This book introduces the public to the incredible wealth of American political, social and economic history that is held in the records under the stewardship of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) of the United States of America. Published to celebrate a permanent exhibition at the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C., The Public Vaults Unlocked provides an accessible and highly visual ?way in? to American history and society. Looking behind the scenes, readers will discover, in personal and meaningful ways, real and unexpected moments from American history, from the signing of the Declaration of Independence to Presidential web sites. The images and text have been selected and arranged to stimulate new connections with records of major events from America's past, by placing people ?inside? these events. The book allows us to feel what it would have been like to be an immigrant coming to the US in the 1900s, or to have been Senator Russell being pressured by LBJ to serve on the Warren Commission into President Kennedy's assassination, or to have been a GI on D-Day at the moment you launched yourself off the landing vessel and onto a Normandy beach. The Public Vaults Unlocked stimulates new ways of thinking about America's past and the people ? both in public and in private life ? who have shaped the country's history and society. AUTHOR: Marvin Pinkert, director of Museum Programs, joined the National Archives in 2000 to lead the project to create the new National Archives Experience. He spent eleven years at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago serving as the Vice President for Programs. He has also worked in Washington and Chicago as a consultant on the development of new museums. Christina Rudy Smith, head of Exhibits, Museum Programs, has worked for the National Archives since 1974, joining the exhibits staff as a curator in 1976 and becoming head in 1983. She has served as curator for four major exhibits, including The American Image, the first major exhibition of National Archives photography, and The Birth of Democracy, the first international exhibit presented by National Archives. Bruce I. Bustard, on the Museum Programs staff of NARA,was the curator of Picturing the Century: One Hundred Years of Photographs from the National Archives. William Sandoval, is curator on the Museum Programs staff of NARA; Stephanie Moore, is research assistant on the Museum Programs staff of NARA; Thora Colot, is Executive Director of the Foundation for the National Archives 237 colour illustrations
