By Monique Politowski This week in 1775, the battles of Lexington and Concord were fought in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts militia and Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith’s group of British troops suffered casualties, but it is still unclear which side fired the first shot that began the American Revolution. Record Group 360, The Papers of the Continental … Continue reading Determining the Deposition in 1775
Today's post is written by Kimberly Kronwall. My grandfather was an avid pilot and builder of airplanes. As a child, I remember walking into his garage to check on the progress of his latest Taylorcraft aircraft. Other than this limited exposure to airplanes (and the commercial flights I frequent) I am not by any means … Continue reading Donated Records: A Worthwhile Adventure
By Alfie Paul Tomorrow we are all Irish. So, to celebrate St. Patirck's Day I had a look around our holdings to see how The Text Message could celebrate Eire. As always I used our Online Public Access (OPA) system and found some expected things: Consular records in RG 84 (Records of the Foreign Service Posts … Continue reading Irish American Heroes
Today's post is written by Amber Thiele, a processing archivst with civilian textual records in College Park. Sometimes while processing textual records you find something that makes you think, "hmmm…this would get more use if it was in another part of the National Archives and Records Administration." Usually in the Textual Archives Services Division, this … Continue reading Transferring records
As Black History Month draws to a close, nothing illustrates the great progress of the civil rights movement more than a glimpse at a bleaker era. The work we do every day at the National Archives is for the express purpose of preserving historical context, even the disturbing parts, as exemplified in today’s post, written … Continue reading That Cognac Can Get You Into Very, Very Bad Trouble!
Today's post is by Alan Walker, a processing archivist at Archives II. As a kid I was captivated by the sinking of the RMS Titanic. The drama of such a man-made behemoth falling victim to an iceberg and the scope of the human tragedy conspired to trigger the imaginations of this impressionable youth. I read … Continue reading Browsing, Serendipity, and a Titanic Discovery
Today's post is written by Liz Caringola, who works on our ancestry.com digitization project. February 22, 2012, marks the 25th anniversary of the death of American pop artist Andy Warhol. The Pittsburgh native rose to fame in the 1960s as one of the most prominent members of the American pop art movement. He remained a … Continue reading Remembering Andy through the Archives
Today's post is written by Aaron Mannes, a citizen researcher from the University of Maryland's Laboratory of Computational Cultural Dynamics. He is a doctoral candidate at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy who is writing a dissertation on the national security role of the vice president. If you have a lot of time … Continue reading From a researcher’s perspective
By Alfie Paul Presidents Day is celebrated in honor of the birthday of our first president, George Washington, who was born February 22nd. But what if he was not actually the first President of the nation? What if we celebrated this holiday in April instead? When all of the states ratified the Articles of Confederation … Continue reading President’s/Presidents’/Presidents Day?
Today's post is written by Alan Walker, a processing archivist in Research Services. Earlier I described to you the Overseas Mission records of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and our project to transform them from the unfortunate and inaccessible state in which they arrived at Archives II. These records have proven a time-consuming challenge for … Continue reading Our Mission: The Missions of AID, Part II
