The Daily Free Press

Issue date: 2/6/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Kat Lafata CAS international relations professor Arthur Hulnick talks to students about spy equipment during the Cold War that BU holds in the Howard Gotlieb Center.

Big brother is watching, and the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center has been taking notes.

Gotlieb Assistant Director for Manuscripts Ryan Hendrickson led more than 50 Boston University students and faculty members through the archive's extensive collection of espionage artifacts and other spy information last night. 

Hendrickson said important work in Cold War spy satellite development was done at BU.

"It was called the Corona Project, and it was probably one of the most top secret programs in the U.S. government in the 1950s. That's the kind of stuff that was done here at BU, and it's doubtful that many of the students even know about it," he said.

Hendrickson said the BU Optical Research Center was the first major American center for spy satellite development during the Cold War.

Former CIA officer Arthur Hulnick, a College of Arts and Sciences professor, assisted Hendrickson in explaining some of the historical documents and curios in the archive's most recent installment of the Student Discovery Seminars.

Hulnick, who was a CIA officer for 28 years, said he came to BU in 1989 as a part of a correspondent program between the CIA and the academic community. After retiring from the CIA, Hulnick said he remained a BU professor and went on to write two books on intelligence and homeland security.

Hulnick kicked off the evening by giving the crowd a quick review of the pieces spread over tables surrounding seminar goers.

Documents covered by thin sheets of plastic were dated as far back as the American Revolution and exemplified some of the "most controversial" espionage in U.S. history, Hendrickson said.

Among the pages of information, personal letters belonging to George Washington detailed possible espionage activity during the Revolution, Hulnick said. Many other documents, including those from the Rosenberg Trials of the 1950s, he said could not conclusively suggest espionage.

Hendrickson said Gotlieb Center Student Discovery Seminars are meant to introduce students to the archival research process firsthand because, even for a Google-savvy generation, researching primary sources can sometimes be a daunting task.

"I didn't even know this kind of stuff existed," CAS senior Peter Silow said. "Some of these pictures are pretty amazing."

"I find it pretty interesting to uncover the secrets of the past and see that even our first president had his own little secrets," CAS senior Allison Tamer said.

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