In the early afternoon of December 7, 1941, Franklin D. Roosevelt was just finishing lunch in his oval study on the second floor of the White House, preparing to work on his stamp album. The phone rang, and he was informed that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, shortly before 1 p.m. Washington time, … Continue reading Crafting a Call to Arms: FDR’s Day of Infamy Speech
We've got lots of artists in the building today. If you visit the National Archives Building from December 2 to 6, you can partake of history and do your Christmas shopping and support local artists and support the programs of the National Archives! The holiday fair is officially titled "The Way We Worked" American Artisans Fair. Local … Continue reading Artists at work in the National Archives
One of the themes throughout our "What's Cooking Wednesday" posts has been war and food rationing. American citizens were asked to grow their own food, ration sugar, and eat less meat so that there would be more supplies for soldiers fighting overseas and for people with little food left in their war-torn country. As a result, … Continue reading What’s Cooking Wednesday: Flour Sack Art
About 20,000 women volunteered in military hospitals during the Civil War. Unfortunately, the majority of them left little or no written evidence of their sacrifice in the war. Louisa May Alcott, renowned 19th-century author of Little Women, was one of them, and her service is documented in a Washington, D.C., hospital’s muster roll. Alcott was … Continue reading Little Women in the Civil War
What do you if you love Thanksgiving but it falls on a day when you can't eat turkey? In 1947, President Truman faced an awkward dilemma. Truman took up the office of President during World War II, but even after the war ended, the plight of the Europeans was on his mind. Americans were still urged … Continue reading What’s Cooking Wednesday: Truman and the no-turkey Thursday
Today's post is by Miriam Kleiman, public relations specialist at the National Archives. Jack Kerouac—American counterculture hero, king of the Beats, and author of On the Road—was a Navy military recruit who failed boot camp. Navy doctors found Kerouac delusional, grandiose, and promiscuous, and questioned his strange writing obsession. I learned this in 2005, right … Continue reading Hit the Road, Jack!
Today in 1886, former President Chester A. Arthur died from complications from Bright's disease. He had not been relected for second term, and he had left office in 1884. He died in New York City, just 56 years old. Although he sported the facial hair style of the time, Arthur was an unlikely President. He … Continue reading Facial Hair Friday: Rising above party politics
Last week's image may have sparked some of our best captions yet! Apparently a giant roll of paper makes our readers think of their experiences in the National Archives research room, Twitter, and toilet paper at the State Department. But it reminded us of another enormous rolled document featured on Pieces of History: a 1954 … Continue reading Thursday Photo Caption
Congratulations to Sheila Fisher, whose comment on last week's post, "A fire place with hickory wood burning and crackling. Nothing makes a house smell more like a home than a wood burning fireplace on a frosty winter morning! MMMMMM" was randomly chosen by Patty Mason, the editor of Eating with Uncle Sam. The Foundation for the … Continue reading What’s Cooking Wednesday: Giving thanks for the calorie?
This story originally appeared in the Fall 2009 issue of Prologue magazine. Herman Melville's classic American novel, Moby-Dick, was first published in the United States on November 14, 1851. In Moby-Dick and his earlier books, Melville called upon his own experience aboard whaling ships, most notably his 18 months spent aboard the Acushnet, sailing out … Continue reading Herman Melville: A Voyage into History
