Press Release
For immediate release
Expanding Frontiers Research to Launch Online UFO Archive
Expanding Frontiers Research (EFR) is set to launch an online archive about UFO reports and investigators. The Salt Lake City nonprofit organization will publish the archive Thursday, Sep. 14, at its website, Expanding Frontiers Research dot org. Records spanning decades will be freely accessible to researchers and anyone interested in browsing and downloading the material. Historic documents and audio recordings reflecting events surrounding UFO investigations, correspondence between high-profile researchers, the intelligence community and much more will be featured.
EFR Executive Director Erica Lukes says the timing of publishing the archive couldn't be better, given all the recent interest in UFOs and what some are calling UAP. “With the UFO hearings in Washington and all the public interest,” Lukes said, “the archive launch comes at an exciting and critical time to look at this subject, understand its history, and see the potential for disinformation and spy games, all while considering the possibility of life out there.”
Lukes began collecting UFO memorabilia several years ago. People started donating their personal collections to her growing file cabinets of material. Donors included investigators who spent lifetimes compiling case files and correspondence. Lukes now maintains a substantial physical collection making up one of the most important UFO archives in the United States. She subsequently co-founded Expanding Frontiers Research in 2022 and got to work scanning records and preparing them for posting.
The online archive will include selections from the special collections of the late UFO research pioneers Ann Druffel and Gordon Lore, as well as records donated by longtime archivist Barry Greenwood. Work and correspondence with scientists J. Allen Hynek and James McDonald, as well as famous alleged alien abductee Betty Hill, will be featured.
“While UFOs can be a fun and fascinating topic to explore, it's important for people to get a complete view of the individuals who made up the UFO subculture over the decades,” Lukes explained. “When we can browse the notes made by investigators and their contacts for ourselves, it better informs our perspectives than when we are limited to cherry-picked data that promotes a single point of view. At EFR we strive to publish reliable information that helps peel back some layers and show what's really been happening. That includes the good, the bad, and the ugly.”
The Emma Woods Special Collection will be among the sections maintained in the online archive. “Emma Woods,” a pseudonym, became a controversial figure in the UFO genre after she voiced objections to the actions and methodologies of UFO investigator and author David Jacobs. Her complaints arose out of her 2002-2007 interactions with Jacobs which included his highly questionable uses of hypnosis. Woods has been contributing records to the EFR archive for publication.
The archive will also highlight records obtained from intelligence agencies through the Freedom of Information Act. This includes FBI documents pertaining to intelligence officers who were active in the UFO community throughout their careers. EFR conducts FOIA requests as an ongoing part of its standard operations.
“More clearly understanding the past helps us more accurately understand the present,” Lukes explained, “and there are no better ways of learning the past than through official documents and going right to the original sources.”
Browse the Expanding Frontiers Research archive when it goes live Sep. 14 and learn more about the organization's activities at expandingfrontiersresearch.org.