Thursday Photo Caption Contest: March 22

One man in last week's picture wasn't happy, but all your comments made us smile! Our guest judge is Jackie Budell, an archives specialist who supervises groups of devoted volunteers who are currently processing the Civil War Widows files, an enormous project with thousands of documents that need to be carefully handled--you never know what … Continue reading Thursday Photo Caption Contest: March 22

Lucy Ridsdale and the Titanic Tragedy

Today's post comes from Christopher Zarr of the National Archives at New York City. At first glance, some of our records may not grab your attention. Take for instance, two documents labeled Exhibit C and D. Exhibit C is a ticket from 1912 for excess luggage, and Exhibit D is a claim coupon to pick up one's bags … Continue reading Lucy Ridsdale and the Titanic Tragedy

Facial Hair Friday: When Irish mustaches are smiling

Happy St. Patrick's Day! With all the hoopla over the upcoming release of the 1940 census on April 2, we haven't really been thinking about facial hair all that much. But then fellow National Archives staff member Jeannie (of the OurPresidents tumblr blog) sent me this photograph, and genealogy, facial hair, and St. Patrick's Day all … Continue reading Facial Hair Friday: When Irish mustaches are smiling

Thursday Photo Caption Contest: March 15

If things look ugly in this picture, it's nothing compared to our office when we tried to pick a winner for last week's nautical naughtiness. We turned over the responsibility to guest judge Mark Mollan, who has been a Navy/Maritime Reference Archivist for 9 years at the National Archives. Mark is used to tackling large projects: he … Continue reading Thursday Photo Caption Contest: March 15

A Public Enemy’s Life in the Fast Lane

Today's post comes from Gregory Marose, an intern in the National Archives Office of Strategy and Communications. The National Archives is known for maintaining and preserving documents like the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. But among America’s historic documents, there are also records of bank robbers, bootleggers, and gangsters. In this week’s “True Crime at … Continue reading A Public Enemy’s Life in the Fast Lane

Thursday Photo Caption Contest: March 8

Your captions were as sweet and delicious as cold beer on a hot summer's day! And we knew just who to ask to serve as guest judge: beer enthusiast and information technology specialist Crystal Brooks. Even though Crystal modestly claims to still be a novice when it comes to home brewing, we knew that she … Continue reading Thursday Photo Caption Contest: March 8

History Crush: Susan B. Anthony

Today's History Crush guest post comes from the National Archives staff in New York City. Sara Lyons Pasquerello, education technician, and Angela Tudico, archives technician, don't care about clichés! Their love for this suffragist will never falter—and might even expand! As we enter Women’s History Month, it is only fitting that we reveal our history crush—Susan … Continue reading History Crush: Susan B. Anthony

A Matter of Simple Justice

Today’s guest post was written by Barbara Hackman Franklin, former White House staff member for the recruitment of women and former U.S. Secretary of Commerce. The story of how Franklin and other women cracked the glass ceiling is finally told in a new book that draws from “A Few Good Women,” an oral history project … Continue reading A Matter of Simple Justice

Thursday Photo Caption Contest–March 1

Apparently the sight of a scantily clad man engrossed in his knitting fired up the imaginations of our readers! We made a cup of tea and settled down to knit one, purl two our way through your many caption submissions. ?Leg warmers! Greek mythology! Puns! Poor fashion sense! We became so tangled that we turned to guest … Continue reading Thursday Photo Caption Contest–March 1

Thursday Photo Caption Contest: February 23

Perhaps it was the effect of all four of those Seussian megaphones, but your captions were extra funny this week. We could indeed hear you now and we did need a Ricola to soothe our throats from chortling, but we finally had to call in to this week's special guest judge. Congratulations to Mandi! Your clever pun on tickled the … Continue reading Thursday Photo Caption Contest: February 23