The Corporate Archives accepts materials from many sources. Retiring Sandian Ken Kimball from the Surety Electronics & Software Department stopped by recently to donate some interesting photos from the 1971 Cannikin nuclear weapons test at Amchitka, Alaska. Kimball designed, implemented, and fielded data acquisition and recording systems for the monitoring of geophysical activities at Cannikin.

When an employee retired and left test film in the Aeroscience & Compressible Fluid Department, our Recorded Information Management Department was contacted for help in determining the retention requirements for the film. The DOE weapons moratorium is still in effect--no record copies of unclassified or classified weapons-related materials are to be destroyed. The film was transferred to the Corporate Archives. We were pleased to discover that the films include drop tests and parachute development tests, dating from the early 1970s.

We have accessioned photographs and film from Irvin Lenz. Lenz was hired at Sandia in 1947 and retired in 1985 from the Photometrics and Optical Development Division. We now have photographs of photometric test set-ups and cameras developed by Sandia as well as some historical film of photometric work at the Salton Sea Test Base. This collection of photographs and films augments another collection of photometric films we are processing from the Mechanical Environments Department. These films cover a wide range of topics including sled track tests and the 1965 eclipse studies.

Mark J. Davis contributed materials from Sandia's investigation of the causes of an explosion aboard the battleship USS Iowa. Davis retired in 1997 as Manager of the Metallic Materials Department. He also served as a member of the Sandia steering group formed in December 1989 to review the Iowa incident.

Materials accepted for the Corporate Archives have long-term retention and are reviewed in accordance with the Sandia Records Retention & Disposition Schedule. Contact Archivist Myra O'Canna at 844-6315 for assistance in evaluating your records. For more information on the Corporate Archives see our recently updated webpage.

We are pleased to announce that the Corporate Still Photo Collection can now be searched within the Technical Library's classified catalog. Over 100,000 negatives have been indexed and are being added to the database. You can conduct a search from the Technical Library or call Archives Assistant Shirley Morris at 844-7404 for assistance with your search.

We are also partnering with the Creative Arts Department to scan and catalog selected historical photos on the Creative Arts database, C-Quest. Unclassified images from Operation Sandstone, a nuclear test conducted in 1948 on Enewetak Atoll in the Pacific, are now available. To search for these 169 photos on C-Quest, use the search term "Sandstone" under Proper Names. We have also placed 59 declassified weapon-related images on C-Quest. These images were declassified as a result of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. FOIA requests allow the public to obtain information from various agencies of the federal government, including the Department of Energy (DOE).

The Corporate Archives Still Photo Collection is a valuable resource available to all Sandians. Call Shirley Morris at 844-7404 for historical or current photographs, or you can access the C-Quest Database.

Recorded Information Management Department 09612
Mail Stop 0612
Fax: 844-2621 and 284-2782
Manager: Anna Nusbaum, 845-9440, awnusba@sandia.gov
Corporate Historian: Carl J. Mora, 844-8011, cjmora@sandia.gov
Corporate Archivist: Myra O'Canna, 844-6315, mlocann@sandia.gov
Research Historian: Rebecca Ullrich, 844-1483, raullri@sandia.gov
Research Assistant: Michael Anne Sullivan, 844-7496, masulli@sandia.gov
Archives & Still Photo Clerk: Shirley Morris, 844-7404, samorri@sandia.gov