When Will You Be In The Office (1959)?

Today’s Federal work environment features the flextime and flexplace policies that have evolved over the past several decades.  As a result, few current U.S. Government employees remember when agencies had fixed work hours.  Before the flex policies went into effect, start and end times for offices in Washington, DC, were staggered to spread out the … Continue reading When Will You Be In The Office (1959)?

The Story of Two Presidents and One Dam Model

Today’s post is written by Cody White, Archivist at the National Archives at Denver The contractors were given seven years to do the impossible: dam up the mighty Colorado River in Black Canyon, southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada. But it only took them five, when in 1936 the completed dam was formally turned over to … Continue reading The Story of Two Presidents and One Dam Model

The Wrath of Steinbeck: John Steinbeck on the Press in Vietnam, 1967

On February 8, 1967, famed American author John Steinbeck, then in Bangkok, Thailand, sent Secretary of State Dean Rusk a letter.  In it, Steinbeck excoriated the performance of the press in Vietnam and criticized anti-war protesters.  Steinbeck is the author of major American literary classics such as Tortilla Flat (1935), Of Mice and Men (1937), … Continue reading The Wrath of Steinbeck: John Steinbeck on the Press in Vietnam, 1967

Norman Rockwell and his Dam Painting

Today’s post is written by Cody White, Archivist at the National Archives at Denver. “That’s a mechanical drawing . . . where’s some human interest?” posed the famous artist as he took in the vista of Arizona’s 710-foot-tall, 1,560-foot-wide Glen Canyon Dam. The Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) staffers accompanying the artist—who at that point in … Continue reading Norman Rockwell and his Dam Painting