Former United States National Archives employee Leslie C. Waffen, 66, who worked at the agency for over 40 years, and as head of the agency’s Motion Picture, Sound and Video Branch until his retirement last year, has admitted in federal court that he stole almost 1,000 sound recordings from the Archives and sold some of them on the online auction site, eBay, in September and October, 2010.
He pleaded guilty in federal court to embezzlement of government property.
Prosecutors presented evidence that Waffen had stolen items from the United States National Archives and Records Administration since at least August 2001, while he headed the audiovisual department, which holds more than 90,000 film, sound, and video recordings of historical importance. …MORE >>
The Missouri History Museum has announced the acquisition of the film archive of Charles Guggenheim (1924-2002), a pioneer of public television, the use of archival footage shot on hand-held cameras, and political film, a form he abandoned in disgust at the oversimplifications and negativity of American political campaigning. Guggenheim was called “the Ken Burns of his day,” a comparison to a figure whose prominence he never shared despite similar accomplishments.The production materials that Guggenheim’s daughter has donated to the Museum date from 1952, during his film apprenticeship in St. Louis, until the late 1980’s,