Today's post comes from National Archives Office of Strategy and Communications staff writer Rob Crotty. One hundred forty three years ago today, the people of Alaska went to bed under the Russian flag, and awoke under the Stars and Stripes. They also woke up eleven days in the future. The purchase of Alaska was not … Continue reading Seward’s time-traveling folly
Today's post comes from National Archives Office of Strategy and Communications staff writer Rob Crotty. Tomorrow there will be a spirited debate at the USS Constitution Museum in Boston, Massachusetts. The Archivist of the United States, David Ferriero, will be there. So will senior archivist Trevor Plante. They are convening at the museum that honors the … Continue reading Where was the Navy born?
Today's post comes from National Archives Office of Strategy and Communications staff writer Rob Crotty. The results are in! Our guest judge Tim Walch, director of the Hoover Presidential Library in Iowa, decided that Shannon's caption takes the prize. "This a wonderful, unexpected, quirky caption-and a great plug for a funny film. Also, we don't think about Rosemary Clooney … Continue reading Thursday’s Photo Caption Contest
Today's post comes from National Archives Office of Strategy and Communications staff writer Rob Crotty. The story of Tokyo Rose is the stuff of legends—an English-speaking Japanese woman who seduced the airwaves of the South Pacific with tales of Japanese success, Allied failures, and honest encouragement to give up the fight and return home. The … Continue reading The orphan called Tokyo Rose
Today's post comes from National Archives Office of Strategy and Communications staff writer Rob Crotty. In 1885, Munich's Oktoberfest was celebrated under the glow of the electric light for the first time. Who was responsible for that feat? None other than Albert Einstein himself. Granted, it may have been his father and uncle who are … Continue reading Beer = mc2
Today's post comes from National Archives Office of Strategy and Communications staff writer Rob Crotty. They say you can't put a price on freedom, but you can put a price on savings bonds! Watch this compilation of famous celebrities plugging savings and stamp bonds, from Mr. Ed and Lassie all the way to the Duke … Continue reading The price of freedom? About a $1.05
Long before the push to make high-speed Internet available across America, Samuel Morse was tap-tap-tapping information across America. By 1838, his telegraph machine was using a dot-and-dash system to send messages of up to 10 words a minute. He even convinced Congress to come to up with $30,000 to help him wire America. Morse was … Continue reading Before there was broadband, there was a beard
This week's winner is PaulO, who won us over with his creepy and vaguely dystopian caption "I am product # 751600." He wins 30% off a numbered product of his choosing at our eStore. And if you think this tube is an escape route from child-shaped robots run amok, you would be partially right! This picture … Continue reading Thursday’s Photo Caption Contest
Today's post comes from National Archives Office of Strategy and Communications staff writer Rob Crotty. Escape and evasion files are firsthand accounts of a military personnel's escape from behind enemy lines. In World War II, thousands of U.S. troops crashed in Nazi territory and had to evade capture or escape from German prisons. The National … Continue reading Escape and Evasion files at the National Archives
Today's post comes from National Archives Office of Strategy and Communications staff writer Rob Crotty. Between negotiating the Compromise of 1850, stymieing southern attempts to turn Cuba into a state, protecting Hawaii from French interests, and working to open up Japan for trade, President Millard Fillmore also appointed Brigham Young as the first governor of … Continue reading Fillmore, Utah. Population 2,150
