As said in the title, my husband and I discovered that his grandfather was involved in specialized WWII intelligence work and was extremely highly praised in multiple documents from highly ranked military members. There is some classified information pertaining to the central intelligence agency in it's infancy in the 40's. There are also some letters that seem to be hiding codes. We want to find out more information about these inherited documents. Who should we be looking to talk to?
I would suggest reaching out to Dr. John Prados at the National Security Archive (nsarchiv@gwu.edu). He has extensive expertise in World War II, the history of the CIA, and working with declassified government documents.
Do NOT donate them to a museum. Loan it to them instead.
Fototeka gallery in LA has handled the LAPD archives and exhibits some of the crime scene photos. I think they would be interested in both the Black Dahlia photos and hearing how your grandfather came upon them.
I'd recommend contacting Dr. Kurt Piehler at Florida State Unviersity, at kpiehler@fsu.edu. He runs the Institute on World War II and the Human Experience. Even if they are unable to look at the objects he could direct you to someone who could help you.
I'm sure Dr. Prados will be smart enough on the subject to recommend the same, but please don't just go sharing the documents with anyone. Classified documents, even really old ones, still are considered classified until officially declassified by the correct authority. Until that has been done, the documents are still covered by a number of US codes and laws that could in theory be brought to bear against you. If you were to just give them to a museum or post them on the internet as some others have recommended and it was later determined that the documents contained information that was still potentially harmful to national security (with codes and the CIA mentioned I wouldn't be all that surprised), you could be in deep trouble for transmitting classified information to unauthorized persons. Even if nothing was still sensitive, you could still get into trouble if the right prosecutor decided to make an example. Not likely, but still possible so please exercise caution.
Both the Huntington Library and USC Libraries may be interested in collecting at least the Black Dahlia photos; they each have extensive collections relating to the history of Los Angeles and California.
Jennifer Watts at the Huntington (jwatts@huntington.org) - photography; Clay Stalls at the Huntington (cstalls@huntington.org) - California collections; and I can find a specific person at USC if you're interested but here's the collection info: https://libraries.usc.edu/locations/special-collections/los-angeles-and-southern-california-regional-history
I'm really interested to see what comes of this
If anything you have may still be classified, I recommend getting in touch with your local FBI field office. Such documents are technically property of the US Government and it could be a crime to give them to the wrong person. They will be clearly labeled with their classification level, either on each page or maybe just with a cover sheet. The FBI can provide guidance on what to do next.
Whatever the arrangement, get it in writing.
Is there a reason no one has proposed making high quality scans of the documents and releasing it online so they're publicly accessible? The physical material could still be loaned to museums, historians, or the like while making sure that the public also is able to get access to it.
The author James Ellroy would probably be very interested in the Black Dahlia material (Ellroy's mom was one of his first victims).
I'd start with the Smithsonian in DC followed by the Truman Library in MO.
A publicist. They'll find the ideal people...