See Arthur Hecht et al., comps., rev. by Forrest R. Holdcamper, Preliminary Inventory of the Records of the Post Office Department, PI 168 (1967). Microfilm Publications: Letters Sent by the Postmaster General, 1789-1836, M601, 50 rolls, DP; The Territorial Papers of the United States: The Territory of Wisconsin, 1836-1848, M236, 122 rolls; and Journal of Hugh Finlay, 1773-74, and General Postoffice Ledger-“Ledger of Benjamin Franklin," 1776-78, T268, 1 roll. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR RECORDS OF THE OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR (RECORD GROUP 48) The Department of the Interior was established by an act of March 3, 1849, which provided that the Secretary of the Interior should assume powers previously exercised by the Secretary of War over the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, by the Secretary of the Treasury over the General Land Office, by the Secretaries of War and the Navy over the Commissioner of Pensions, by the Secretary of State over the Commissioner of Patents, and by the President over the Commissioner of Public Buildings. Jurisdiction over census taking, marshals and court officers, Federal buildings and grounds throughout the United States, and charitable and penal institutions in the District of Columbia was also placed in the Department. Agencies that have since been transferred from the Department include the Patent Office, Pension Office (Veterans Administration), Census Bureau, Office of Education, Office of the Commissioner of Railroads, Capitol Buildings and Grounds, Freedmen's Hospital, St. Elizabeth's Hospital, the Columbia Institution for the Deaf (Gallaudet College), and Howard University. Separate record groups have been established for the records of many operating units of the Department. There are 4,296 cubic feet of records dated between ca. 1833 and 1964 in this record group. RECORDS OF THE DIVISION OF APPOINTMENTS. 1849-1908. 580 lin. ft. This Division had charge of those Department personnel matters central ized in the Secretary's office. The records include reports to the Congress and the Secretary; incoming letters, with registers and indexes, 1849-1907; letters sent; formal communications to the Civil Service Commission; Presidential and Departmental appointment papers; and records relating to political charges against employees and files of boards of inquiry. There are also orders and circulars, 1852-1908, personnel statistics, information on appointment methods, and examinations for clerks. RECORDS OF THE DIVISION OF FINANCE. 1849-1935. 158 lin. ft. The Finance Division or Disbursing Office was established in 1853, and some of the Secretary's records for earlier years have been kept with those of the Division. Most records are those of the disbursing clerk, who from 1871 to 1883 was Chief of the Disbursement Division and from 1883 to 1921 Chief of the Division of Finance. Records include correspondence, chiefly 1857-1910, with indexes and registers of letters sent and received, and letters sent with indexes, 1849-1907, appropriation ledgers, 18531923, cashbooks, 1853-1935, journals, 1879-99, and chief disbursing clerks' certificates of settlement of accounts, 191128. RECORDS OF THE OFFICE OF An act of 1871 authorized an Assistant Attorney General to advise the Secretary of the Interior while remaining an official of the Department of Justice. His incomplete files include letters sent, 1890-1907; letters received, 1895-1903; briefs, exhibits, and digests of court cases, 1893-1909; and a docket of Department cases, 1901-7. RECORDS OF THE PATENTS AND MISCELLANEOUS DIVISION. 18491943. 392 lin. ft. The Patents and Miscellaneous Division (formerly known as the Pension and Miscellaneous Division and briefly in 1907 as the Miscellaneous Division) has records dating from 1849, although the Division was not formally established until much later. There are records concerning Patent Office agricultural business until 1862, and Pension Office business, 1849-1907. Usually the Patents and Miscellaneous Division handled census work in the Office of the Secretary; there are no separate records of the temporary Census Division. The Patents and Miscellaneous Division administered public buildings and grounds work, welfare institutions, prisons, and affairs of the District of Columbia. It directed court officers, suppression of the African slave trade, and black colonization. The Division directed the Office of Education, national parks, administration of territories, the Geological Survey and its predecessors (except reclamation work assigned to the Lands and Railroads Division), legislation, the Executive Mansion, census taking, creation of forest reserves, 1891-95, building construction, and admission of attorneys and agents to practice before the Department. The Patents and Miscellaneous Division was abolished in 1907 and some of its duties were transferred to Department bureaus, others to the Chief Clerk. Among records of this Division are (1) letters received, 1849-ca. 1880, from the President, the Congress, and Government departments; letters received about the Executive Mansion, patents, the Department of Agriculture, the Pat ent Office Building, pension legislation, bounty land claims, prisons and convicts, the Government Hospital for the Insane, and charitable institutions; a file of miscellaneous letters received, 1881-1907, with indexes and registers; decennial census records, 1849-1904; records relating to the administration of the territories, 1850-1911; and smaller series of letters received and sent, 1849-1906, with indexes. (2) Records relating to Pension Office business, 1849-1920, include letters sent and received, 1896-1907, with indexes and registers; letters sent, 184983, with indexes, 1849-69; digests of decisions, 1852-64 and 1861-75; appeal books, 1867-1918, with indexes, 18811911; and records relating to pension claims. (3) Records relating to suppression of African slave trade and to black colonization include letters received, 1854-72, letters sent, 1858-72, and a "Steward's Weekly Returns of Provisions" for the U.S.S. Atlanta, 1858-59. (4) Records concerning attorneys and agents include rolls of attorneys and agents, 1884-1923, and a roll of those suspended and disbarred, 1869-1923; name indexes, 1869-1943; and records concerning admitted attorneys and agents, 1884-1907. (5) There are records relating to Government participation in the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, 1876; the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago, 1893; the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis, 1904, with documentation on the Alaska Exhibit and the Indian Territory Exhibit; the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, Portland, Oreg., 1905, including the District of Alaska Exhibit; the Jamestown TerCentennial Exposition, Norfolk, Va., 1907; the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, Seattle, 1909, including records of the Office of the Alaskan Exhibit; and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915. (6) Records of the Returns Office, 1881-1904, consist of letters received and financial records. (7) Records of the U.S. Penitentiary for the District of Columbia, 1829-76, include minutes, annual reports, correspondence, and records of visits of the Board of Inspectors; incoming letters and records of the warden's office; sentences of convicts; and financial and administrative records. (8) There are records, 1852-65, of the Office of Explorations and Surveys, created by an act of March 3, 1853, which authorized the Secretary of War to determine "the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean." The records consist of correspondence relating to expeditions and surveys, scientific work, printing and engraving, and applications for employment, 1852-61; and correspondence and other records concerning the Isaac Stevens expedition, 1853-61. (9) Records of the engineer and architect (Brig. Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs) supervising construction of the Pension Office Building, 1881-89, include letters sent and received, with index and register of letters received, 1882-89; daily reports of the superintendent and a volume of plans, 1882-87; financial records, 1882-88; and personal records of General Meigs, 1882-89. RECORDS OF THE LANDS AND RAILROADS DIVISION. 1849-1907. 570 lin. ft. This Division, formally established about 1870, had functioned since 1849, administering the public domain and the General Land Office, mostly handling appeals to the Secretary from decisions of the Commissioner of the General Land Office. A Pacific Wagon Road Office in the Office of the Secretary was discontinued at the beginning of the Civil War. In 1865 an Engineer office was established to handle matters concerning the Pacific railroads, land-grant railroads, Government wagon roads, the Washington aqueduct and other public works in the District of Columbia, and the Capitol Extension. In 1867 this Office was replaced by the Pacific Railroad Division, which in 1870 was merged into the Lands and Railroads Division. Records of the Division include letters sent and received and related records. in numerous series, 1849-1907, with indexes, 1881-1905, and registers; railroad packages, 1849-1901, arranged by name of land-grant railroad; records of timber trespasses and fraudulent land entries, 1887-1901; letters and reports received from land inspectors, 18911907; and records concerning the settlement of Oklahoma, 1889-92. Letters sent relating to boundary surveys, the Engineer Office, Pacific railroads, land-grant ailroads and wagon roads, and inspectors, 1849-1907. General records, 1849-1907, include histories of bills and joint resolutions of Congress, 1899-1907, appeal books, 1859-1907, decisions of the Secretary of the Interior, 1849-55, opinions of the Assistant Attorney General for the Department, 1886-1901, and account books of "Oklahoma town lot funds," 1901-7. Records relating to Des Moines River Land Claims, 1895-1906, include claims decided, 1895-99, claims submitted, 1895-1906, letters sent, 1896-1900, and action and award books, 1896-1904. Records concerning wagon roads, 185687, include letters received, accounts, and other records, 1856-87, with a register of letters received, 1857-67; letters sent, 1857-71; and copies of letters sent concerning boundary surveys, 1857-63 and 1865-71. There are also records concerning reclamation, 1889-1907, with an index to correspondence, 1906-7, and "miscellaneous projects" records, 1901 7. RECORDS OF THE INDIAN DIVISION. 1849-1907, with a few The Division handled the Secretary's correspondence and kept records concerning Indian affairs. There are admin 367 istrative records dating from 1849; general records, 1849-1907, including letters received, 1849-80 and 1881-1907, with registers and indexes; special files, ca. 1833-1907; letters sent, 1849-1907, with indexes; letters sent to officials and departments, 1873-83; proceedings of the Indian Peace Commission, 1867-68; and records relating to inspectors, 18781907, claims, 1873-85, and allotments, 1886-1906. Records relating to Indian Trust Funds, 1849-98, include letters received, 1851-80, with registers; special files, 1849-83; letters sent, 1857-80; ledgers, 1857-83; and other records concerning allotments and stocks and bonds, 1857-98. RECORDS OF THE INDIAN TERRITORY DIVISION. 1898-1907. 203 lin. ft. After 1898 this Division conducted the business of the Office of the Secretary relating to the Indian Territory and the Five Civilized Tribes. The records consist of letters sent and received, 18981907, with indexes and registers, including an index of letters to Federal officials, 1898-99; memorandums and regulations, 1898-1907; Final Rolls of the Five Civilized Tribes, 1899-1907 and 1914; records of allotments, contests, and leases, 1898-1907; and miscellaneous records. RECORDS OF THE PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT DIVISION. 1907-53. 262 lin. ft. These records are designated as File No. 15 of the central files, but were kept separately by the Division of Personnel Management and its predecessors. The records concern personnel administration and include a subject index. RECORDS RELATING TO These include reports, copies of legislation, records relating to legislation of interest to the Department, and correspondence. MISCELLANEOUS GENERAL These consist of a file of building plans for Federal and other buildings; press releases, 1923-39; and records of the Departmental Committee on Economy and Efficiency, 1908-12. SPECIAL FILES OF DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS. 191861. 165 lin. ft. These comprise records of Secretaries of the Interior Hubert Work, 1923-28, Harold Ickes, 1933-42, Oscar L. Chapman, 1933-53, and Douglas McKay, 1952-56; Under Secretaries Abe Fortas, 1942-46, Richard Searles, 1951-52, Clarence A. Davis, 1953-56, and Elmer F. Bennett, 1957-61; Assistant Secretaries Theodore A. Walters, 1933-39, Michael W. Straus, 1943-45, C. Girard Davidson, 1946-50, Robert R. Rose, Jr., 1951-52, Felix E. Wormser, 1953-58, Fred G. Aandahl, 1953-60, and Ross L. Leffler, 1957-61; Special Assistant Herbert Kaufman, 1918-19; Ernest Walker Sawyer, 1929-33, relating to matters in Alaska; the War Minerals Relief Commissioner, 1933-38; the special adviser on labor relations, 1936-47; other special files, including ones on conservation, 1928-45, on labor relations, 1951-52, on electric power, 1951-52, and on exposi |