Emmett J. Leahy (1910–1964)
Emmett "Ed" Leahy's career as a pioneer and innovator in records management spanned almost three decades. He began his career as an archivist at the National Archives in 1935. Six years later he moved to the U.S. Navy Department as Director of Records Administration. After the war he worked briefly as National Microfilm Sales Manager for Remington Rand and 1948 he organized the National Records Council, a non-profit organization to promote records management. He also served as Chair of a Records Management Task Force for the Hoover Commission (1947 - 48). In 1953 Leahy left the National Records Council to found Leahy Business Archives, off-site repositories for records, and Leahy & Company, a records management consulting company. He managed both companies until his death in 1964.
The "Invention" of Records Management in North America
When Leahy joined the staff of the National Archives in July of 1935 records management as a discipline did not exist in North America. His first assignment was to a "committee of special examiners" whose task was to examine records presented to the Archivist as being without "permanent value or historical interest" that could be destroyed or otherwise disposed of. Leahy and his fellow "special examiners" soon realized that the absence of systematic management of records by federal agencies made it difficult to identify records of archival value. They concluded that archival involvement in the creation and filing of records, especially in terms of segregation of records of temporary value from those of archival value, was essential.
The National Archives initiated a records administration program to ensure that records of temporary value were segregated from records of archival value. A key concept in this program was the records life cycle in which records are created, used, and disposed either by destruction or transfer to the National Archives. Leahy played a major role in the development of this program. At the same time, he began to focus on the huge accumulations of duplicated or useless records that many federal agencies held. In 1938 he expanded this focus by undertaking a nine month trip around the world to study the "policies in the reduction of archival material of the more important European governments." In his report he identified the elements of a records reduction program that included:
Implementing A Modern Records Management Program
In September of 1941 Leahy had the opportunity to put his ideas into practice when he became the Director of Records Coordination for the Navy in the Office of the Secretary of Navy. He immediately began to organize a program of records administration that incorporated elements of records reduction he had articulated earlier. This program required a staging area where records could be sent from operational units while they were being reviewed for disposal. This along with a growing demand for storage space for essential war material and supplies led to the development of the records center concept, which was the first such in the world. Under Leahy's leadership Navy records centers were opened in Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, and California, and Hawaii.
Leahy recruited a microfilm specialist to implement a program to reduce the volume of paper records by filming them and destroying the originals. Recognizing that microfilm could be used to reduce the volume of engineering drawings, Leahy organized a program to microfilm engineering drawings of submarines, destroyers, battleships, and aircraft.
Leahy also focused his attention on work simplification through the elimination of unessential duplication of records and inefficient performance of essential functions of the Navy. To address unessential duplication, he initiated a survey of forms used in the Navy that identified one thousand two hundred and forty-eight reports or forms that could be eliminated or modified. Leahy also believed that records creation could be more efficient if form letters were used to answer repetitive correspondence. Leahy implemented a program called Correspondex that consisted of standard paragraphs that could be adapted as needed and then typed.
Bringing Records Management to the Private Sector
By mid-1945 the outcome of the war seemed clear and Leahy began thinking about what he would do as a civilian. He decided to join the Microfilming Division of Remington Rand as National Microfilm Sales Manager. He soon found this work less fulfilling than he had anticipated so in 1947 he left Remington Rand and created the National Records Management Council, a non-profit records management service company. In his capacity as the President of the National Records Management Council Leahy chaired a task force on records management in 1948 - 49 for the Hoover Commission that identified enormous waste in the storage and duplication of paper records of federal agencies. He was the chief architect and advocate of legislation to establish a federal records management program to reduce this waste.
In 1953 Leahy left the National Records Management Council to head his own records management consulting business, Leahy & Co, and a records storage business called Leahy Archives, Inc. Through these two business enterprises he brought the full measure of his records management knowledge and experience to the private sector. Leahy & Co. and Leahy Archives became the pre-eminent records management consulting and records storage companies for the private sector with hundreds of clients, including Eastern Airlines, the Ford Motor Company, and Bethlehem Steel Corporation, among many others. Until his death in June of 1964 Leahy was the most prominent and widely recognized promoter of records management in North America.
The Emmet J. Leahy Records Management Legacy
Leahy had an expanding vision of records management. As an archivist on the staff of the National Archives he developed techniques to reduce the volume of public records and to segregate records of enduring value from those of temporary value. As Director of Records Administration for the Navy he established records centers for the storage of records no longer required for current business or storage and introduced standard paragraphs for repetitive correspondence.
The Records Management Task Force for the Hoover Commissions (1947 - 48 and 1950) that Leahy directed produced reports that exposed the waste and mismanagement of paper records by federal agencies. The Records Management Task Force also advocated the establishment of a federal records management program that resulted in the Federal Records Act of 1950.
For more than a decade Leahy demonstrated that the tools and techniques used to promote work simplification and to reduce the volume of useless and duplicated records of federal agencies could be successfully implemented in the private sector.
Several of Leahy's contemporaries have noted his remarkable ability to present powerful arguments to senior managers in behalf of records management. Part of this ability stemmed from his graphic descriptions of waste, duplication, and inefficiency in the way many records were being managed and how substantial cost savings could be achieved through the proper reduction of records and introduction of work simplification. Leahy made equally strong arguments in behalf of maintaining a corporate memory of business and government. In an article in The American Archivist entitled "Modern Records Management" Leahy declared that "Any destruction of records must provide maximum insurance that the essential core of recorded experience in the fraction of modern records is preserved."
In 1963 Leahy and Christopher Cameron co-authored a book on Modern Records Management. The concluding chapter of the book includes a discussion of "What Is Worthy of Permanent Preservation?" Two categories of business records, they wrote, merit permanent preservation. One category of permanent business records is evidence of corporate and individual rights. The second category of permanent business records "shed light of historical interest on the organization, functioning, and accomplishments of the company."
The defining characteristic of the records management legacy of Emmet J. Leahy is his ability to identify opportunities that technology brings to records management. In 1960, four years before his death, Leahy concluded an article entitled "Don't Keep It - Throw It Away" with a brief discussion of continuing improvement in records management. Closed circuit television opens up a whole new area of quick reference. Before long a records storage area will be piped right into headquarters office so that management and personnel will be able to view and discuss with the archives clerk any document in the files.
If Leahy had lived until the 1980s he would have discerned the impact of computer technology on records management and he would have led records management into new responsibilities and opportunities.
Leahy's career in records management ended on June 23, 1964 when he died a day after suffering a stroke but his records management legacy is being perpetuated through the Emmett J. Leahy annual award for outstanding contributions to information and records management.
Further reading: What Leahy's Peers Had To Say About Him