Surveillance act which authorizes the Intelligence Community to target the internet and phone communications of nonu. S. Persons located outside the u. S. Live coverage begins at 4 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan3. You can also watch online at cspan. Org or listen with the free cspan radio app. Since july of 2017, the National Archives has released thousands of documents related to the john f. Kennedy assassination. Many of these documents had been withheld by the cia and fbi for alleged National Security reasons. The document releases are mandated by the president john f. Kennedy assassination records collect act of 1982 and will continue into 2018, so some of the documents contain redactions. Up next on american artifacts from 2014, our visit to the National Archives to learn about the assassination records and to see some of the iconic artifacts such as Lee Harvey Oswalds wiefrl, the socalled magic bullet and the original. 8 millimeter film. Our guide is Martha Wagner murphy who manages the staff and maintains the records. The president john f. Kennedy assassination records collection was created because of the president john f. Kennedy assassination records collection act of 1982. A short history. Since the time of the assassination, there have been numerous official investigations starting with the Warren Commission and then some congressional investigations. Church Committee Looked into it, pike committee, and then house reckoning on assassination. In the early 90s, there was a movie that came out from oliver stone. At the end of that movie, he made a point of saying that all of the records had not been made available. Mr. Chairman, members of the subcommittee, my name is oliver stone. And i assure you, it is with pleasure and some pride that i appear before this subcommittee today to urge the passage of house joint resolution 454. Quote, to provide for the expeditious disclosure of records relevant to the assassination president john f. Kennedy. So the purpose of the act was to make sure that all of the records that were considered assassination related were collected, sent to the National Archives and to the greatest extent possible. There was an independent agency created, it was temporary. The job was to make sure that the agencies were complying with this. And also to determine, make sure that the records were open to the greatest extent possible. So in response of that act, we created the collection. And the collection has been here at the National Archives ever since. We estimate that theres about 5 million textual pages. So pieces of paper. We also have photographs and some audio recordings and the like. If the public or researchers want access to these items, how does that work . For most of the textual records, all they need to do is come here. And ask to have access. There are various finding aids available on our website, www. Archives. Gov. The National Archives has created a database of items released after 92 in response to the act, which actually the database entries were created by the agencies that were Still Holding the records, the National Archives creating the database itself, and then all of that data was transferred here and we have made that available to the public, and so you can search on an item level the records that are in the collection. And if you see something that you would like to see, you can come here, ask to see it on our Business Hours when were available. The box will be pulled from our hold area, and made available in our Research Room here at the National Archives in college park. Okay, so here we have three items which you requested. Unlike the physical artifacts, we were able to accommodate you and make these available to you because these are basically textual documents. Theyre not physical artifacts of the collection. So the first item that you requested was Commission Exhibit 381a, which is this item right here. This is a bus transfer, which was found in the pocket of Lee Harvey Oswald after he was arrested. And was obtained by the Dallas Police, eventually given over to the fbi, and became a Commission Exhibit of the Warren Commission. The second item that you requested is Lee Harvey Oswalds address book. So this is a custom made container made by our conservation staff. And again, this is acid free. This is mylar, and you have this handy little lift so that you can get it out of its well without having to pull on it. You can see theres a Commission Exhibit number on there, Commission Exhibit 18. And it has all of his handwritten items, including a map, addresses, and telephone numbers. That you would expect. The final item is a map of mexico city. Oswald made a trip to mexico city prior to the assassination. And brought this map home. This was acquired by Dallas Police and the fbi, and eventually the Warren Commission as well. This side of the map, i have a sort of smaller map with tourists spots, which are identified on the side. You can tell certain things were circled. It was like that when we received it. Obviously, we wouldnt add anything like that. The back side is a larger map. Again, with several items circled. I have found in secondary sources, people have written that some of the items that are circled, and i assume its on this side, were actually the embassies of cuba and the ussr, but i have not found the primary documentati documentation, thats probably in the records that would document specifically what is circled on here. Of course, the context for these all documented well in the Warren Commission reports. In order for something to become a Commission Exhibit, it would have been discussed in one of the testimony that was taken by the Warren Commission or would have been referenced in the Warren Commission report. So 50 years later, are there still classified items, and how does the declassification process work . That was taken care of in the act itself. So the records review board had a unique power. They had the capability of overruling the agencies, even on classification issue. And the only appeal that the agencies had was to the president of the united states. So while the review board was in business, they made a final determination on the records. When the board reviewed these records and applied its balanced judgment, we found little reason to continue to protect these records. In fact, many of them we found really should not have been protected during the 1960s. But we do have to remember the era in which this occurred, an era which National Security concerns were heightened and caused the sealing of all these important files. However, there were a few, theres still some, that remain classified either in part or full. If you read the act, it says that 25 years after the passing of the act, everything must be made available. And so that will be 2017, october of 2017. And so were already gearing up a process to start getting the withdrawn material processed and ready for release. What particular challenges does this collection present to the archives that other collections might not . Well, one of the challenges is that we have a lot of physical artifacts, and by artifacts, i mean things other than paper. We have sort of the contents of the boarding room, where oswald was living. Even things like his flipflops and odd things like that. Here at the National Archives. And its actually fairly unusual, the National Archives does have some other artifacts, but were mostly a paper agency. And because of the huge interest in this, we have numerous people who want to have access to these materials. And so theres always a tension between conservation and access. And so thats probably been our biggest challenge. And the way we have addressed that is by trying to provide as much access as we can through still pictures and film of the most popular artifacts that are in the collection. So that people can see them and have their Research Questions answered without actually looking at the actual physical artifacts. Because every time we have to make an actual item available, we are risking a bit of the conservation of the item. And so thats why for the press, we have provided broll video of the artifacts themselves, which we did prior to the 50th anniversary. So here we are in one of our conservation labs. With one of our conservators, and she is going to show us which is fbi exhibit b1, which is oswalds wallet, including the contents. Im going to answer a question that a lot of people have, which is what is the staining that is on portions of those items. That is from the fingerprint chemical that was used by the fbi to try to obtain fingerprints. It ended up staining the artifact itself. So i know some people think it looks like blood. It is not blood. This would have been in oswalds possession when he was arrested, but not in his possession when he was shot. And here, shes laying out some of the items that were found, which we have encapsulated in mylar. The conservators here at the National Archives. Some of the items that are in the wallet were things like his Social Security card as well as his service notice. A service i. D. , because of course, he was in the marine corps at one time. Also a fair play for Cuba Committee identification card, that was an organization he belonged to. Lets see what else is interesting in here. Other kinds of i. D. Cards, a Public Library card. And so all of these are just the contenlts of a wallet, just like you would have in your own wallet, whatever you have right now. This is something that we wouldnt normally make available to researchers, and thats why we have filmed it. Mostly because of the wallet itself, even more than the contents. There you can see also he had some photographs. The woman in the picture is his wife, marina. And there you can see his marine corps photograph as well. So the next exhibit that our conservator is showing you here is fbi exhibit k51, which was the camera used by mr. Zapruder to take a very famous film of the assassination which probably most people have seen. Its in a case, or we have a case to it. But you can see right there. As you can see, shes putting gloves on. We generally dont use gloves with paper items, but with the artifacts, it is common practice to wear a cotton glove. So we retain the case, but we do not store the camera in a case, and what you can see here is the acid free box that the camera is stored in. And the material thats inside the box to protect it as well. So here you will see that on this label which is on the outside of the box, its a common means we have of identifying the item so that we can keep control of them. Youll see rg 272, that refers to the record group. Thats the record group for the records of the Warren Commission. And our records are arranged primarily here at the National Archives by record groups, which is the organization. These records are just like all the others. We have maintained them in the same manner. So the next item is the tshirt that oswald was wearing when he was shot. Again, it is part of the Warren Commission records. Youll see it says fbi exhibit because the fbi collected it first. And then it was transferred on to the Warren Commission and then eventually to the National Archives. I will say we have had the records of the Warren Commission well before the passing of the jfk act. And those records were about 90 , 98 open prior to the passing of the act. Those records have been open and available here at the National Archives for many years. So we have had these artifacts for a very long time as well. You will sometimes see on some of these artifacts that there are initials. Those initials wer used as a means of documenting the transfer of custody from one organization to another, like Dallas Police on to the fbi, or between individuals within the fbi. And each one of these artifacts you could find textual documentation in our files that would tell you more about the significance of the artifacts youre seeing here. And again, this is the black sweater that oswald was wearing when he was shot. Again, we have our conservators have put these in acidfree boxes with acidfree tissue to preserve them. And any labeling that would have been on the materials when they came to us, we have preserved every artifact of the artifact. So these are all original labels. The National Archives would not have placed these labels on here. And finally, this is the shirt that oswald was wearing when he was shot. Of course, he was shot when he was in the custody of the Dallas Police, being moved from one place to another. And it was being filmed, so it was unusual. There was a lot of press available. The conservators here at the National Archives have experience in pretty much everything we need them to, but if necessary, they certainly will reach out to an expert. But they have all been their education, they have been trained to deal with multiple types of materials. And this item is Commission Exhibit 126. And it was a blue bag that was found in oswalds effects. It was picked up at his residence on north beckley street by Dallas Police officers. And so this was a tag that was affixed by them. So it says charge murder there. Right. And the thing to remember about the assassination, the time that kennedy was assassinated, it was not a federal crime to kill the president. And so had he gone on trial, he would have gone on trial for murder in texas. And so the Dallas Police were investigating that. So does the archives have to work had to work with the Dallas Police . No, because all these items were transferred to the fbi and then to the Warren Commission, who would have given it to the Commission Exhibit number, 126, and then finally, it came to the National Archives, but it was within the custody of the u. S. Federal government prior to transfer to us, because of course, National Archives has the records of the u. S. Federal government. We would not have the records of the Dallas Police, had they not transferred into that custody. This is the famous rifle, which oswald used to assassinate the president. You can see the custom box that was created by the National Archives conservation staff. Again, it has its own Commission Exhibit number. Which is Commission Exhibit 139. And we consider it part of the records of the Warren Commission. Because they were the organization who had custody last prior to transfer. So the next item is this blanket, and this is the blanket that was found in the house of ruth payne, and ruth payne was the woman with whom oswalds wife and daughter were staying at the time. And oswald had stored some of his effects, i believe, in their garage. And so it is believed he actually had wrapped the rifle in this blanket while it was in ms. Paynes garage and it was found after the assassination. Next were going to look at oswalds revolver. So after the president was assassinated, there was also a Police Officer who was killed. And he was killed by oswald. Using this revolver. And the interesting thing that i think a lot of people dont know is that oswald was initially arrested for the murder of officer tibbets. Not for the assassination of president kennedy, and it was only when he was in Police Custody that they put together that they were looking for someone who was missing from the texas gold book depository whose name was Lee Harvey Oswald, and oh, we already have him in custody because they had him in custody for the killing of tibbets. So this revolver is significant for several reasons. And this is the shirt that he was wearing when he was arrested. And here youll see our conservator handling it very carefully. So shes going to, i think, spend a little time and try to put it up on the form so you can see what it looks like. One of the interesting things about the shirt is that the fbi was able to find a piece of the fabric from the shirt actually attached to the rifle itself. And the rifle was found at the Texas School Book depository. So its just another piece of evidence that was used to connect oswald to the assassination. There you can see some initi