Find out where the cspan cities tour is going next online. You are watching American History tv, all weekend, every weekend on cspan 3. Next, on American History tv, university of pennsylvania history professor, kathy peiss examines the evolution of library and Information Science during world war ii. She argues what she says is an outline of a shift in the 1940s from librarians being neglected to being regarded as key figures. Its a little under 90 minutes. In recent years, scholars and the general public have learned about the exploits of american curators and Museum Officials in world war ii whos mission was to save the endangered art treasures in europe. I would note the work of the nicholas, robert, remarkable efforts to recover the Monuments Foundation and of course the 2014 George Clooney film. I should add monuments women, are compelling togethers. They are straight celebrated for the role they played in wartime. Absent from this story of individual heroism is any analysis and assessment of the way that culture and knowledge mattered in world war ii. How winning the war became a lion upon the accumulation of reliance upon the accumulation of knowledge and included a commitment for the protection of culture. How the objectives of the american government, the military and cultural institutions intertwined. How practices and policies in this endeavor shifted with the shifting fortunes of war. They had long term effects. Without diminishing the efforts of any individuals involved, i aim to address these larger historical issues. In addition, my work shifts from the focus on art, which is typically unique and rare in terms of Cultural Heritage to the world ever print culture. Of books and texts that serves many purposes. We will see and allied mission under the monument to preserve book collections. Most was stolen from jewish institutions and individuals. That mission did not exist in isolation. Indeed, it was beholden wartime missions. Including intelligence gathering, policies and a post war assertion of American Intellectual readership. The american book men and most of them were men, librarians, experts, collectors and the like were involved in a set of actions that involved mass acquisitions. These were collecting megses that brought the world of text and world of war into a new and intimate relationship. World war ii produced an Unusual Alliance between American Intellectual and government officials policymakers and the military. I wanted to start by saying, this was not simply a product of wartime mobilization. It was the consequence of longer term trends beginning in the new deal. The administration defined a new interest in cultural matters. Some of them related to books and documents. For example, programs like the historical Record Survey and the federal writers project and a new institution such as the National Archives, which was founded in 1934. In addition, the library of congress became a sight of a robust cultural and governmental alliance with fdrs unusual appointment of poet and playwright to librarian in 1939. He raised the stakes for librarians. He called on them to be not only custodians of culture but to be defenders of freedom. Ill quote him here. In such a time as ours when wars are made against the expert and its works, the keeping of these records is a warfare. The keepers whether they wish cannot be neutral. Thats 1940. Americans awareness of the political of books and libraries had already been raised by protests for nazi book burnings. When the u. S. Entered the war, the defensive books became a symbol of the freedom to speak, write and read. It was continue underscored in book collection drive and the annual remembrance of book burning led by the opposite war information. You can see several of their posters there and council of books in wartime. A striking sign of this alliance between academic and cultural leaders and the government maybe seen on two initiatives. One with a very long name. That im not going to give you. It was known as the Roberts Commission. It was charged with finding ways to protect and salvage art and other historical treasures in war zones. The armies monument fine arts and archives unit is known as the monument men who were charged executing this policy. Its important to note their mandate barely included books and text records. At the meetings of the roberts theission, one spoke of failure to protect them. He said theres nothing in the field of bookses that corresponds to the work being done in the field of art. By the end of the war, there were a small number of librarians active in europe. One of them, named sergeant child repeatedly griped about , the dominance of art boys and the builders. [laughter] i know this is pg rated. To be sure, the american policy towards Cultural Resources did protect a number of libraries and historical buildings holding the collection. The monument in the field have frequent emphasis of looting and destruction. Including the burning of books for heat. Using rare manuscripts to wrap food. It wasnt a policy towards the preservation of Cultural Heritage that was most important in the wartime handling of books, text and documents. At least not in the first instance. Rather it was the importance of their content in an era when new ideas about information were coming to the form. Essentially, in early information turn or information age. That had a profound impact on wartime thinking before the war, there was early version of Information Science known as documentation which gained adherence in research and Specialized Library and academia and governance. They were interested in wider access to Library Material and the uses of new technology. Its all very similar today except theyre new technology was microfilm. Not so new. The information had a broader usage as well. It referred to communication, propaganda and intelligence. In this era, many social scientists and Public Opinion researchers have come together in a new loosely defined field of Mass Communications research. Much of it directed at the potential propaganda to manipulate the Public Opinion and undermine liberal democracy. The interest in this rose in world war i with the Creel Committee and controversies over the committee, and grew in the 1920s and 1930s sale with the rise of radio. In 1939 the Rockefeller Foundation ran a secret seminar and protecting americans from nazi and soviet propaganda. Soon, there was a host of new research projects, including the researcharch war project. Now, in the summer of 1941, president roosevelt, many of you know this story, appointed william to be coordinator of information. Thats a really interesting title. I want to underscore it, coordinator of information. Intended to manage american intelligence, foreign propaganda and domestic encounter intelligence. Ultimately the c. O. I. Will be split into two divisions. Archibald, as librarian of congress was involved. He established information for research and analysis of foreign intelligence. That intertwined with operations as coordinator of information. Strangely enough, the origins of americas vast intelligence might be addressed to morning meetings in the summer of 1941. Between this unlikely pair, archibald and bill donovan. On the cool porch of in excitement of great things to come. Even before the United States declared war then, an effort to acquire information initiated. The nature of this intelligence was not sending five human beings into an Enemy Territory in the first instance. It was really to deploy the scholarship of the day. Looking at foreign newspapers, scientific periodicals and other kinds of published work. What today is called open sources. These could be analyzed using the tools of scholarship. With the International Book trade interrupted by war, means of acquisition had to be found and to do that, a committee was set up through the o. S. F. And c. O. I. I will give you the long name once, i will hear call it i. D. C. I was formed in december of 1941 chaired by William Langer at harvard. He hired a librarian name Frederick Kilgore who at the time was a 28yearold who worked in the Harvard Library. It got off to a slow start in four months, it failed acquire a single piece of information. They were beginning to get worried. They turned to traveling scholars. They asked embassies to microfilm newspapers. They formed a liaison with the british information. They sent eugene power who was a very energetic micro film booster. He was recruited to set up an operation in london working with the ministry of information and the British Library association. This association had received funds from rockefeller to microfilm enemy periodical. Now this effort was ramped up. Worked out plan to receive materials from the British Foreign offices and other Government Agencies and the americans would microfilm them for the american and British Intelligence. By the end of april 1942, much to everyones relief, the first 2000 feet of microfilm arrived in washington. By this time plans were set in motion to send a group of librarian, micro photographers and epidemic to neutral cities around the world. The most famous of these people is john fair banks. Who was the founder of studies here in the United States. My own connections to this story and the route by which i got into this Massive Research project is that, a relative of mine was also ones of these agents sent to acquire intelligence material this time. Unfortunately, i dont have many pictures because it was intelligence. [laughter] ill tell you about the operation. The stockholm operation was headed by the only book woman among the group. I dont have a single photograph of her except her College Yearbook photo. She received a ph. D. From the university of chicago in 1930. Like many women of her era, she was denied an academic career. Instead, she carried on her own research while employed by senior faculty at the university of chicago. She was sent abroad and she was isnt there to photograph manuscripts for their scholarships. At the vatican library, 1934, she began to observe historians. Filming their Research Materials with miniature cameras. She trained herself to do the same. The war intervened and as it did, you can trace her through europe, canceling trips through denmark. She was in the state library when war was declared in an area that she was held. She made a trip before the german marched into paris. Then fled to lisben. A year and a half later, she was sent abroad again. This time to stockholm to microphone enemy publications for the i. D. C. She was worked closely with British Intelligence but also developed her own initiatives. She went to local book sellers. She approached sympathetic academics and Government Agencies and librarians. She developed her own covert set of contacts. She knew people in the clandestine prest. She worked with the british to smuggle technical manuals from germany into sweden. There are stories that she did somewhat more robust forms of secret intelligence as well. Which i could not confirm. She was undoubtedly the most successful agent in the americans worldwide effort to acquire foreign publication. The other operation was in li sben with this highly developed economy. The dictatorship of antonio sal theren see that a are hot newspapers from the , daily express. Despite the difficulties of navigating the dictatorship of lisbon, portugal book dealers , found way to import european publications and keep their shelves stocked. Many educated portuguese and travelers haunted the bookstores and newsstands of the cities. Among them were a group of american librarians. One who had been a librarian at harvard. Ralph they made the round to bookstores, place subscriptions, took buyin trips and appealed to locals who were sympathetic to the allies. The bookstore there at the bottom of portugal, had the owners who were very sympathetic to the allies conduct some secret assignments for them including microfilm secret documents from the government. The i. D. C. Was only able to ship about 165 pounds of material by air a month on the panam clipper. This was not much. Microfilm was essential in reducing the volume and bulk what they acquired. Their camera was often going day or night. Im going to put this on a blank slide for a little bit of time. Its very difficult to assess the value of this intelligence. Despite the i. D. Cs claim. Theyre operational importance was very limited. You compare to signal intelligence or code breaking. There was no comparison at all. Yet, many of the academics and government officials in the war effort perceive this material to be highly value. They invested considerable resources in digging them out. Number of books shipped, microfilm reel shot. There seems to be a progress on the intelligence front that was still pretty murky. Printed text, also appeared to these people to be stable and credible. Especially the well educated who would favor print over spoken word. The head of american swem american intelligence found leads by reading the daily press. You could find new weaponry, industrial production. They were even advised to read the Society Columns because that inadvertently reveal the location of regimen. This is to quote the oss, which was always optimistic, columns could provide clues that secret agents could exploit. By the end of 1942 over one million pages of such materials had been duplicated and distributed to Government Agencies. Theres much more to this than simply reading microfilm. Reading microfilm will only get you so far. [laughter] it will get you a headache within a half an hour. Librarians of the o. S. F. Needed to transform the familiar form of books serials into a genre. In a way these librarians understood themselves. Initially Frederick Kilgore understood the job from the Library Point of view. Not too much from the point of view of the information in publication. Librarians were oriented and periodical, properly catalog and indexed by author title and subject. Responsibility for identifying the content of his publications rested with the reader. Indeed, the i. D. C. Initially thought there would be Government Agencies who would tell them we need this particular issue of a magazine. So go find it. Thats how they would proceed. In the press of war demands and the best number of microfilm reels that arrived in washington, kilgore came to understand that information, not the publications themselves was the i. D. C. s products. They needed to extract the useful information that contain them. And to make it identifiable to the officials with many different interests. They had to find way to guide users to what they required even to information they didnt know they needed. They polled the wartime agency asking for keywords. They created a subject index of newspapers and periodicals that were tailors to those needs. This digest became a dilly publication with 300 copies directed to government distributed to Government Agencies. When users found an item of interest they can ask for an , abstract and full text translation. About four percent of all the materials, were produced in the form of abstracts and the i. D. C. Has a capacity to translate 42 languages including 16 of them quickly. As you can imagine in this era before computers, theyre personnel role expanded exponentially. With these efforts, they just grew hiring an army of translators and indexers. Many of them who had the skills and women. Ultimately this acquisition mission contributed to the development of Information Science and its uses for intelligence as an instrument of the american state. The embrace of technologies of document reproduction, the disassembly and transformation of physical text. This did not originate with the war. Many of the librarians associated with this effort went on to become post war pioneers of library information, technology and management. Most notably Frederick Kilgore himself who founded o. C. L. C. In 1971. The Worlds Largest online database. The last printed catalog cards were printed last week. The end of an era. The collecting mission of librarians, scholars and book men and women continued through the war. It changed after dday in june of 1944. They acted as book buyers and collectors, ordering subscriptions and etcetera. Members of collecting teams that were known as tforces, which followed behind the allied armies as they advanced, scouring targets for operational or strategic information. They began to wear military uniforms and served specialist who were able to select records often on the fly. This unlikely was for many of role foras an unlikely many of them. I will describe one of these collectors. I dont have a picture of them. His name was ross phinney. A Smith College music professor who volunteered to do acquisition work. He learned slightly different methods of acquiring publications. He interrogated informant, he followed suspicious people. He found massive quantities of printed materials which he confiscated. I ne