373 The American Archivist Vol. 80, No. 2 Fall/Winter 2017 373–406 ABSTRACT This article examines the history and rhetoric of administrative reform in Georgia during the Progressive Era, as it affected the operation of the State Archives. During this period, Georgia’s governor, Thomas W. Hardwick (1921–1923), was part of a cadre of public officials, legislative committees, and state governors who led the charge to develop and perfect the “business management of their people’s affairs.” 1 As a result, organizations such as the Institute for Government Research of the Brookings Institute, the National Institute of Public Administration, and the Public Administration Service were commissioned to look into the operation and organiza- tion of federal, state, and local government. In Georgia, Hardwick hired the Chicago firm of Griffenhagen and Associates to make his case for proper efficiencies and economies in state government. In the process, the Georgia Department of Archives and History was almost swept away in the wake of Hardwick’s program. In laying out this historical case study, particular attention is drawn to the larger cyclical political and social forces that, in promoting administrative reform, serve to undermine the survival of state archival agencies. Sweeping out the Capitol: The State Archives and the Politics of Administration in Georgia, 1921–1923 Ciaran B. Trace KEY WORDS Information history, Archival history, United States history, State archives, Public administration, Administrative reform, State government, Efficiency experts © Ciaran B. Trace. Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/doi/pdf/10.17723/0360-9081-80.2.373 by guest on 30 December 2021