Waldo Gifford Leland (July 17, 1879 in Newton, Massachusetts – October 19, 1966) was an American historian and archivist whose work for the Carnegie Institution and the Library of Congress was instrumental in the founding of the National Archives. He also served in leadership roles in a variety of historical and archival societies, including the American Council of Learned Societies, Society of American Archivists, National Park Service, and the FDR Library. Early life Leland was born in Massachusetts, the son of public school teachers Luther Erving Leland and Ellen Gifford, the latter of whom descended from a line of wealthy landowners in Plymouth Colony and Westport, MA. After graduating from Newton High School in 1896, Leland went to Brown University, earning a B.A. In 1900 he enrolled at Harvard University, earning his M.S. in history in 1901. In 1904 Leland married Gertrude Dennis, a Canadian-born violinist. Carnegie Institution and American Historical Association In 1903 Harvard professor Albert Bushnell Hart offered Leland, then a teaching assistant, the opportunity to assist Claude H. Van Tyne in a survey sponsored by the newly founded Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C. A 6-month temporary assignment was the beginning of Leland's 24-year association with the institution. The Guide to the Archives of the Government of the United States in Washington (1904), coauthored by Leland and Van Tyne, was followed in 1907 by an edition revised and expanded by Leland, which established Leland as the nation's leading authority on federal archives. During this time Leland joined the American Historical Association (AHA) and served as the secretary in 1909-1920, working closely with J. Franklin Jameson to lobby Congress to establish a National Archive. National and international archival work After completing the Guide, Leland's next assignment from the Carnegie Institution was to travel to repositories throughout the eastern United States to collect letters of Continental Congress delegates. He then began work on his multi-volume Guide to Materials for American History in the Libraries and Archives of Paris. In 1907-1914 and 1922-1927 he served as the Carnegie Institution's principal representative in France. Two volumes, on libraries and on the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, were published in 1932 and 1943. Drafts for an additional three volumes are among the Leland Papers, archived at the Library of Congress. In an associated activity, he directed the foreign copying program of the Library of Congress for French manuscripts relating to the