created July 8, 1799, by Czar Paul I and was granted de facto political authority and a monopoly of trade in Russia's North American possessions, including Alaska. The Company was administered by a board of directors in St. Petersburg, while control of affairs in Alaska was in the hands of governors general appointed by the directors. Local headquarters were established at Sitka in 1799, but an Indian revolt in 1802 drove out the Russians. In 1804 the Company retook Sitka, built a strong fort, and used it as a central office until 1867 when Alaska was purchased by the United States.

A second body of records orginated in consulates maintained by the Imperial Russian Government in the United States and Canada that were closed on different dates in the 1920's. A third group is the records of the Russian Supply Committee, organized in 1915 with central offices in New York, which coordinated and supervised the purchase of supplies for military purposes during World War I.

On the Russian-American Company see Hubert H. Bancroft, History of Alaska (San Francisco, 1886); and S. B. Okun, The Russian-American Company (Cambridge, Mass., 1951).

There are 679 cubic feet of records dated between 1802 and 1922 in this record group.

RECORDS OF THE RUSSIANAMERICAN COMPANY. 1802 and 1817-67. 23 lin. ft.

Under the convention by which Russia ceded Alaska to the United States, concluded March 30, 1867, "any Government archives, papers, and documents relative to the territory and dominion

aforesaid, which may now be existing there," were transferred to the United States. Consisting of 92 volumes, almost entirely in Russian longhand, they include: letters sent, 1818-67, to the board of directors in St. Petersburg and to subordinate local settlements, relating to native tribes, the Hudson Bay Company, fur prices, transportation, food and supplies, farming and animal husbandry, and vital statistics; letters received, April 18, 1802, and 1817-66, from the board of directors, relating to fur, trade, fisheries, native tribes, boundaries, and the Russian Orthodox Church (the Department of State prepared a calendar for these letters); logs of Company ships, 1850-67, on their voyages to California, Siberia, China, the Hawaiian Islands, and Russia; and journals of explorations of Lt. Lavrentii A. Zagoskin, 1842-44, into the lower Yukon basin and the southwestern mainland of Alaska, and of Capt. N. Arkhimandritov, June-August 1860 and July-August 1864, on Kodiak Island, Norton Sound, and the Pribilof Islands

RECORDS OF RUSSIAN CONSULATES. 1862-1922. 165 lin. ft. (in WNRC).

Included are records of consulates at New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Chicago, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Honolulu, Montreal, and Vancouver. RECORDS OF THE RUSSIAN SUPPLY COMMITTEE. 1914-22. 603 lin. ft. (in WNRC).

These consist of correspondence with commercial firms and U.S. Government agencies, reports, and accounting and other records.

Microfilm Publication: Records of the RussianAmerican Company, 1802-1867, M11, 77 rolls.

The Danish West Indies (consisting of three main islands-St. Thomas, settled

by the Danes in 1672, St. John, occupied in 1717, and St. Croix, purchased from

relating to St. Thomas Harbor, 18541917.

RECORDS OF THE GOVERNMENT
OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS OF
THE UNITED STATES. 1917-50.
190 lin. ft.

Records of the Office of Governor and of the Government Secretary, including annual reports of the Governor and subordinate offices, 1917-49; orders and proclamations issued by the Governor, 1917-43; executive officials' miscellaneous correspondence, 1920-50; general files concerning island government, 1917-43, and radiograms sent and received, 1917-49; records relating to relief and rehabilitation programs of the Civil Works Administration, 1933-34, Federal Emergency Relief Administration and National Industrial Recovery Act, 1933-37, Public Works Administration, 1933-38, Virgin Islands Emergency Relief Administration, 1935-36, and Work Projects Administration, 1938-44; St. Croix homestead agreements, 193339, and contracts, 1933-41; records concerning the establishment of the Virgin Islands Company, 1934-36; records relating to budgetary and other fiscal matters of the central administration, 192041; records concerning the budgets for St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix, 1921-42; correspondence concerning passports, 1917-43; registration certificates and correspondence relating to trademarks and patents, 1918-33; and inventories of property and furnishings, chiefly for executive mansions, 1940-49.

General files of an office successively

known as the Office of the Despatching Secretary, the Lieutenant Governor, and the Administrator for St. Croix, 191740.

Fragmentary records of departments and officials, including the Aide for Public Welfare, 1923-30; Director of the Department of Agriculture, Commerce, and Labor, 1925-31; Commissioner of Finance, 1927-46; and Director of Community Activities, 1931. Fragmentary records of emergency or special offices, consisting of correspondence of the Food Commission, 1917-20; records of the supervisor of the Civilian Conservation Corps, Virgin Islands, 1939-43; correspondence of the Council for Defense, Municipality of St. Thomas and St. John, 1941-42, and of the manager of the Bluebeard Castle Hotel at St. Thomas, 193537.

AUDIOVISUAL RECORDS. 1934-41. 300 items.

Photographs of projects sponsored by the Civil Works Administration, the Public Works Administration, the Work Projects Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and governmental units in the Virgin Islands to improve housing, public buildings, parks, and roads in the islands.

See Donn Hooker, comp., Preliminary Inventory of the Records of the Government of the Virgin Islands of the United States, PI 126 (1960).

Microfilm Publications: Records of the Danish Government of the Virgin Islands, T39, 22 rolls; and Records Relating to the Danish West Indies, 1672-1860, Received From the Danish National Archives, T952, 19 rolls.

By the Treaty of Paris of December 10, 1898, Spain ceded Puerto Rico to the United States. The cession included Spanish rights to the official archives

and records on the islands, which the United States agreed to preserve and make available for use. After visiting Puerto Rico the superintendent of the

Manuscript Department of the Library of Congress recommended to American military authorities the transfer of part of the records of the Spanish period to the Library of Congress. Cayetano Coll y Toste, a Puerto Rican scholar, was put in charge of selecting material for the transfer, which was made between June 13, 1899, and March 6, 1900. Important administrative records were later returned to Puerto Rico. These records were received by the Quartermaster Department at San Juan from the transport McClellan on April 8, 1901. Most of them were destroyed in 1926 by fire in the Archivo Historico at San Juan. The fragmentary correspondence and related executive records received or created by the Spanish Governors of Puerto Rico remaining in the United States were first placed in the Library of Congress; they were transferred to the National Archives in 1943. A joint resolution of August 21, 1957, authorized the return of the Puerto Rican archives in the National Archives to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

There are 134 cubic feet of records dated between 1754 and 1899 in this record group.

RECORDS RELATING TO POLITICAL AND CIVIL AFFAIRS. 1754-1899. 61 lin. ft.

These records, concerning the activities of the Gobierno Politico, include royal orders, census records, consular correspondence, and records that relate to elections, foreigners, publications, and the Rebelion de Lares. Also included is the Coll y Toste inventory, compiled in 1899 at the time of the transfer of the records to the Library of Congress. It lists the contents of the 2,246 legajos (bundles) included in the transfer.

RECORDS RELATING TO FISCAL AFFAIRS. 1782-1896. 12 lin. ft.

These relate to matters such as budgets, contraband, counterfeiting, debts,

fines, and public expenditures, and include correspondence signed by Alejandro Ramirez, the Puerto Rican official who planned and established a fiscal system for the island, 1813-16, and financial reports.

RECORDS RELATING TO MILITARY AFFAIRS. 1761-1890. 15 lin. ft.

These records concern such topics as artillery, cavalry, defense, deserters, fortifications, military conduct and decorations, other military affairs, and the Presidio of La Puntilla.

RECORDS RELATING TO NAVAL AFFAIRS. 1782-1891. 4 lin. ft.

Included are correspondence and other records concerning appointments, lighthouses, naval matters, shipwrecks, and Commodore David Porter, USN, who conducted a campaign to suppress piracy in Caribbean waters, landed troops in Fajardo, P.R., and allegedly committed hostile acts on Spanish soil,

1823-25.

RECORDS RELATING TO ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS. 1782-1897. 3 lin. ft.

Included are records relating to such matters as appointments of priests, church statistics, the Convent of San Francisco, pastoral visits, and tithes.

RECORDS FROM GOVERNMENT
AGENCIES. 1796-1897. 31 lin. ft.

These consist of correspondence and other records received by the Governor's Office from government agencies, including those concerned with public health, public works, and postal delivery.

RECORDS FROM

MUNICIPALITIES. 1765-1898. 76 lin. ft.

Included are letters received by the Governor's Office from mayors and

other public officials of approximately 75 towns in Puerto Rico, accompanied by resolutions of town councils, tax lists, proposed budgets, lists of inhabitants, and reports on the number of persons vaccinated and on other topics.

Microfilm Publications: Expediente Sobre la Rebelion de Lares (Case File on the Rebellion of Lares), 1868-1869, T1120, 6 rolls; Registro Central de Esclavos (Slave Schedules), 1872, T1121, 8 rolls; and Reales Ordenes, 1792-1793, y Reales Ordenes y Decretos, 1767-1854 (Royal Orders and Decrees), T1122, 1 roll.

During and after World War II and the Korean war many seized records were sent to the United States. Seized German records that had no security restrictions were returned to the Federal Republic of Germany after historically valuable parts were microfilmed by the National Archives in cooperation with the American Historical Association. This record group consists of such records that have been separately maintained and that have not been assimilated into the National Archives Collection of World War II War Crimes Records, Record Group 238, or several other record groups. The collection was augmented by microfilm of seized records accessioned from the Department of State, the U.S. Naval History Division, and other sources as described below; in fact, the majority of these records are microfilm copies and photoprints.

See Air University Human Resources Research Institute, Guide to Captured German Documents (Maxwell Air Force Base, 1952), and National Archives and Records Service, Supplement to the Guide to Captured German Documents (1959); National Archives and Records Service, Guides to German Records Microfilmed at Alexandria, Va., 1- (1958-), and Guide to Records of the Italian Armed Forces (1967); American Historical Association Committee for the Study of War Documents, A Catalog of Files and Microfilms of the German Foreign Ministry Archives, 1867-1920 (1959); and Department of State and Hoover Institution, A Catalog of Files and Microfilms of the German Foreign Ministry Archives, 1920-45 (1962).

There are 4,600 cubic feet of records dated between 1679 and 1952 in this record group.

RECORDS OF THE GERMAN
FOREIGN MINISTRY AND THE
REICH CHANCELLERY.

1833-1945. 5,795 rolls of microfilm.

The German Foreign Ministry in 1939 consisted of the Office of the Foreign Ministry, Office of the State Secretary, Head of the Foreign Organization in the Foreign Ministry, Office of the State Secretary for Special Duties, Office of the Ambassador for Special Duties, Political and Legal Departments, and Departments of Protocol, Personnel and Administration, Economic Policy, Cultural Policy, News Service and Press, and Information. While Foreign Ministry organization remained almost unchanged between 1867 and 1919, in 1920 and again in 1936 major reorganizations occurred. The records consist of selected diplomatic documents of the German Foreign Ministry, 1833-1945 (mostly dated after 1914), and papers of Gustav Stresemann, 1887-1930, Friedrich von Holstein, 1883-1909, and other German diplomats, 1833-1927.

Records of the Old and New Reich Chancelleries, 1919-45, which were evacuated to Whaddon Hall, England, with unrelated records of the Foreign Minis