In this guest blog post, Dr. Mark Stegmaier, Professor of History at Cameron University in Oklahoma, discovers that sometimes even professional researchers find answers to questions when—and where—they aren't looking for them! In the Winter 2009 issue of Prologue magazine, Dr. Richard McCulley of the National Archives and I published an article titled "Cartography, Politics, … Continue reading Mapping Out A Mystery
D-day conjures up all kinds of images: the thousands of boats making their way across the English Channel, the men leaping off the landing craft and wading ashore under heavy fire, and the dangers once they got onto the beach and headed for the cliffs. It must have been terrifying to be part of the … Continue reading Treating D-Day’s Wounded
If this Friday's facial hair star lived in present times, he would be so very easy to Google. Yes, "Bezaleel Armstrong" would be pretty easy to find on Facebook and the Internet. In fact, even now a quick name-check in the Google search box pulls up plenty of hits on his unique name. He would also be pretty … Continue reading What a beard! What a name!
Congratulations to John W, who has won 15% off at our eStore! It was a tough choice between Stepford babies, "a head" puns, Hamlet, and Oprah references. But our guest judge Diane LeBlanc, Regional Adminstrator for NARA's Northeast Region, thought that your caption captured a curious moment between man and and doll. Our guest judge is based at our … Continue reading Thursday Photo Caption Contest
We’re now in the middle of commencement season, and there’ll be many words of wisdom coming from the mouths of speakers: academicians, celebrities, inventors, authors, artists, business people, and political leaders. Sometimes commencement speeches become historic. President John F. Kennedy announced talks for a test-ban treaty in his commencement speech at American University in 1963, and a … Continue reading History in a Cap and Gown
If you visited the National Archives in Washington, DC, last year and waited in line on the Constitution Avenue side of the building on your way to see our Charters of Freedom, you may have seen a red cart with a big red umbrella and a sign that says "Ask the Question." And now, you … Continue reading Facial Hair Friday: Our very own beard!
It was a tough choice between human-trails and anti-tree safety devices, but our team of judges finally had to go with Penny M, whose caption succinctly captures the importance of safety! We'll email you a code to use for 15% a puchase in our eStore. Although these do appear to be colorful elongated airbags, they … Continue reading Thursday Photo Caption Contest
To celebrate our new exhibit "What's Cooking, Uncle Sam?" we are featuring a food-related blog post every Wednesday. Today's post comes from Christopher Zarr at the National Archives in New York City. The National Archives maintains the primary source documents of the U.S. Food Administration (USFA). Thousands of documents illustrate the local sacrifices and quality … Continue reading What’s Cooking Wednesdays: Eat your peas in NYC
If you have watched the movie Glory, you saw a recreation of the assault on Fort Wagner, South Carolina, by the 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry. But a real-life hero from that battle was Sgt. William Harvey Carney, who was awarded the Medal of Honor on May 23, 1900—37 years after the assault on Fort Wagner. The Medal of Honor is … Continue reading A record of valor
Earlier today, I was searching for images with "bicycles" to create a Facebook album after being inspired by the commuters of DC, who took to the streets on their bikes to celebrate DC Bike to Work Day. I was thrilled to see this image, which is not only a fine example of a nineteenth-century velocipede, … Continue reading Friday Facial Hair: It’s Date Night!
