We were amused by all your suggestions of light-fingered artists and wild wedding cake toppers, but we were most impressed that several of our captioners knew who the artist was—and what that outrageous piece of silver was! In the end, we picked up our editorial trident and poked Darren Cole to make him pick a … Continue reading Thursday Photo Caption Contest
This postcard (ARC 2657925) was enclosed with several others as part of a letter from Acting Secretary of State Robert Bacon to U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom Whitelaw Reid regarding postcards that were circulating in South Africa regarding the meatpacking industry. Do you like to be scared? If you do, forget about watching Halloween … Continue reading Need a Halloween costume? Four food frights from our holdings
Today's guest post is from Edith Lee-Payne. The dedication of the Martin Luther King, Jr., memorial will take place this Sunday, October 16. One of the women in attendence will be Edith Lee-Payne. You might recognize her. Photographer Rowland Scherman snapped a photo of Edith, then a 12-year-old girl with her mother, holding a banner at the March on … Continue reading Finding the girl in the photograph
We're excited to announce that you can now play with historic records outside the National Archives Building! The Foundation for the National Archives, the National Archives’ nonprofit partner, has partnered with mobile gaming company SCVNGR to build a game that lets you experience our historic records in the very places where their creators lived and worked. … Continue reading Get your smartphone–we’re on SCVNGR!
Choosing this week's winner was a difficult as balancing a hat on a burro, so we turned to Mary Ryan, who has seen many strange yet historic images from the holdings of the National Archives in her role the managing editor of Prologue magazine. Congratulations to Kim! Check your e-mail for a code for 15% off in the … Continue reading Thursday Photo Caption Contest
Eleanor Roosevelt was born on October 11, 1884. She was the niece of former President Theodore Roosevelt, and later became the wife of future President Franklin D. Roosevelt (her fifth cousin). She is known for her role as First Lady during the Great Depression and World War II. She was the first woman in that … Continue reading Eleanor Roosevelt, what’s in your wallet?
After much head scratching and sniffing—I mean, thinking—over which caption to choose (Khrushchev? Nipper? Kodak?) we decided to ask for help. We put in a request for assistance from Miriam Nisbet, who is the Director of the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS). When she isn't sorting out FOIA requests, she's working with guide dogs, so … Continue reading Thursday Photo Caption Contest
Today's guest post comes from Jennifer Audsley Moore, who is an archives technician and volunteer coordinator at the National Archives at Kansas City. Whale: It’s what’s for dinner. At least, that is how the U.S. Food Administration and U.S Bureau of Fisheries would have it. During World War I, the U.S. Food Administration was established … Continue reading What’s Cooking Wednesday: Whale Surprise!
Today in 1881, President Garfield died as the result of being shot at close range by an assassin. It took him nearly three months to die. On July 2, after months of increasing agitation and several aborted attempts to shoot the President with a pearl-handled pistol, Charles Guiteau finally mortally wounded the President as he waited … Continue reading Paging Dr. Bell to the President’s deathbed
Oh, President Taft. It was your birthday yesterday, and I just had to feature you here on Facial Hair Friday. You were one of the few Presidents that seemed to stick my brain when I was studying for the AP History exam. Important dates, key battles, our founding documents—I could barely keep those facts stuck to my … Continue reading Facial Hair Friday: A really big mustache—and bathtub
