Today’s post comes from Rachel Bartgis, conservator technician at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland. During the U.S. Civil War, the manufacture of gunpowder became a serious concern for the Confederacy. While there were several powder mills located in the country, the United States had imported most of the wood ash, sulfur, and saltpeter … Continue reading Enslaved Women of the Confederate Nitre Works
Today’s post comes from Rachel Bartgis, conservator technician at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland. During the U.S. Civil War, the Confederate Army required enslavers to loan their enslaved people to the military. Throughout the Confederacy from Florida to Virginia, these enslaved people served as cooks and laundresses, labored in deadly conditions to mine … Continue reading Confederate Slave Payrolls
Today’s post comes from Missy McNatt, Education Specialist at the National Archives in Washington, DC. I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. I was promoted from there to the washtub. Then I was promoted to the cook kitchen, and from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair … Continue reading Madam C. J. Walker’s Rags-to-Riches Story Found in the Holdings of the National Archives
Today’s Facial Hair Friday candidate is Robert Gould Shaw, whose moustaches are probably best known because of his portrayal by Matthew Broderick in the 1989 film Glory. This post is from Rachel Bartgis, conservator technician at the National Archives at College Park, MD. Robert Gould Shaw was born in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, in 1837. His parents, … Continue reading Facial Hair Friday: Robert Gould Shaw
Today’s post comes from Rachel Bartgis, conservator technician at the National Archives at College Park, MD. 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 Edward Patton, one of the last African Americans … 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
February is Black History Month. Visit our website for information on related resources and virtual events. Today’s post comes from Thomas Richardson, an archives technician at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, MO. The valiant effort of those who fought and sacrificed themselves in the line of duty during World War II is … Continue reading Victory at Home and Abroad: Combating Segregation in the Armed Forces
Join us today @USNatArchives on Twitter and Instagram for the #ArchivesHashtagParty #ArchivesBlackEducation. We will be sharing stories from our Rediscovering Black History blog and our online Catalog. Thurgood Marshall was leader in the struggle against racial discrimination in the United States for a good part of the 20th century. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, he graduated … Continue reading Facial Hair Friday: The Honorable Thurgood Marshall
Today’s post comes from Ben Miller, an intern with the Exhibits team at the National Archives Museum. On August 31, 1852, Congress appropriated $100,000 to create the government hospital for the insane in Washington, DC. Soon known as St. Elizabeths, the hospital was meant to be a “model institution,” providing the highest quality mental health … Continue reading Treating Race at St. Elizabeths Hospital
100 years ago in August, the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote, became law after decades of work from both female and male suffragists. Visit our website to learn more about the history of the woman suffrage movement. While Frederick Douglass is perhaps most well known as an abolitionist (and for his salt-and-pepper … Continue reading Facial Hair Friday: Frederick Douglass, Woman Suffrage Activist
