Today's blog post comes from Jessie Kratz, archives specialist in the Center for Legislative Archives. As woman suffrage advocates marched along Pennsylvania Avenue on March 3, 1913, they were met with crowds of unruly men blocking their paths and shouting derogatory remarks. While making preparations for the parade, organizers had made repeated attempts to secure … Continue reading Suffrage and suffering at the 1913 March
The 19th Amendment is on display from March 1 to March 8 at the National Archives Building in honor of the 100th anniversary of the 1913 woman's suffrage parade in Washington, DC. We will also be screening the 2004 film "Iron-Jawed Angels" at noon on March 2. Today's guest post is from curator Bruce Bustard. … Continue reading The 19th Amendment on display at the National Archives
Today's blog post was written by Sam Rushay, a supervisory archivist at the Truman Presidential Library. In the late summer of 1945, Frances Sarah Curtis of Mt. Rainier, MD, applied for a White House pass. Curtis, a Treasury Department employee in the Bureau of Public Debt (BPD), had worked in the White House File Room … Continue reading Application Denied!
Today’s blog post comes from National Archives social media intern Anna Fitzpatrick. Throughout the Civil War, when President Lincoln needed to concentrate—when he faced a task that required his focused and undivided attention—he would leave the White House, cross the street to the War Department, and take over the desk of Thomas T. Eckert, chief … Continue reading The Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation
Today's post comes from Nikita Buley, an intern in the National Archives Office of Strategy and Communications. Why were neck beards ever socially acceptable? In my humble opinion, they are the facial equivalent of mullets or bowl cuts. Unlike bad haircuts, however, they may have had some useful characteristics. Maybe they kept cold wind from … Continue reading Facial Hair Friday: William and William (A Tale of Two Neck Beards)
These days, pundits, candidates, and party activists like to cite the Constitution of the United States as the moral and legal backing for whatever they’re proposing. But the Constitution is silent on a lot of things you probably thought it said. Here are eight examples. The President can veto a proposed amendment to the Constitution. … Continue reading No, it’s not in the Constitution
Can you search for "Wikileaks" on the National Archives web site? Yes and no. On Saturday morning, November 3, we learned via Twitter that a search for “Wikileaks” on the National Archives web site archives.gov brought up an error notice stating that the URL was banned. However, even at the same time, a search for … Continue reading Looking for “Wikileaks”?
Still trying to think of a clever costume to wear on Halloween? We've listed some of our favorite suggestions below. (And if anyone actually takes us up on these suggestions, please send us a picture!) I Like Ike! Are you a power couple? How about combining the the upcoming election with some historic campaign fun … Continue reading Costume inspiration from the National Archives!
If you have served in the military or worked for the Federal Government, your personnel file is held at the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis, Missouri. More than 34 million files are held in this facility, filling 2.3 million cubic feet of records on 385,000 shelves. There are 6.2 billion feet of … Continue reading Archives Spotlight: National Personnel Records Center
In honor of the 225th anniversary of the Constitution, we challenged citizens on Twitter to take the Preamble of the Constitution and distill its meaning into a twitter-sized bite. The Archivist of the United States chose the winner on the Constitution Day. Congratulations to Jean Huets, who will receive a pocket-sized Constitution from the Foundation … Continue reading Constitution 225: And the winner is….
