---
license: mit
language:
- en
- es
- ru
- bg
- sv
- fi
tags:
- history
- jfk
- archives
- government
- text
- assassinations
pretty_name: JFK Files Text
size_categories:
- 10K<n<100K
task_categories:
- question-answering
- text-classification
- translation
- summarization
- text-generation
---
# National Archives JFK Files Text Dataset

This dataset contains extracted text from the JFK assassination records released by the [National Archives.](https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk) The dataset preserves the original directory structure from archive.gov while providing significant performance and storage benefits for data analysis, AI applications, and large-scale processing.

## Dataset Structure

The dataset is structured with the following columns:

| Column   | Description                                                                 |
|----------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| `year`   | The release year of the document (e.g., 2017, 2018, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2025) |
| `path`   | The relative path to the file, mirroring the archives.gov structure (e.g., `/releases/2022`) |
| `filename` | The original filename (e.g., `docid-32244106.md`)                         |
| `content`  | The full text content of the document                                      |

## Path Organization

The path column preserves the original organizational structure:

- /releases - Files from the 2017 release 
- /releases/additional - Additional files from the 2017 release
- /releases/2018 - Files from the 2018 release
- /releases/2021 - Files from the 2021 release
- /releases/2022 - Files from the 2022 release
- /releases/2023 - Files from the 2023 release
- /releases/2023/08 - Files from August 2023 subset
- /releases/2025/0318 - Files the 2025 release


## Current Status

| Release Year | Status | Extraction Method | Files Extracted | Size | Total Files Listed |
|--------------|---------|-------------------|------------------|------|-------------------|
| 2025 | ✅ Complete | Apple Vision OCR | 2,566 | 8.12GB | 2,566 |
| 2023 | ✅ Complete | Apple Vision OCR | 2,693 | 6.20GB | 2,693 |
| 2022 | ✅ Complete | Apple Vision OCR | 13,199 | 14.15GB | 13,199 |
| 2021 | ✅ Complete | Apple Vision OCR | 1,484 | 1.36GB | 1,484 |
| 2017-2018 | ✅ Complete  | Apple Vision OCR | 53,526| 57.18GB | 53,547 |

Note: 34 files in the 2022 release and 5 files in the 2021 release tie to multiple record numbers listed in the .xlsx files which have more rows than unique file names (13,263 and 1,491 resptively). The [2017-2018 release xlsx file](https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/national-archives-jfk-assassination-records-2017-2018-release.xlsx) contains 6 bad links, but [the 2017-2018 release website](https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/release-2017-2018) lists two files not included in the xlsx in the /additional path. The 2017-2018 release all contains 19 audio files (17 .wav, 2 .mp3). Transcripts of the two .mp3 files are included. The 17 .wav files are very poor quailty with lots of blank space (they may be added later). 

### Archive Statistics
- Total archive size: 87 GB
- Total files: 73,485
- Extracted text in markdown format available on [GitHub](https://github.com/noops888/jfk-files-text/) 

## WebUI 

A simple WebUI to query to the completed Files using the DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B LLM is available at [https://jfkfiles.app.](https://jefkfiles.app)  

## Acknowledgments

- [The National Archives](https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk) for providing the JFK assassination records
- Contributors to the various open-source tools used in this project