in 1974, congress passed the presidential recordings and materials preservation act of 1974, placing the presidential records of richard nixon in federal custody to prevent their destruction. the legislative action was intended to reduce secrecy, while allowing historians to perform their responsibilities. in 1972, decades worth of official and unofficial federal bureau of investigation records had been destroyed, upon the death of j. edgar hoover, by his longtime secretary, helen gandy. the presidential records act of 1978 expanded such protection of historical records, by mandating that the records of former presidents would automatically become the property of the federal government upon their departures from the oval office, and then transferred to the archivist of the united states, thereafter to be made available to the public after no more than 12 years.