point they are artifacts like any other physical singular works selected for preservation. They are
sculptures, tapestries, costumes, or paintings. The storage medium is just as much the treasured
object as the content it is holding. And the ability to play or access the media on them must also
- be preserved. In 2021, lawyer and FOIA expert Michael Ravnitzky filed a request for copies of video
- footage of a lecture by legendary computer scientist Admiral Grace Hopper that were present in the
- National Security Agency’s archives.
- The NSA denied the request
-
- Citation:
- Admiral Grace Hopper’s landmark lecture is found, but the NSA won’t release it
- (Muckrock, 2024)
-
- in May
- of 2024, stating that the agency no longer owned a machine capable of playing back the AMPEX video
- tapes in their collection.
+ be preserved.
@@ -2365,6 +2353,7 @@
+
At the time of publication, this piece referred to a 2021 request for video footage of a lecture by Admiral Grace Hopper present in the National Security Agency’s archives, which was denied as the agency no longer owned a machine capable of playing back AMPEX video tapes. In August 2024, the NSA released a digitized version of the tapes, with assistance from the National Archives and Records Administration. The piece has been updated to reflect the release. A preserved copy of the earlier version can be seen via Perma.cc.