Notable Government Documents

In a single volume, the National Park Service has summarized 30 years of archaeological fieldwork in Skagway, AK, and in the surrounding villages and ghost towns that served as supply stations and recreation spots for the estimated 100,000 individuals who sought their fortune along the Yukon River in the 1890s. Illustrated with historic photographs of street scenes and images of many of the artifacts retrieved from privies and trash pits, this absorbing document illustrates domestic and professional life on the Alaska frontier.

Designed for use as a field guide, this volume fills the needs of melittologists (those who study bees) of all ages for a quick and easy way of identifying the 21 species of bumble bee (genus bombus) most commonly encountered between the Atlantic coast and the Mississippi River. With close-up color photographs, body part diagrams, maps, and charts; beautifully browsable.  purl.fdlp.gov/GPO/gpo13132

This NPS tract portrays the human history of north-central California’s Lava Beds National Monument region from its beginning as the ancestral homeland of the Modoc. Artifacts, hieroglyphs, and rock paintings illuminate the lifestyle of these people before the arrival of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Drawings by Edward Kern and Charles Preuss illustrate Capt. John C. Fremont’s expedition into the area in 1846. The lava beds were designated a national monument by presidential proclamation in 1925.

The so-called Super Committee created by the Budget Control Act of 2011 was charged with formulating a bipartisan recommendation for dealing with budget challenges created by an aging population, the rising cost of health care, and declining revenues. On November 21, 2011, the committee acknowledged that it had failed to reach consensus regarding legislation; however, it did release this document, which outlines its research findings and its budget predictions. Written for nonspecialists, it presents a dire outlook if voters are unable to overcome their partisanship. 

In what may be the definitive “operational history” of black troops in action during the Civil War, Dobak describes the differences in how freedmen and runaway slaves were recruited, how they lived, and how they were trained. Most important, it considers how gallantly these men performed in combat at a time when many of their own leaders questioned whether they would be willing to fight for their own freedom and for that of their families. Much of the documentation comes from the “War of the Rebellion” ­series.

Liberally illustrated with historical photographs and facsimiles of famous government documents, this volume will appeal to a wider audience than depository librarians. Historians and history buffs who have an interest in government and how it interacts with both the private sector and public employee unions will find a compelling story that focuses on the federal government’s obligation to keep citizens informed about its activities. purl.fdlp.gov/GPO/gpo8534

In 1862, shortly after the Battle of Antietam, army surgeon general Brigadier Gen. William Hammond ordered the establishment of the Army Medical Museum. Surgeons working on Civil War battlefields were encouraged to preserve anatomical specimens, such as severed limbs and diseased organs, and send them to the museum for further research. From the start, the museum made its displays of specimens and instruments, as well as its medical library, available to the general public. Under the leadership of later curators, such as John Billings and Walter Reed, the museum evolved into the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. Readers interested in the history of science, especially medical science or in the devastating effects of Civil War weaponry on the human body, will be fascinated by the hundreds of graphic photographs.

The National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill was created by President Obama and charged with investigating the root causes of the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. The committee concluded that the cause of the blowout was not mechanical. Instead, a number of poor management decisions, combined with an inadequate regulatory structure and an indifferent regulatory agency, overwhelmed the safeguards designed to prevent such disasters. Plenty of illustrations and photographs offer a glimpse into the technology of offshore oil rigs. purl.fdlp.gov/GPO/gpo4390

This report focuses on the growing challenge to American immigration and national security policy posed by Mexicans who involuntarily cross the border in order to escape the violence of the brutal drug cartels that operate in their country. Current immigration policy allows refugees to seek political asylum in the United States when they are targeted victims of religious and political persecution. Alternatively, those who have been directly threatened by drug lords have been returned to Mexico as the U.S. authorities to whom they must appeal are suspicious of undocumented border crossings that don’t fall under the umbrella of current policy. purl.fdlp.gov/GPO/gpo13768