“An Act of Displeasure:” Reaction to the Possibility of a Woman Ambassador, 1951

In April 1950, the United States and Ireland elevated the diplomatic presence in their respective national capitals from a legation (headed by an Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary) to an embassy (headed by an Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary).  The last American minister and first American ambassador to Ireland was George A. Garrett, whose tenure covered … Continue reading “An Act of Displeasure:” Reaction to the Possibility of a Woman Ambassador, 1951

photo of man w/short hair and mustache, bare torso, right side turned toward camera to show amputated right arm at the shoulder, w/exposed bone

BENEATH HIS SHIRT SLEEVES: Evidence of Injury

Tintype Images of Wounded Civil War Union Soldiers from Pension Application Files in the U.S. National Archives **Please note that the following post contains graphic images that may be disturbing to some readers.** This is the first of two posts about personal tintype images of wounded soldiers in the Civil War Pension Application Files from … Continue reading BENEATH HIS SHIRT SLEEVES: Evidence of Injury

Decisions of the Board of Special Inquiry: The Story of Irish Immigrant Bridget Donaghy

Today's post comes to us from Griffin Godoy, history education undergraduate student at Temple University. Griffin interned with the National Archives at Philadelphia virtually last fall as a part of the Cultural Fieldwork Initiative (CFI), a partnership with the Temple University College of Education Social Studies faculty and more than 30 regional cultural institutions. The … Continue reading Decisions of the Board of Special Inquiry: The Story of Irish Immigrant Bridget Donaghy

IRELAND: THE EASTER RISING, 1916: FOLLOW-UP ON EAMON DE VALERA

Today’s post is written by David Langbart, Archivist at the National Archives at College Park. Ambassador (ret.) Peter Bridges was good enough to post a link to an interesting article by Robert Schmuhl in a comment on the earlier post about the Easter Rising in Ireland. In his article, Professor Schmuhl describes how Eamon de … Continue reading IRELAND: THE EASTER RISING, 1916: FOLLOW-UP ON EAMON DE VALERA

Ireland: The Easter Rising, 1916

Today’s post is written by David Langbart, Archivist at the National Archives at College Park. The Easter Rising of April 24-29, 1916 is one of the most momentous events in modern Ireland's history. The Rising, which took place in Dublin, was an effort by the Irish to throw off the yoke of British rule and … Continue reading Ireland: The Easter Rising, 1916

Irish American Heroes

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