The National Archives of the United States came under the spotlight last year after the FBI raided the home of former President Donald Trump, who was accused of possessing classified documents.
But the legacy of the independent federal agency is not without controversy. Created by Congress in 1934, it serves as a repository of the nation's heritage, including the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.
Overseeing the National Archives from 2009 until his retirement in April 2022 He was a graduate of Northeastern University David S. Ferriero. The 10th Archivist of the United States, he was appointed by President Barack Obama.
Ferriero previously served for five years as the Andrew W. Mellon Director of the New York Public Libraries. Prior to that he served in leadership positions at two of the nation's largest academic libraries, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Duke University.
And it all started 60 years ago, when he first enrolled at Northeastern. After serving as a Navy hospital clerk during the Vietnam War, Ferriero earned his bachelor's degree in 1972 and his master's degree in 1976.
Northeastern Global News recently interviewed Ferriero about his distinguished career. His answers have been edited for length and clarity.
You grew up in Beverly, Massachusetts. What drew you to Northeastern and how was your experience?
It was clearly the co-op program because that was the only way my family could afford a college education. I am the first in my family to go to college.
I actually had two Northeast careers. I graduated from Beverly High School in 1963. I was really influenced by my teachers in the Beverly public school system. I came out of that education wanting to be a teacher, so I was an education major originally at Northeastern. I took classes and went to the Museum of Fine Arts and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
I was so bored that I quit and joined the Navy and when I came back after four years, my second career in Northeast Europe began. I came back a much more mature student. I was actually a liberal arts major at that point with a concentration in literature and history. And then I came back later and did a master's in literature.
After earning your degrees, you worked at Duke and the New York Public Library. How did these opportunities arise?
I've had really great opportunities and great jobs. I was at MIT for 31 years and I was waiting to retire from there. They called me out of the blue saying they were looking at me for the library director at Duke. I was lucky in my career not to apply. I have been hired. I loved my eight years at Duke, and out of the blue, I got a call from the New York Public Library that they were looking at me for director of research libraries.
I went to the interview and it became clear that I knew a lot about the business and it was an exciting opportunity to expand my knowledge base, and it was New York, I mean, my God! The flagship public library system of the United States. And from then on, it was the same situation. I was hired by the federal government on a Friday afternoon when the White House called to say they were looking at me for United States archivist.
I bet you remember that conversation. How was that process?
My assistant came into the office and said the White House was on the phone. I was surprised, so I got on the phone, and the person who worked on appointments for the White House said, “Well, aren't you surprised to get a call from the White House?”
Kyle Watkins was an undergraduate at George Washington. He was working for David Jacobson, who was then the president's appointment person. He's the one who found me. He had done a lot of Googling about the search committee.
Before that, my sense of presidential appointments were people who knew the president or who had contributed a lot of money to a campaign and, frankly, knew nothing about the position they were being hired for. So I was very, very suspicious that they would hire someone who knew the job.
Tom Wheeler, who was on the investigative committee, who later became head of the FCC, kind of described what the administration was looking for in the role of archivist and the administration's Open Government Initiative. The picture he painted was exciting and interesting, and again there I knew quite a bit about the business. Throughout my career I have been responsible for archives, institutional archives. So I went to Washington, had further discussions, and then the whole Senate confirmation vetting process began.
Once you arrived at the National Archives, you made many improvements, including cloud computing, social media, and the digitization of presidential libraries.
I am always looking for ways to improve access to materials. So I try to make it easier for people to find what they need, break down the barriers that hold them back, and deliver as much power as possible to the end user.
I was on the train to Washington for my confirmation hearing and I read in the New York Times that the White House had just authorized an RFP [request for proposal] for help with social media management. I sit there and I say to myself, “My God, why are they going outside the federal government to get support? That's the role of archives.”
When I came on board, I authorized them to order 25 iPhones and 25 iPads to fool around and start experimenting.
And now the National Archives is on 16 different platforms. My direction to staff has always been to understand where people are and get our material in front of them. Don't wait for them to find us. You have to be aggressive about identifying where they are and what we can learn from them in terms of how they discover information—using information—and how we can then integrate that kind of thing into our core business.
Was that kind of the guiding philosophy?
Correctly. And most importantly, the National Archives is responsible for providing guidance to the federal government about the records implications of all the technologies they use. So if the Archives don't use social media and the services do, how could we provide guidance on things we don't?
Is there anything about The Archives that you think would surprise most people?
Most people don't realize that the archivist of the United States is responsible for administering the Electoral College and managing the constitutional amendment process. As regards the Electoral College, it determines the date of meetings of the Electoral College. Obtaining the certificates from the states on the electors. Ensuring that the vote is held and authorized by the Secretary of State and then moving the final product to the Hill for the January 6th Congressional vote.
On the constitutional amendment side, the same thing: sending the proposed amendment to the states, getting the ratifications, and then announcing whether it passed or not.
About the National Archives, for the weird stuff on the collection side, we have a finger in a jar of formaldehyde from an old federal court case. We have a dead blind man filed as a Civil War widow's pension proof file for the family to get the deceased Civil War soldier's pension. They had to prove that the soldier was actually in the Civil War in some way. It's usually a letter or something.
But in this case, the dead soldier had sent the mole to his wife to show what living conditions were like in his tent, and she used it to prove that her husband had served. And we have, as part of the presidential libraries, all the gifts that come to the president. I think we have the largest collection of spaghetti paintings in the world. Kids who have made portraits of presidents out of spaghetti. So there are all kinds of very interesting and fun things in presidential libraries.
Looking back from where you are now, what do you think has been your greatest achievement?
I think the work that we did during the Obama administration around establishing electronic recordkeeping as a way to create and capture records. It was the first time since the Truman administration that the White House had engaged in record keeping. My mantra throughout this process has been that you can't have open government without good record keeping.
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