This post comes from Mary Ryan, managing editor of Prologue magazine and was originally published in the Winter 2016 issue of Prologue. On December 15 we observe the 225th anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights. One-by-one, from 1789 to 1791, the states ratified 10 amendments to the nation’s new Constitution. The process had begun … Continue reading Ratifying the Bill of Rights . . . in 1939
Today's post was originally published in Prologue: Quarterly of the National Archives in the Winter 2011 issue (Vol. 43, no. 4). While Chicago Burned Records of an Obscure Court Case Yield New Details on the 1871 Fire By Ann Patricia Duffy When the fire brigade's general alarm bells sounded on the night of October 8, 1871, … Continue reading While Chicago Burned
This post comes to us from Miriam Kleiman, Program Director for Public Affairs. After 20 years at the National Archives (first as a researcher, then employee), I’m still delighted to discover new (to me) archival treasures. Not so long ago, a reporter asked me if the Archives had any Frank Sinatra–related records to mark the centennial … Continue reading Regrets, he had a few . . .
(Today’s post is from Jim Worsham, editor of Prologue magazine, the quarterly of the National Archives and Records Administration, and is based on a longer article in the Summer 2015 issue.) President Harry S. Truman watched the clock closely, wanting to abide by the agreement to make the historic announcement at the same time as … Continue reading Victory! Americans Everywhere Celebrated the End of World War II in 1945
This post comes from Greg Bradsher's latest article “Hitler’s Final Words” in Prologue magazine. Bradsher is a senior archivist at the National Archives and a frequent contributor to Prologue. A little after 11 p.m., Gertrude Junge, the 25-year-old secretary to Adolf Hitler, woke from a one-hour nap, and, thinking it was time for the nightly tea with her … Continue reading Hitler’s Final Words
This post was originally published as an article by Trevor Plante in the Spring 2015 issue of Prologue magazine. Trevor K. Plante is chief of the Reference Services Branch at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. He is a supervisory archivist who specializes in 19th- and early 20th-century military records and is an active lecturer and a frequent … Continue reading Ending the Bloodshed: The Last Surrenders of the Civil War
Citizen Archivists! You can transcribe this document as part of our #SunshineWeek Transcription Challenge! The black-bordered letter sent to President Martin Van Buren relayed the official news that the king of the United Kingdom, His Majesty William IV, had died on June 20, 1837. The new monarch was the late king’s niece, 18-year-old Victoria. Writing … Continue reading Your Good Friend, Victoria R
In honor of Festivus, this seems like the perfect document for the airing of grievances. This feature was originally published in Prologue: Quarterly of the National Archives (Summer 2013). At the National Archives, and almost any other archival institution, one of the principal rules for using original records is to keep the records in the same order … Continue reading An airing of grievances: A pension clerk’s appeal
Today’s post comes from Miriam Kleiman of the National Archives Public Affairs Staff. I’ve worked at the National Archives for many years and have always been content with our 13 Presidential libraries (Hoover through Bush 43). Sure, I’ve thought wistfully about a Washington, Adams, or Lincoln Library. But only recently did I long for a … Continue reading Was Harding’s mistress a spy? The National Archives knows and tells.
Almost 220 years ago, representatives of the United States and more than 1,600 people from Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy (Six Nations—Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and Tuscarora) gathered together near Canandaigua, New York (the Finger Lakes region) to discuss peace and friendship. On November 11, 1794, more than 50 chiefs and sachems, including Cornplanter and Red … Continue reading Indian Treaties at the Museum of the American Indian
