March is Women’s History Month. Visit the National Archives website for resources and virtual events related to women’s history. Today’s post comes from Callie Belback from the National Archives History Office. Today in the United States, anyone above the age of 18 can apply for a credit card or a loan and be considered solely … Continue reading On the Basis of Sex: Equal Credit Opportunities
We are taking a look at past staff and their many contributions to the National Archives throughout history. Today’s staff spotlight is on Marion Tinling, an expert on shorthand, who worked for the National Historical Publications Commission in the 1950s and early 1960s. Marion Tinling (née Goble) was born on December 17, 1904, in Queens, … Continue reading Historic Staff Spotlight: Marion Tinling
On April 1, 2022, the National Archives released the 1950 Census. For more information and to view the census, visit the National Archives website. The U.S. Constitution requires that an enumeration be taken every 10 years to determine the size of the House of Representatives. The Constitution originally designated 65 members in the House but … Continue reading The 1790 Census and the First Veto
We're concluding Black History Month with a post on Marian Anderson from Adam Berenbak in the Center for Legislative Archives. For more information on resources related to African American History, visit the National Archives website. Petition from Omega Psi Phi, April 1939. (Records of the U.S. Senate, National Archives) This petition was sent to the … Continue reading Marian Anderson’s 1939 Easter Concert
Today’s post comes from Rachel Bartgis, conservator technician at the National Archives at College Park, MD. During the 1770s and 1780s, the U.S. capital moved up and down the eastern seaboard from city to city. While its stay in Philadelphia might be the most famous, it also traveled south to Annapolis in 1783–84 and north … Continue reading A Different Columbia as Capital City
Today’s post comes from Rachel Bartgis, conservator technician at the National Archives at College Park, MD. Barbara Jordan, 10/18/1976. (LBJ Presidential Library, National Archives) Barbara Jordan (1936-1996) was a lawyer, teacher, civil rights leader, lawmaker, and first LGBTQ+ woman in Congress. Born in Houston, in Texas's historically Black Fifth Ward, Jordan was the great-granddaughter of … Continue reading LGBTQ+ History Month: Barbara Jordan
We’re wrapping up Black History Month with a post from Adam Berenbak, an archivist in the Center for Legislative Archives. Novelist, essayist, poet, and activist James Baldwin (1924–87) “created works of literary beauty and depth that will remain essential parts of the American canon.”[1] He was an openly gay, Black man living in the Civil … Continue reading James Baldwin and Freedom Summer
When you vote in November, you won’t be casting your ballot directly for the Republican nominee or the Democratic nominee or any other candidate who wants to be President. Instead, you will be voting for the people who will actually “elect” the next President. They are called “electors,” and their names are often on the … Continue reading The National Archives and the Electoral College
As we get ready to go to the polls on November 3, we're looking back one of the more controversial elections—the 1824 Presidential election. Today’s post comes from Michael J. Hancock, an archives technician at the National Archives at College Park, MD. John Quincy Adams was elected President on February 9, 1825, when the House … Continue reading The 1824 Presidential Election and the “Corrupt Bargain”
Today’s post comes from Andrew Salyer, an archives technician at the National Archives at Philadelphia. The U.S. Congress passed the first Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, though the conditions its passage sought to remediate had been brewing as early as the 1850s. From the 1850s to the 1880s, Chinese workers migrated to the United States and … Continue reading Navigating the Law: The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Trials of a Journey Home
