Today’s post comes from Emily Niekrasz, an intern in the National Archives History Office in Washington, DC. Since 1936, the National Archives has microfilmed documents in order to preserve frequently used originals and to allow researchers to study materials without making a potentially long and expensive trip to Washington, DC. The National Archives History Office … Continue reading The National Archives: A Pioneer in Microfilm Online Exhibit
At the start of World War II, African Americans serving in the Armed Forces were segregated into all-black units. They were also limited in the types of positions they could hold—blacks in the U.S. military did not fly planes. On April 3, 1939, Congress passed legislation expanding the Army Air Corps (the precursor to today’s … Continue reading Featured document: Tuskegee Airmen
In April 1952 Congress ordered the Library of Congress to transfer the Declaration of Independence and Constitution to the National Archives. The two documents were to go on public display in the National Archives Building along with the Bill of Rights, which was already at the Archives. While the Archives exhibition hall had been specifically … Continue reading Protecting the Bill of Rights: the Mosler Vault
On December 6, 1865, with Georgia’s ratification of the 13th Amendment, slavery throughout the United States became illegal. Just a few years earlier, in 1861, Ohio Representative Thomas Corwin proposed—and both Houses of Congress passed—a constitutional amendment that would have done the exact opposite. Corwin’s amendment read, "No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which … Continue reading On Exhibit: Abolishing Slavery
Today’s post from Eric Rhodes, intern in the National Archives History Office, highlights the National Archives’ Native American holdings in celebration of Native American Heritage Month. In the 1930s, in an effort to remedy the hardships Native Americans had faced under U.S. policy, Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) John Collier took advantage … Continue reading “Indian New Deal”
In commemoration of the anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, today’s post comes from Sarah Basilion, an intern in the National Archives History Office. Sixty years ago, Rosa Parks, a 42-year-old black woman, refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery, Alabama, public bus. On December 1, 1955, Parks, a seamstress … Continue reading The Montgomery Bus Boycott
Today’s post is from Jim Worsham, editor of Prologue magazine, the quarterly of the National Archives. Was Dwight D. Eisenhower—the architect of the allied victory over the Nazis in World War II and our President during the peaceful 1950s—a secret New Dealer? Eisenhower, elected President as a Republican in 1952, brought in with him a Republican-controlled Congress. … Continue reading Was Ike a secret New Dealer?
Today's post comes from Ben Jordi, Public Affairs Specialist in Strategy and Communications, at the National Archives in College Park, MD. Growing up, Clifton Truman Daniel never talked to his grandfather, Harry S. Truman, about his role in the war or the atomic bombings. “Our family met like any other family: on long weekends and … Continue reading Flight of a Sadako Crane
The Refugee Act of 1980 is now on temporary display in the West Gallery of the National Archives Building. At the end of the Vietnam War, hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese and Cambodians fled political chaos and physical danger in their homelands. Between 1975 and 1979, some 300,000 of these refugees were admitted to the … Continue reading On Display: The Refugee Act of 1980
In honor of Veterans Day, today's post comes from Sarah Basilion, an intern in the National Archives History Office. The National Archives is one of the best places to research U.S. military records. As the official repository of military personnel records, the National Archives allows researchers to view documents and records related to the military both … Continue reading Veterans’ Military Records–We’ve Got Them
