What is a NARA record group?

Now, this may be a bit boring, but it's important when trying to figure out where films are located within America's film vault...the NARA.

A record group (RG), the basic unit of archival control, is a body of organizationally related records designated by a number and the name of the federal agency, bureau, or activity that created or received them. For example, the Records of the United States Secret Service is numbered RG 87, the Records of the Maritime Administration are contained in RG 357, and Records of the U.S. Army Military District of Washington are within RG 551. Based on my last count, there are over 500 RGs (some numbers were skipped) within the NARA that contain historic documents like papers, reports, maps, photographs, illustrations, sound recordings, and sometimes motion pictures. These RGs are usually divided into a number of Series, depending on the type of documents or the topic. One RG I found had 85 different series! Sometimes one of these contain films.

Now this is a very simplistic explanation...but hopefully it gives you enough information to follow this discussion in future blogs.

Phil
www.pwstewart.com