June 9 is International Archives Day. It commemorates the day the International Council on Archives (ICA) was created in 1948. On International Archives Day, archives all over the world will host special events to show off their collections or the work that they do, and will share stories with each other and with fans of … Continue reading International Archives Day
Today’s post comes from Alan Walker, an archivist in Textual Processing at the National Archives at College Park. Now that the spring semester for colleges and universities across the nation has winded down, thousands of students are preparing to begin their internships. Many of them will come to Washington, DC, to work in the many federal agencies … Continue reading Our First Intern, 1939
May 29, 2017, marks the 100th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s birth. Visit our JFK Centennial web page to celebrate the life and legacy of the 35th President of the United States. The John F. Kennedy Library didn’t open for more than 15 years after the President’s death. It was originally supposed to have been … Continue reading Celebrating JFK
May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. Visit the National Archives website for more information on our related holdings. Today's guest blogger is Zack Wilske, Senior Historian at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) Chinese Exclusion Act case files held at National Archives facilities across the country provide valuable resources … Continue reading Chinese Exclusion Act Case Files and the USCIS Master Index
Every year I struggle with how I can show appreciation for my mom on Mother’s Day. This year I'm going retro and “making” my mom a gift by highlighting some of the National Archives holdings that relate to Mother’s Day. Although it was celebrated in several states for years, the first time Mother’s Day became … Continue reading Happy Mother’s Day!
Today’s post comes from Sonia Kahn in the National Archives History Office. Visit the National Archives website for a full list of events and activities related to the 100th anniversary of World War I. The draft—the lottery no one wants to win. On April 6, 1917, the United States formally joined World War I, which … Continue reading The origins of America’s Unlucky Lottery
This May we celebrate both Public Service Recognition Week and the centennial of the birth of a President closely associated with public service: John F. Kennedy. In Kennedy’s first inaugural address, in 1961, he made his famous call to public service by asking Americans “to ask not what your country can do for you—ask what … Continue reading A Call to Public Service: the Peace Corps
Today’s post comes from Jim Worsham, editor of Prologue, the quarterly magazine of the National Archives. Four months after Japan’s surprise attack at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the aircraft carrier USS Hornet sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge and out of San Francisco Bay into the Pacific on a secret mission. On the Hornet’s deck sat … Continue reading The Doolittle Raid: America’s First Strike Back on Japan
Since the National Archives was established more than 80 years ago, millions of people from the United States and abroad have visited our historic building in Washington, DC. Ten of those visitors were sitting U.S. Presidents. In 1933, before there was a building, President Herbert Hoover became the first President to visit when he laid … Continue reading From 1600 to 700 Pennsylvania Avenue: Presidential Visits to the National Archives
In the National Archives Building in Washington, DC, hang portraits of the first nine Archivists of the United States, and Waldo Gifford Leland, who was instrumental in the agency’s creation. Sharing a wall with Leland and the first U.S. Archivist Robert D.W. Connor is the portrait of our second Archivist, Solon J. Buck. Buck became … Continue reading Solon Buck Portrait
