Short answers, pulled from the story.
The National Archives and Records Administration began its life in 1934 when Congress created the National Archives Establishment. J. Franklin Jameson and the American Historical Association had campaigned for years to centralize federal record-keeping before this law passed.
The most well-known facility is the National Archives Building located north of the National Mall on Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C. A sister facility known as the National Archives at College Park opened in 1994 near the University of Maryland.
More than 12.6 million feet of newsreels were destroyed in a fire at an offsite location in Suitland, Maryland. The reels made of exceptionally flammable nitrate material had been donated previously by Universal Pictures.
A lawsuit brought against the agency resulted in a March 2021 ruling that records must be preserved because the judge stated approval was arbitrary. NARA failed to evaluate research value or address public comments regarding the destruction of these files.
Donald Trump fired archivist Colleen Shogan causing several staff members to resign in February 2025 early in his second administration. This occurred after significant difficulty arose maintaining historical records when he would often rip and flush documents upon leaving office in 2021.