Series 1: Orga­ni­za­tional Mat­ters is now open for research by using the fol­low­ing find­ing aid. http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/x346d492c

This series is part of an ongo­ing two-year project funded by the National His­tor­i­cal Pub­li­ca­tions and Records Com­mis­sion to process 2,500 lin­ear feet of ACLU records, largely from 1970 to 2000. Each series will be made avail­able as pro­cess­ing is com­pleted, with the entire project sched­uled to end on July 1, 2012. Look for Series 2: Project Files and Series 3: Sub­ject Files to be made avail­able in April.

Series 1: Orga­ni­za­tional Mat­ters doc­u­ments the inner work­ings of the ACLU. These records take you behind the scenes as indi­vid­u­als at the national office, regional offices, and affil­i­ates nego­ti­ate the ACLU’s offi­cial posi­tion on emerg­ing civil lib­er­ties issues. Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Ira Glasser’s papers shed light into the com­pli­cated man­age­ment of one of the nation’s pre­em­i­nent civil lib­er­ties orga­ni­za­tions. Within the cor­re­spon­dence, meet­ing min­utes, and posi­tion papers, you can see the ACLU shape strate­gies to try cases, com­bat restric­tive leg­is­la­tion, and mobi­lize pub­lic opin­ion to sup­port the ACLU’s inter­pre­ta­tion of the U.S. Con­sti­tu­tion. At 472 lin­ear feet, this series holds a wealth of poten­tial for any­one look­ing at a late 20th cen­tury civil lib­er­ties issue or the U.S. policy-making process.

The pub­lic is wel­come to visit the Mudd Library to con­duct research within these mate­ri­als. For more infor­ma­tion on the ACLU col­lec­tions, search our find­ing aids, and you can always get help by email­ing us at .

–Adri­ane Hanson