Doing Archival Research in Political Science By Scott A. Frisch, ...

constraints on the ability of a donor to engage in sanitizing records. These collections are often enormous. It would be difficult for donors to comb through hundreds and sometimes thousands of boxes looking for potentially sensitive material in any systematic fashion. Herb Hartsook, the director of South Carolina Political Collections at the University of South Carolina, put it this way: “On the whole, our donors do not appear to sanitize their files. I believe this is because they simply don’t have the time to wade through hundreds of cartons of material” before getting it to the repository.⁴ In the case of politicians who suddenly vacate office or lose reelection, the challenge of sanitizing records would be compounded by the real need to move out of an office and ship off records in just a few weeks. Given that even the best-funded archives are starving for the resources to painstakingly go through these collections, it is unlikely that any organization or politician has the wherewithal to accomplish the same task.

Time and time again, we are surprised (shocked) at the level of frankness that we find in the written record. We also know from our interviews that members and staff are often unaware of the depth and sensitivity of the material that is archived. For example, a series of memos to former senator Dennis DeConcini (D-AZ) from Patty Lynch (legislative assistant for appropriations) is as frank as it is fascinating in the revelations about bureaucratic infighting, unwarranted requests from other senators, and other matters concerning the annual treasury, post office, and general government appropriations bills. The following excerpt captures the frankness of tone that is common throughout the memos:

General theme: we are concerned that Treasury is not paying sufficient attention to its law enforcement bureaus. As a result, Treasury bureaus are treated as unwanted “stepchildren” in law enforcement circles, and Justice, DOD [Department of Defense], and ONDCP [Office of National Drug Control Policy] run rough shod over the bureaus…Treasury is never on the Hill, they have no visibility, and leave lobbying matters to the bureaus…Justice, on the other hand, is everywhere and FBI has a very active and effective legislative