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The Harold Weisberg Archive
Through the generosity of Harold Weisberg (1913-2002), Hood College has obtained the world's largest accessible private collection of government documents and public records relating to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Through the use of the Freedom of Information and Privacy Act (FOIAPA), Weisberg acquired from the government some 250,000 pages of documents, largely Warren Commission, FBI, Secret Service, Justice Department, and CIA records. The archive also includes about 85,000 pages of FBI documents on the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and some material relating to the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
The collection also holds the records of at least a dozen major FOIAPA lawsuits against the government. Each of these civil action suits is accompanied with appendices of pertinent government documents. One of these FOIAPA cases, CA 75-226, includes the depositions of three FBI agents who were responsible for the Bureau's scientific testing of the weapon and the bullets that allegedly killed President Kennedy, and who conducted the spectrographic and neutron activation analysis of the physical evidence in the case. These lawsuits are a rich documentary depository, providing a unique collection of records on FOIAPA litigation that should be of interest to historians and legal scholars.
The archive includes a voluminous and valuable subject index file which contains Weisberg's collection of contemporary magazine and newspaper clippings, background research, and correspondence with two generations of researchers and writers sharing his interest in the Kennedy and King assassinations.
In addition to his published works, Weisberg wrote about 30 book-length studies that remain unpublished. These manuscripts are in-depth critiques of many of the major published works on the JFK assassination that received some attention by reviewers. All of these critiques are based on the evidence as cited in government documents and are an invaluable guide to the official evidence.
To schedule an appointment to visit the archive during the weekdays, please call 301-696-3934.