AS EARLY as June, 1965 this very question was being asked by a group of Fair officials up to and including president Robert Moses. The volumes of the Fair's correspondence, blueprints, films, schedules and human resource records (to name just a few) went through many a twist and turn on their journey to the Rare Book and Manuscript Division of the New York Public Library. Here are the chronological highlights of that trip. All in all, it was quite a ride from the file room to their final resting place in the library stacks.

June 9, 1965	The legal counsel to the Fair details the record retention periods mandated by law that would apply to various records.
June 18, 1965	Moses wants ideas. To quote from his June 18th memo he says, "I was impressed by the almost complete absence of 1939-1940 data and records." He floats the idea of keeping the records where they are in the Administration Building or at the New York Public Library, the Museum of Modern Art or the New York Historical Society. He directs the memo's recipient to "round up 'the boys'" to ponder this issue.
June 23, 1965	It is recommended that the Corporate files, Pinkerton Organization files, Allied Maintenance files and the files of World's Fair Maintenance be kept for twenty years in the Administration Building.
October 13, 1965	The Pinkerton Organization writes to the Fair Corporation inquiring as to what the Fair would like them to do with the over 40,000 identification cards and photo records they have in their files.
October 18, 1965	A fair memo mentions that Syracuse University has expressed an interest in becoming the repository for the Fair's records. They actually floated this idea back on September 22, 1964 in a letter to Robert Moses.
October 28, 1965	The Pinkerton Organization submits a second request to Fair officials requesting guidance as to whether they are to dispose of the identification records or turn them over to the Fair Corporation while emphasizing that the records in question belong to the Fair and as such require a definitive answer.
October 25, 1965	The following photographic records are received from the Press Building for inclusion in the general files. two four-drawer legal files, one ten-drawer negative file, one five-drawer legal file, one film rack and two small card files.
October 26, 1965	An inventory of off-site storage indicates that the following printed fair reports still remaining on hand should be sold to second hand book stores at 50 cents each: Progress Report 5 - 500 copies Progress Report 6 - 45 cartons Progress Report 7 - 47 cartons Progress Report 8 - 72 cartons Progress Report 9 - 24 cartons Progress Report 10 ("The Fair in '65") - 83 cartons
October 29, 1965	All remaining progress reports and guide books are to be delivered to the fair grounds for storage at the Singer Bowl.
November 8, 1965	Obviously having decided they need to keep the Pinkerton records, the Fair Corporation accepts delivery of ninety-one transfer cases containing the IBM Employee Pass Authorization Cards with photos for 1964, eighty-one metal double drawer units containing the authorization cards for 1965 and one large transfer case containing miscellaneous correspondence files.
December 3, 1965	Five hundred prints of the film "To The Fair" are sold to Association Films Inc for $5,000.00. As late as January 23, 1967 the Fair continues to receive requests from private citizens and a number of companies inquiring about obtaining a copy of the well remembered film. Those requests received from various persons connected with the Fair or VIP's receive them for free and all others are referred to Association Films who purchased them for resale to the general public.
January 28, 1966	Montreal's World's Fair, Expo '67, is loaned the plans and specifications for the Fountain of Planets along with a movie and some color photos with instructions to return them when they are finished with them.
August 2, 1966	A letter from the Port of New York Authority confirms receipt of various exhibit and study drawings prepared by the Port Authority in its role as agent to the Fair Corporation for the planning, development, rental and operation of the Transportation Area of the Fair.
October 28, 1966	A memo states that the idea of keeping the records in the Administration Building is still under consideration.
December 28, 1966	Page four of a memo covering a variety of topics states, as it relates to the Plan Room and its contents: "All World's Fair Corporation tracings, drawings and specifications will be turned over to the City. It is intended to leave them in the Engineering Department Plans Room where they are now located. Drawing racks, file cabinets containing drawings, file cabinets containing correspondence, two large wooden reference tables and special racks for tube storage will also be turned over to the City. Standard metal furniture will remain Fair Corporation property. All exhibitor drawings will be retained, together with other Fair Corporation records, in another room in the Administration Building. A separate listing of equipment that will be turned over to the City will be prepared."
May 8, 1967	It is agreed that all ten file drawers of payroll and attendance records will be destroyed.
May 10, 1967	The Fair Corporation executes an agreement with the New York Public Library to accept the bulk records of the Fair with the understanding that they are to remain unavailable to the general public until June 3, 1972. In the agreement the library agrees to reserve 1,400 square feet of space for the records.
June 5, 1967	The Fair Corporation signs a contract with Certified Moving and Storage for the sum of $2,076.72 to deliver all of the records to the New York Public Library Annex at 521 W 43rd Street in New York City. Their bid was one of four received to perform this job.
June 20, 1967	Seven legal size insurance files are delivered to Campo and Roberts in New York City to be retained for use in handling various pending insurance claims, with instructions to turn the files over to the Insurance Society of New York on June 1, 1972.
July 14, 1967	A memo announces that the Engineering staff is to leave at the end of the month.
July 24, 1967	The first delivery of records to the New York Public Library is made consisting of twenty-four conserv-a-files.
August 8, 1967	All office space in the Administration Building is released to the Parks Department except for the Accounting Offices, General Files Room and various other small rooms for storage of furniture and equipment prior to sale.
August 21, 1967	The second delivery of records to the New York Public Library is made consisting of twenty-four file cabinets and seven standard file cabinets from the Comptrollers Department. The final delivery is to occur around September 15, 1967 at which time Miss Madeline Truslow, the Property Retention Manager, and her one remaining assistant will be terminated from their employ with the Fair Corporation.

With this final delivery and the post-Fair restoration of Flushing Meadows Park now complete, one can only imagine how Ms. Truslow must have felt watching her carefully tended records being loaded and carted off to the library knowing that her work for the Fair was done. Was she happy? Sad? Or a little of both as she watched the last box leave and knowing that, with the exception of some legal and financial loose ends, the business of the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair was passing quietly into history?