Last edit: March 23, 2023, 4:40 PM ET.

Between July 14, 1919, and February 4, 1921, agents of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI), surveilled Eve Adams as she toured the US making a small living by selling radical newspapers and magazines -- work that BOI agents categorized as her "radical activities.

After BOI agents' initial investigation of Eve in Waterbury, CT, the agents were then encouraged in their surveillance of Eve by the young US Justice Department employee J. Edgar Hoover, abetted by local police officers and Immigration Service officials. While surveilling Eve, they created the 41 pages of documents reproduced here, and a few others referenced but not so far discovered. (See Eve Adams Research Suggestions.)

The records of this surveillance are in the National Archives, Washington, D.C., and have been microfilmed and digitized and are available on Fold3, access to which is by subscription and thus behind a paywall. But "Free access to . . . Fold3.com is available in all Research Rooms at National Archives locations, including those in our regional archives and Presidential libraries."

The "Fold3 Terms and Conditions," of use "Revision as of May 30, 2014," also states:

"You may access the Websites and use the Content only for personal research, and download Content only as search results relevant to that research. Notwithstanding the previous sentence, professional researchers, professional historians and others conducting scholarly research may use the Website within the scope of their professional work."

Within the scope of his professional work, Jonathan Ned Katz, the founder of the non-profit, educational website OutHistory.org, has devoted hours of volunteer work on the disorganized, sometimes miscatalogued documents on Fold3 that refer to the surveillance of the pioneering, Jewish, Polish, lesbian social justice activist, immigrant, and Holocaust victim Eve Adams.

He has found the Adams surveillance documents when they were miscatalogued, rearranged them in chronological order, brightening them when they were dark and unreadable, providing interpretations of their meaning and significance, and making them freely available to the public on OutHistory.org. Katz notes that some of these agents surveillance reports are especially import for reporting Eve's response to the agents' questioning, thus providing important documention of Eve's own voice.

OutHistory is grateful to Fold3 for digitizing these revealing, valuable documents from the U.S. National Archives and making them freely available and downloadable at local National Archives offices.

The National Archives website explains the digitalization of these records:

"Several of our digitization partners, including Ancestry.com, Fold3.com, and Familysearch.org, have digitized microfilm publications and original records from NARA’s holdings and made them available on their websites. . . ."

"Please note: . . . Ancestry.com and Fold3.com are both subscription services that allow free searches of some or all index terms for each title."

"All of the digitized records produced under partnership agreements will be made available through the National Archives Catalog." See: https://www.archives.gov/digitization/digitized-by-partners?_ga=2.203793808.1808621621.1617317753-468709009.1617317753

A NARA press release dated January 10, 2007, states: "After an interval of five years, all images digitized through this agreement will be available at no charge through the National Archives website." See: https://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2007/nr07-41.html

So on January 7, 2012, the images digitized by Fold3/Ancestry became available at no charge to the public.

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Result of Search FBI FILES, Fold3, for “Eva Adams”: 

https://www.fold3.com/search/#s_given_name=Eva&s_surname=Adams

1
FBI Case Files. Old German Files, 1909-1921, Case number: Eva Adams (#8000-391399): 1 page

2
FBI Case Files. Old German Files, 1909-1921, Case number: Eva Adams (#370872): 4 pages

3
FBI Case Files. Bureau Section Files, 1909-1921, Case number: Eva Adams (#202600-171): 9 pages

4
FBI Case Files. Bureau Section Files, 1909-1921, Case number Eva Adams (#202600-995 ): 1 page

Preview: https://www.fold3.com/search/#s_given_name=Eva&s_surname=Adams&preview=1

5
Result of Search of FBI FILES, Fold3, for “Rose Strunsky” revealed twenty-four additional pages referring primarily to Eve Adams under the names "Eva Adams" and "Eva Zlotchevr," mistakenly thought to have used Rose Strunsky as an alias or actually be the person named "Rose Strunsky." See
https://www.fold3.com/search?keywords=%22Rose+Strunsky%22 
These miscatalogued documents were discovered by Brian Joseph Ferree, for which OutHistory is deeply grateful.