"They should select material “on the basis of irreplaceability and uniqueness” and give primary attention to those considered “most important for the history of democracy.” They should divide the records into six groupings based on their intrinsic historical value, with the first including the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln’s second inaugural, and the papers of Washington, Madison, Hamilton and other founders. “The fate of great libraries abroad, several of which have been completely and others partially destroyed in air raids, emphasize the importance of careful planning to meet any contingency which might arise,” MacLeish stressed to his staff.
In addition to the nation’s preeminent founding documents, the Library of Congress held thousands of other critical documents. From the Division of Maps, there was Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s original hand-drawn plan for the layout of Washington, complete with fading editorial annotations from Thomas Jefferson. From Rare Books, a richly illustrated 1340 edition of the Latin Bible, printed on vellum. And of course, from the Manuscript Division, a trove of American history: the Journals of the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1776; George Washington’s diaries, including the entries recording the British surrender at Yorktown; the works Dolley Madison rescued when the British burned the capital in 1814, documents she later labored to publish— James Madison’s “Notes on Debates” and “Records and Essential Papers” of the Constitutional Convention of 1787; and Abraham Lincoln’s papers.""
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/world-war-two-protect-national-archives-214257
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