Esther.

Then, in January 1935, he answered the call for applications for jobs at the National Archives and came on board in July 1935.

Grover rose quickly in the ranks, and in the fall of 1937, Grover became an archivist with the Division of War Department Archives. During the next four years, he spent most of his time arranging and describing the records of the Army, Council of National Defense, and the War Industries Board. He also continued his graduate studies at American University, earning his M.A. in political science in June 1937 and passing the examination for a Ph.D. in public administration in 1940.

On September 16, 1941, he was promoted to assistant chief of his division. This position was short-lived, however, because on October 1, 1941, he was loaned to the Office of the Coordinator of Information (which became the Office of Strategic Services, or OSS) to work as a technical assistant with its Research and Analysis Branch. During his stint with the OSS, to which he was formally transferred in May 1942, he gathered, evaluated, and edited research data for inclusion in a weekly publication on war trends.

Grover entered active military duty on January 5, 1943, as a captain with the U.S. Army's records administration program. He drew on his experience with army records and played an active role in all aspects of the "life cycle" of records, from their creation to final disposition. This concept of "life cycle" of records and the belief in archival involvement in records management were fostered by Philip Brooks and other National Archives staff in the years just before the war. They believed that if archivists helped agencies manage their records, then archivists would find their archival tasks of appraisal, arrangement, description, and preservation would be made easier. Based on this belief, early in 1941, without a clear legislative mandate, the National Archives formally began a records administration program to assist agencies with the management of their records.

Numerous National Archives employees, including Herbert E. Angel, Robert H. Bahmer, Everett O. Alldredge, and Theodore R. Schellenberg, joined Grover during World War II and in the immediate postwar period in assuming records management positions in other government agencies and departments. Most of them subsequently returned to the National Archives, bringing with them not only a wealth of knowledge and experience but also the firm belief that archivists must exercise some influence over current records if the small percentage that would become archives were properly managed. This belief would have a major influence on both Grover and the National Archives in the decades ahead.

By the end of 1943, Grover was a lieutenant colonel and chief of the Records Management Branch, Records Division, Office of the Adjutant General, with responsibility for formulating policies and procedures governing records administration in the War Department and the U.S. Army. During the war he conceived, initiated, and supervised the development of a comprehensive system of records administration in the War Department and the Army, providing for more effective management of current records and for the periodic disposal of valueless papers and the preservation of valuable records. In 1946 Grover also received his Ph.D. in public administration after the completion of his dissertation, "The Records Administration Program of the Department of War." This work was based on a 281-page report Grover had prepared for the military entitled "War Department Records Administration Program." Both trace the history of the Army's records administration program, concentrating on the 1943–1945 period.

Leaving active military service in May 1946, Grover assumed a civilian position created for him, the director of records management for the Management Staff Division, Office of the Adjutant General. During the next 13 months he oversaw the records administration program of the War Department. This was a massive undertaking since the military had accumulated an enormous volume of records during the war.

But it was not just the military that had created large volumes of records during the war; the entire federal government had created many more records than ever before. By war's end the federal government had accumulated 18 million cubic feet of records, about half of which had been created during the war. Archivist Buck was staggered by the volume of records being created and accumulated and wanted the National Archives take a more active role in assisting agencies in managing their records. In 1946 he convinced President Harry S. Truman to issue an executive order directing federal agencies to operate effective programs to manage and dispose of their records, retaining only current records, promptly disposing of valueless records, and transferring those of enduring value to the National Archives.

Buck also persuaded Grover to come back to the National Archives during the summer of 1947 to serve as his deputy and to oversee the records management activities. Buck believed that Grover's records management experience and proven management skills would be an asset to the agency, which at the time had a backlog of work and faced many new challenges.

On August 1, 1947, Grover returned to the National Archives as Assistant Archivist of the United States. Very quickly he found himself managing the National Archives since Buck was plagued by serious illness during the fall of 1947 and took a 10-week tour of Caribbean countries on a cultural relations mission for the Department of State during the spring of 1948.

In the early spring of 1948, Buck notified the White House of his intention to retire and was asked to recommend a successor. On May 12, 1948, President Truman named Grover to that position, and the Republican-controlled Senate confirmed the appointment without opposition on June 2, 1948. The next day, Grover became the third Archivist of the United States.

The new Archivist, according to Representative Edward P. Boland, was "a short, stocky man with a quiet manner and low voice that accompanied a sharp wit and a ready grin." He was always well-groomed, and looked the part of a scholar-administrator. Congressman Albert Thomas, chairman of the House appropriations subcommittee called him the "little schoolteacher doctor."

Unlike his two predecessors, Grover did not have a significant standing in the scholarly world. But he was an experienced archivist and a records management expert—and an experienced administrator, adept at politics with a strong appreciation of the value of public relations. According to the first Administrator of the General Services Administration (GSA), Jess Larson, Grover "was a man highly motivated in the public interest" with a "broad and great concept of his job." But more important, Grover had a great appreciation of history and archives. These traits would serve him well in his dealings with the government, the public, and scholars.

Indeed, Grover faced many challenges when he became Archivist, including increasing the staff, which had been depleted during the war, and addressing the problems associated with the bulk and complexity of the records that had recently been created and accessioned. When Grover became Archivist, the National Archives held over 800,000 cubic feet of records, more than double the volume it had held just before the war. It was also faced with accessioning many more records. Before these records could be of use to researchers, they had to be arranged and described. These were enormous tasks, considering that the staff of the National Archives responsible for archives had dropped from 315 in 1942 to 220 in 1948.

Perhaps Grover's greatest challenge was the organizational placement of the National Archives within the executive branch of government. Congress in July 1947 established the Commission on the Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government, and President Truman named former President Herbert Hoover to chair it. The commission, popularly known by the name of its chairman, was charged by Congress and the President with studying the government's organization and operations in view of making recommendations for greater efficiency and economy. Grover assisted the commission as a consultant on federal records management problems. Although he was successful in having the commission endorse the need for new records management legislation, he was unsuccessful in his attempt to have his agency remain an independent agency. The commission recommended that a general services agency be created and that all "housekeeping" functions of the government, including records management and archives administration, be part of it. This meant the National Archives would be a constituent part of the larger agency.

Congress and the President, notwithstanding Grover's objections, agreed. Thus, the National Archives lost its independent status on July 1, 1949, when it was placed under the newly created GSA. Grover succeeded in avoiding having the National Archives further subordinated to a Bureau of Records Management, and in December 1949, when a records management division was placed under the Archivist's control, the National Archives was renamed the National Archives and Records Service.

Not waiting for the Hoover Commission to make its records management recommendations, Grover focused his agency's attention on the growing records management problem. During the summer of 1948, he had the National Archives survey the agencies to determine how well they were complying with the 1946 executive order. What was learned, and already believed, was the need for more effective records management programs in most agencies. To help the agencies, Grover asked Schellenberg to produce a records disposition handbook and had other staff members offer advice and assistance.

These actions had positive results, but Grover knew that the National Archives had neither sufficient resources nor the legislative mandate to address adequately the records management problems of the government. He therefore began lobbying for a comprehensive records management law and the funds necessary to allow the National Archives to help agencies better manage their records.

Grover played an important role in turning the records-related recommendations of the Hoover Commission into reality by developing the Federal Records Act of 1950, the first charter for a government-wide program of records management. Among other things, this legislation added considerable more authority to GSA, charging it with improving procedures, methods, and standards regarding the creation of records; their maintenance and use when current; and their disposition when they were no longer current. It also authorized the GSA to operate records centers to provide low-cost storage for records.

To ensure agencies created, maintained, and disposed of their records in an efficient manner, the GSA was authorized to inspect agency records management programs and prices. Fortunately for the National Archives, the GSA administrator, realizing Grover's and the National Archives' ability, immediately delegated the responsibilities to Grover.

Under Grover's leadership, a full-fledged program of records management to provide assistance to federal agencies was carried out. A network of federal records centers was also established throughout the country to provide economical storage and quick access to records still needed to conduct business. By the time Grover retired in 1965, these centers held over 6 million cubic feet of records and were providing more than 3 million reference services annually.

Many archivists and scholars believed that the National Archives under Grover was concentrating on records management activities at the expense of archival activities, particularly arranging, describing, and making records available. Grover did not share this belief. "There is and always will be, I hope," Grover stated in the American Archivist in 1951, "much overlapping between current records management and archival activities." He believed that by being actively involved in records management, the National Archives could bring order and intelligence into the management of federal records, "improving their quality as well as decreasing their quantity, and—what is at the heart of the matter—assuring the preservation of those that are worthy of being preserved. We can do this, and we can also save the taxpayers some money, with our records management program."

His Society of American Archivists presidential address in 1954 was devoted to the theme of the partnership between archivists and records managers. In it he stated, "It is folly for archivists even to think of parting company, literally or psychologically, from the newly developed specialists in records management; and no less folly on the records management side than on the archival side. Our numbers are too few; our common interests too important."

"What happens to our archival role as a cultural organization in the process?" Grover asked, referring to the National Archives' growing records management role. His answer was that "the development of the National Archives as a cultural institution, serving not only the world of scholarship but in a broad sense the Government itself . . . can proceed as rapidly as our staff is willing and able to go."

This last statement is not surprising, for Grover saw the archives as an important national resource. Archives must be cared for, he maintained, because they "give cohesion and consistency to the organization and conduct of our national Government; the wealth of hard-won experience and knowledge" and "record our rights and duties and status as citizens, and link us as individuals into the great chain of past and future."

Grover, who saw himself as an "alumnus of the stacks of the National Archives," spent much time attempting to make the archival records of the government more accessible. Externally, he successfully urged Congress to enact legislation in support of archival programs, such as making it more difficult for agencies to impose their own security restrictions on records more than 50 years old. Internally, he stressed the need for more finding aids and microfilm publications.

Grover's archives-related efforts were not just to provide access to scholars. By emphasizing a broader publications and exhibits program, Grover was able to make millions of Americans more aware of the fact that the archives were readily available to all citizens. The archives-related achievement in which Grover took the most pride was bringing into National Archives custody America's Charters of Freedom. A long-standing goal of the first two Archivists had been to acquire the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States from the Library of Congress. The National Archives Rotunda had been especially built to enshrine them, along with the Bill of Rights. Grover saw this dream come true in 1952, after successful negotiations with the Librarian of Congress, to whom he wrote: "Jefferson wanted on his tombstone that he wrote the Declaration. I want on mine that I saw it safely enshrined in the Archives of the United States."

Refer to Caption Archivist Grover, with a group of deputy regional directors for records management in June 1952. (Record Group 64, 64-NA-1-278)

Besides taking great interest in the government's archives, Grover also took a great personal interest in the papers of the Presidents and dealt personally with five Presidents in regard to their papers. He took advantage of every opportunity to foster the presidential library system, which was operated by the National Archives to administer the papers and artifacts of all Presidents since Herbert Hoover. In concluding his testimony in support of the Presidential Libraries Act of 1955, which firmly established the presidential library system, he stated that the proposed legislation "provides a system for gradually expanding the archival facilities of the United States at the least expense to the Federal Government and with the greatest benefits nationally to scholarship."

While devoting much attention to the federal government's records and archives programs, Grover did not neglect his other official responsibilities. He spent much time working in his capacity as the chairman of the National Historical Publications Commission (NHPC). In that capacity he played a major role in bringing it out of a dormant state and encouraging the publication of the source materials of American history. Congress in establishing the National Archives in 1934 also created the NHPC to foster publication of historical works. The commission accomplished little during its initial years and fell into inactivity during the war. Legislation in 1950 enlarged the mandate of the commission in its efforts to help federal, state, and local agencies and nongovernmental institutions, societies, and individuals in collecting and preserving, and when the NHPC deemed such action to be desirable, in editing and publishing papers of outstanding citizens of the United States and such other documents as many be important for an understanding and appreciation of the history of the United States. In 1950 he stated that he hoped the NHPC "will play a much more significant part in our affairs than it has in the past." With more than a decade of accomplishments, but with the realization that much work could still be done, Grover, in 1964, obtained legislation enlarging the role of the NHPC in supporting the collecting, describing, preserving, and compiling and publishing of documentary sources significant to the history the United States.

Congress in 1935 established a Federal Register Division in the National Archives to publish government rules, regulations, executive orders, and other government documents. As the chairman of the Administrative Committee of the Federal Register, Grover was responsible for increasing the effectiveness of Federal Register publications and for broadening its scope, including the launching of the Public Papers of the Presidents and the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents. These publications included news conference transcripts, messages, speeches, and other presidential materials.

Besides devoting considerable time to National Archives activities, Grover also gave much time and attention to professional activities and contacts outside his agency. He was called on countless times for advice from state and local archival and historical agencies. Not only did he provide the advice, but he also gave many talks and wrote several articles directed toward non-federal archival and records management audiences. He also took an active role in the affairs of the Society of American Archivists. He served as its president (1953–1954), spoke at many of its meetings, and allowed the National Archives to partially underwrite and the staff to edit its journal, The American Archivist.

Grover was most interested in maintaining good relations with the scholarly community. He wanted archivists to remain in close contact with historians, who had been instrumental in getting the National Archives established. "As the archival profession develops its own body of knowledge, qualifications and responsibilities, it must," he urged, "increase—not lessen—the sources of contact with the historical profession and other scholarly groups. There is no ingrate like the child who spurns his parent—or, for that matter, the parent who spurns his child. The offspring may get older, but the family resemblance is still there; and, we hope, the family spirit."

His relations with both the archival and historical worlds paid their dividends, in many ways, including keeping Grover in office. When Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected President, there was a fear in the archival and academic worlds that Grover would be replaced—and worse still—by a nonarchivist. Both archivists and historians rallied to his support and whatever threats to Grover existed vanished. This action firmly established the precedent that a change of Presidents should not mean the automatic removal of a professionally qualified Archivist of the United States.

Largely as the result of Grover's vision and leadership, the National Archives became a multifaceted operation of immeasurable benefit to the government and to the individuals it served. Programs initiated under his adept stewardship contributed greatly to stimulating interest in American history as reflected in the nation's official archives. His contributions to scholarship and the entire world of inquiry by developing, organizing, and publishing the archives of the United States and by conceiving and effectively establishing a government-wide program for records management were well known and appreciated. He received the Distinguished Service Award of the General Services Administration in 1959 and the Career Service Award from the National Civil Service League in 1962.

Despite his and his agency's success, Grover and the National Archives failed to achieve many things they would have liked to. The records management and disposition programs, because of limited staff, were not able to provide all the advice, assistance, and training it would liked to and millions of cubic of feet of records were not appraised. The archival staff, which did not reach its 1942 peak of 315 employees again until 1959, was not able to keep up with processing and preserving records, nor to provide the quality of reference many researchers expected.

But despite its shortcomings, Grover's National Archives achieved much and contributed greatly to the efficiency and effectiveness of government and to the world of research. Much of the National Archives' success was the result of Grover's ability and leadership.

Grover's ability to accomplish so much was due to four factors. First, he was a good administrator. According to the fifth Archivist of the United States, James B. Rhoads, Grover "was very effective in dealing with important people on a one-to-one basis." "He had," Rhoads wrote, "a superb and well-developed sense of timing." "That, I think," Rhoads wrote, "was perhaps his greatest strength as an administrator and institution builder." Fortunately, Grover had many first-rate subordinates to manage, and he managed them well, delegating effectively and supporting them with confidence. According to one subordinate, he "inspired not by oratory or by pompous charges but by earnest expression and conviction of feasibility."

Grover believed in a minimum of administrative bureaucracy. "In the development of scientific and scholarly work," he stated, "the emphasis must be on the individual—his initiative, competence, productiveness, and reputation in his field." Therefore, he believed "that a minimum harassment with internal administrative paper-work is important." He added, "ever since I have known them, the professional record-keeping units of the National Archives have been encumbered with too much 'administration.' We are trying to cut it down, within the inevitable limits set by program and budgetary planning and supervision."

The second reason Grover was successful was that he got along well with people, both outside and inside the agency. "He was more than a good administrator;" Brooks wrote, "he was a man of high principles and personal sensibility. Always fair-minded, he expressed firm belief in equal opportunity for all in his official actions and in his personal life. From those who worked under his supervision he expected devotion to their jobs, diligence, clarity of thought and expression, and thorough honesty." "He was," according to Brooks, "severe about these obligations when necessary but never unkind. His earnest concern about the work to be done was always tempered by a friendly manner, his writings and statements by a genial wit."

There are many examples of this wit. Perhaps the best example was his correspondence with Luther Evans, Librarian of Congress, during the 1952 negotiations over the transfer of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution to the National Archives. Evans sent Grover a limerick:

There once was an agency rich
Whose head had a terrible itch
To take all records over.
His name it was Grover,
A two-fisted son-of-a-bitch.

In a similar vein Grover responded:

I have read your effusions
I bleed with remorse
No further contusions
Will come from this source.
But to label us "rich"
Is outright deception.
Better limit the pitch
To unimmaculate conception.

The third factor contributing to Grover's success was his belief in the important mission of archivists. He "chose to be an archivist," Philip Brooks wrote, "and always had faith in the profession." "There is," Grover wrote, "no more prosaic occupation, day-by-day, than that of archivist; and no occupation, generation-by-generation, with a more dramatic task." In his retirement letter to the National Archives employees' association, he spoke on archivists' varied missions: "The written word endures—at least such portions of the word as we archivists decide are worth preserving! It is a worrisome and responsible task, but I can't think of a nobler one in this rather uncivilized era we find ourselves."

The Archivist's Code

Archivist Grover's Archivist's Code.

He believed in the importance of training archivists and gave much attention to it. He believed in basics and professionalism. "It is not sufficient," he stated in a 1953 address, "that he consider himself a technician maneuvering empty vessels on a shelf, no matter how dexterous his technique, how valuable and sound his principles of arrangement. The vessels are full. An archivist who doesn't have some inkling of the significance of their contents is, in my book, not worth his salt. In the National Archives, the best foundation on which to stand in order to acquire such an inkling is still the study of American history and government." It was because of his concern about the important mission and responsibilities of archivists that Grover, with the assistance of the National Archives staff, wrote the "The Archivist's Code," copies of which can be found today in many archival institutions and on the walls of many offices in the National Archives.

The fourth factor leading to success was Grover's ability to balance his work and private life, often a difficult task for those in top management positions. Grover devoted much attention to his family. He enjoyed a wide variety of diversions, including swimming, boating, fishing, and golf, and was fond of thoroughbred horseracing and of traveling. He was an avid reader and music lover and played the clarinet.

Running a large federal agency can eventually drain an individual's strength. Grover was no exception. Internal bureaucratic battles, particularly those relating to dividing the resources among different parts of his agency, must have sapped much of his strength. This was particularly true of his difficulties with Theodore R. Schellenberg. Schellenberg, probably American's most important archival theorist, had joined the National Archives at the same time as Grover. But over the years, the two engaged in numerous disputes over Archives issues; finally on January 1, 1962, Grover created an Office of Records Appraisal and placed Schellenberg in charge of it.

If problems with Schellenberg were not enough, Grover increasingly had difficulty with the GSA administrators. By the early 1960s the battles with GSA on budget and other matters prompted Grover to consider retirement. Such thoughts increased as he became increasingly irritated with GSA officials because of their restrictions on his decision-making and the inadequate funding the National Archives received.

Taking stock of the situation in 1965, he concluded that if the National Archives was to regain its image and achieve its place as one of the great cultural institutions of America, it should once again be an independent agency. His attempts to persuade the GSA administrator on this point were unsuccessful. He was hesitant to speak out publicly about independence because he believed that his choice as successor would not be appointed once he retired. So he decided that in retirement, as well as in the process of retiring, he could call for NARS independence from the GSA, but in such a way as not to antagonize the GSA.

On November 2, 1965, Grover sent a letter to President Lyndon Johnson indicating his intention to retire and recommending his longtime deputy, Robert Bahmer, to be his successor. He also recommended the re-creation of the National Archives as an independent agency. "While my own leaving is entirely voluntary," he informed the President, "and is based partly I suppose on a belief that a man in an administrative position can too easily overstay his time, my enthusiastic support of your Administration, your Library, and the archives of the United States will remain unabated." Four days later he retired, with nearly 33 years of government service. Noting his retirement, an editorial in the Washington Post traced Grover's many contributions to America and observed that he "had elevated his office, inspired his profession, won the esteem of historians, and earned the gratitude of his country. We Salute him and wish him well."

True to his word to President Johnson, Grover in retirement continued his service and interest in the nation's archival establishment, servng as a consultant to his successor and to the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library. He died at his home in Silver Spring, Maryland, on June 8, 1970.


Greg Bradsher, an archivist at the National Archives and Records Administration, specializes in World War II intelligence, looted assets, and war crimes. His previous contributions to Prologue have included articles on the Freedom Train (Winter 1985); the discovery of Nazi gold in the Merkers Mine (Spring 1999); the story of Fritz Kolbe, 1900–1943 (Spring 2002); Japan's secret 'Z Plan' in 1944 (Fall 2005); and Founding Father and Vice President Elbridge Gerry (Spring 2006).


Note on Sources

The primary sources for this article are the Wayne C. Grover Private Papers (GROVR), National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD; Grover's essays in various issues of American Archivist; and Philip C. Brooks, "In Memoriam: Wayne C. Grover 1906–1970," American Archivist 33 (July 1970). For more information on Grover's career with the National Archives, see Donald McCoy, The National Archives: America's Ministry of Documents, 1934–1968 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1978); H. G. Jones, The Records of a Nation: Their Management, Preservation, and Use, with an introduction by Wayne C. Grover (New York, Atheneum, 1969); James Gregory Bradsher, "The National Archives: Serving Government, the Public, and Scholarship, 1950–1965," in Guardian of Heritage: Essays on the History of the National Archives, ed. Timothy Walch (Washington, DC: National Archives Trust Fund Board, 1985), pp. 51–63.

Mrs. Wayne Grover graciously provided information to the author about her husband's activities in the 1933–1935 period. The author's own correspondence with Robert H. Bahmer [December 4, 1986] and James B. Rhoads [November 10, 1986] yielded first-person recollections of Grover.

Representative Edward P. Boland's tribute to Grover appeared in the Congressional Record of June 23, 1970. GSA Administrator Jess Larson's comments on Grover were made during the March 4, 1982, Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations, Oversight of the National Archives and Records Service, 97th Cong., 2nd sess., p. 152.

Grover's 1952 correspondence with Librarian of Congress Luther Evans—his comment about what he wanted inscribed on his tombstone and their exchange of poems—appear in Milton O. Gustafson, "The Empty Shrine: The Transfer of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution to the National Archives," American Archivist 39 (July 1976): 285.

 

Articles published in Prologue do not necessarily represent the views of NARA or of any other agency of the United States Government.
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