Washington – The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) releases its updated official history, Keeping America Informed / The U.S. Government Publishing Office / A Legacy of Service to the Nation (Washington DC: GPO, 2016). Originally published in 2011 on the occasion of its 150th anniversary, the new edition of Keeping America Informed has been prepared to coincide with the agency’s 155th anniversary under its new name—the Government Publishing Office. 

The new edition adds a variety of new information:  the close relationship GPO had with President Lincoln, the agency’s experience with the segregation imposed on the Federal workforce during the Woodrow Wilson Administration, a long-forgotten proposal to build a Government paper mill, GPO’s production of the transcripts of Presidential tape recordings during the Watergate crisis, and other events and milestones.  It even has a new section on GPO’s appearance in movies and on TV over the years.  New photographs have been added, and the book brings the agency’s history up to date to 2016.

“We are pleased to offer this new edition of Keeping America Informed to everyone who is interested in the history of the GPO and the essential role it plays in bringing transparency to the workings of our Federal Government,” said GPO Director Davita Vance-Cooks.  “The agency is indebted to the work of our historian, Mr. George Barnum, who edited the new book, and to its designer, Mr. Dean Gardei,” she said, adding, “No history of the GPO would be complete without telling the story of the men and women who have worked here and who continue to serve the GPO’s critically important mission of Keeping America Informed. It’s to them that this book is truly dedicated.”

Copies of Keeping America Informed are being distributed to Federal depository libraries nationwide and may be ordered online from GPO’s bookstore for $38 at https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/021-000-00217-8