Last week I had great pleasure doing several hours of research in the National Archives Building in Washington, DC. My research took me into specialized War of 1812 and Civil War records that are not digitized – and that are not on anyone’s radar to digitize anytime soon – as there are over 11 billion textual pages that have not yet been digitized and there must be priorities for a gargantuan task like that.
Yesterday, October 1, 2025, the federal government “shut down” and will remain shut down until the President and Congress agree to funding for government agencies for Fiscal Year 2026, which began on October 1. This is the 11th time since 1980 that a shutdown involved furloughs of federal employees. This is no way to run a modern first world country. We can do better.
During a “shutdown” only so-called “essential” employees are allowed and required to work. All others are deemed “nonessential” for the purposes of the shutdown.
What does a shutdown mean for the National Archives and Records Administration? From my perspective, it means that there are only a FEW people who are allowed and required to work: (1) security personnel who maintain the security of the buildings, (2) building personnel who maintain and monitor HVAC and similar systems, and (3) limited numbers of senior management personnel. Those are the types of people deemed “essential.” Obviously, those persons are not doing archival work for you. They are not answering your emails, retrieving records, staffing the research rooms, preparing records for digitization, or digitizing records. Nope, they’re just “keeping the lights” on, so to speak.
Let’s be real. All the people who are deemed “nonessential” for the purposes of the shutdown are, in fact, absolutely essential to the mission of NARA. They are the ones who do the real archival work serving the American people, from maintaining and enhancing computer systems, adding information (descriptions) and digital images into the National Archives Catalog, answering your questions, retrieving (later refiling) records from storage areas so that researchers can view them in research rooms, staffing research rooms, performing document conservation (repairs), creating museum exhibits, and a myriad of other necessary tasks. These employees are dedicated, hard-working people that would rather be at the office working for you than sitting at home waiting for the “shutdown” to end.
The shutdown means that:
(1) No one can visit the Charters of Freedom – Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights – and other exhibits in the National Archives Museum.
(2) No one can do research in person at the National Archives Building in Washington DC, the National Archives at College Park (Maryland), or National Archives field archives at Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Fort Worth, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Riverside (California), San Francisco, Seattle, or Saint Louis.
(3) No one can visit the presidential museums of the modern presidents – Hoover, Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, G. H. W. Bush, Clinton, or G. W. Bush.
(4) No one can do research at the presidential libraries of the modern presidents – Hoover, Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, G. H. W. Bush, Clinton, G. W. Bush, or request access to undigitized records from the digital presidential libraries of Obama, Trump, or Biden.
(5) Your questions – sent by email, snail mail, telephone, or fax – will not be answered until the shutdown is over.
The full staff of the National Archives and Records Administration provides essential services to the American people. In a democracy, records belong to the people, and for more than 90 years, NARA has preserved and provided access to the records of the federal government of the United States of America. Records help us claim our rights and entitlements, hold our elected officials accountable for their actions, and document our history as a nation. In short, NARA ensures continuing access to the essential documentation of the rights of American citizens and the actions of their government. NARA holds in trust for the public the records of ordinary citizens—for example, military records of the brave men and women who have fought for our country, naturalization records of the immigrants whose dreams have shaped our nation, and even the canceled check from the purchase of Alaska. Learn more at “About the National Archives of the United States.”
The American people deserve to have a fully-funded, fully-staffed National Archives and Records Administration. Learn more at fundNARA.com and join the conversation at the webinar, “Fund America’s Stories: Advocacy and the National Archives” on Tuesday, October 7, 2025, at 3 pm ET.
