Mining the Archives for Asbestos History. The Manville Document Repository.

One of the best starting points for a historical based deep dig on asbestos is the document repository based in Aurora, Colorado, also known as the Asbestos Claims Research Facility (ACRF). This repository was formed after the Manville bankruptcy but includes documents related to just about any asbestos topic, issue, or defendant. Just their available indexes and lists are amazing.

A good place to begin is the Inquire Computer System implemented by the Johns-Manville Legal Department in the early 1980s to support its litigation defense. The first page for the Inquire Manual is as follows:

As discussed, this database has documents from three sources: (1) basic asbestos defense litigation, (2) lawsuits against the government, and (3) documents from insurance litigation. I believe that the only documents which are off limits are those within the insurance litigation that are subject to the March 30, 1983 California Court Order unless, of course, you want to take a shot at getting the Court Order changed given the passage of time.

Next is the 155 page Asbestos Knowledge Chronology. The first page of the Chronology looks as follows:

The last entry on page 155 is dated 1985 plus two fascinating undated entries discussing Health Counseling and “Smith Deposition”. See the following:

Next up are the Product Specification Files. The first page of the files is as follows:

Next we have the Product Files which look as follows:

The facility also has an amazing collection of medical articles starting in 1899 and running 643 pages ending in 1993. I cannot imagine a medical article dealing with asbestos that is not contained on the list.

Next, we have the Subject Files which go for 105 pages. This index is an excellent resource when you are trying to track down companies. The first page is as follows:

The last formal index are for the Witnesses Files. The index was difficult to scan, so you will need to trust me that the facility has files on 8432 witnesses from almost any company that was then involved in the asbestos lawsuits. I viewed this index and obtained some of the material a few years ago and, to say the least, it was overwhelming.

Finally, the facility has the Motley 1000 Index and documents.

I already discussed the Motley 1000 documents in a prior Blog and so won’t take up more time and space in this Blog. Suffice it to say that Johns-Manville believed that these 1000 documents were the foundation for Ron Motley and his Asbestos Litigation Group formed in October 1978 to “set the pace” is asbestos lawsuits.

If you are interested in this type of research, you have a number of options. First, you can contact the facility at acrfrecords@claimsres.com. They will email you in return a bunch of forms and the process starts there. Just as a heads up, they are not cheap. Alternatively, if you want to contact the long term manager who started the facility in 1989 after having worked for Johns-Manville from 1983 to 1987, that would be Maggie Baumgardner who retired in 2019. You can reach her in LinkedIn or send me an email at TheAsbestosBlog@gmail.com as Maggie and I still periodically talk. Her memory on a plant by plant, and product by product, basis is pretty amazing. I plan to interview Maggie (and many other people who have been affected by asbestos or asbestos lawsuits) for my book on asbestos which begins the writing phase this fall.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to either send an email or provide a comment. My goal is to help you find information and documents, and maybe help point you in the right direction.