The problem of theft has plagued the keepers of irreplaceable records for generations, but there is cause for deep concern today because of the sharp increase in such losses during the past decade. Moreover, despite the evidence of the upward trend of archival theft, there is little evidence to show that the archival profession has either fully recognized the seriousness of the problem or that archivists are yet taking any concerted preventive action. It is certainly true that archivists have been most reluctant to publicize losses resulting from either theft or defacing of records. It is only through the public press, for the most part, and not professional literature, that the true dimensions of this problem come into clear focus.1 Theft from archives has now reached alarming proportions. During the past decade several hundred archives and libraries have been victimized and many others have been and did not report it. The recent loss of the Felix Frankfurter diaries and papers from the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress capped a series of thefts from that institution and led to a complete revamping of its security regulations.2 The thefts of valuable archival materials from the University of Virginia, the Detroit Public Library, North Carolina State Archives, Texas State Archives, Wayne State University, Yale University, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Indiana State Library, Ohio Historical Society, Virginia State Archives, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, and the National Archives demonstrate the dimensions of the problem.