NPRC opens six million personnel records.

• Position: GOVERNMENT RECORDS - National Archives' National Personnel Records Center - Brief article

The National Archives' National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis has opened more than six million individual personnel files of former federal civilian employees from the mid-1800s through 1951.

Among the records are the files of prominent individuals who for the federal government, including Walt Ansel Adams, Eliot Ness, Calvin Coolidge, J. Edgar Hoover, Gifford Pinchot, Walker Evans, and Albert Einstein. Ronald L. Hindman, director of NPRC, called these records "a veritable treasure-trove of information for researchers and genealogists." He said, "There are records from more than 100 government agencies now available for discovery. They showcase the careers of government employees who investigated bootleggers; taught at Indian schools; worked in Japanese-American internment camps, in prisons, and on anti-prostitution boards; and created and implemented initiatives in Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal agencies, among others."

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This opening of these files adds to the existing...