Our guest blogger today is Allison Walsh, an Archives Technician at Archives I who works with Navy / Maritime records. She is proud to display the Stars and Stripes every Flag Day, which also happens to be her birthday. Finding the file number nearby, I carefully pulled the trifolded papers open. A handwritten letter dating from … Continue reading Old Glory and the Representation of U.S. Territories
For today's post we are thrilled to open our blog space to NARA's Wikipedian-in-Residence, Dominic McDevitt-Parks. Everyone knows about Wikipedia (though there is certainly a lot of room for clarification of how it works in practice and why it is valuable for public history), so for this first post, I want to spotlight Wikisource, a … Continue reading Wikimedia and the new collaborative digital archives
Today's post is written by Alfie Paul, a processing archivist at Archives II. On July 20, 1969 the world watched as the first human beings landed on the moon. That day 42 years ago was the culmination of a race to the moon that President John F. Kennedy began in 1961 saying he believed “that … Continue reading One Small Step
By Alfie Paul In honor of the passing of former First Lady Betty Ford, we thought we would find her in the records. Obviously, there is more to be found in the Ford Presidential Library but she can be found in our corner of NARA as well. Elizabeth Ann Bloomer Warren Ford, Betty, was First Lady … Continue reading RIP Betty Ford, April 8, 1918 – July 8, 2011
Today’s post is written by Lopez D. Matthews, Jr., an Archives Technician in the Holdings Management Division at Archives II. Occasionally, as we work with records we come across a document that completely catches our attention. This was the case as we began describing the documents held in Record Group 498, the records of the European … Continue reading …And Germany in Ruins Surrendered Unconditionally
Today’s guest blogger is Trevor Plante, a supervisory archivist at the National Archives in Washington, DC. Following up on two recent blog posts from our office by Juliette Arai and Mark Mollan I thought it would be a great opportunity to blog about one of my favorite Marine Corps documents that I often show Marines when we … Continue reading Music at the Archives – John Philip Sousa
Today's guest blogger is Mark Mollan, a reference archivist specializing in records of the U.S. Navy and Maritime agencies. Not long ago, an Archives I reference staff member came across a Muster Roll for the USCG unit “Tars and Spars”--a touring entertainment troupe created to bolster the morale and support of World War II USCG … Continue reading Before “Your Show of Shows”: Sid Caesar and the Coast Guard
Today’s post is the second in an occasional series where we will highlight some of the work of our volunteers. Jean Onufrak is a volunteer with the Volunteer Office at the National Archives at College Park. When you think of the term “chemical weapons”, you probably think of their use nowadays in terrorist actions or contentious … Continue reading How World War I Also Became Known as The Chemist’s War
Today's post is written by Dale Jackson, an enthusiastic archives technician with the Navy Records processing team at Archives II. Hello, here at the National Archives we the Archives Technicians have had the opportunity to process, preserve, and repair historical military records, specifically from the United States Navy. My undergraduate major is in Criminal Justice, … Continue reading Seamanship: A Report from the Navy Team
Today's post is written by James Rush, a supervisory archivist in the textual processing unit at Archives II. On June 8, 2011, the National Security Agency announced that it had declassified and released to the National Archives and Records Administration over 50,000 pages of historic records relating to cryptology and the history of intelligence gathering. … Continue reading After 200 years, a glimpse into The Art of Secret Writing
