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!
By T. Juliette Arai As 2012 marks the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, the Reference staff at Archives 1 want to provide a glimpse of some of the series that we have in our custody relating to this conflict. The following list may assist researchers who want to locate records pertaining to the War of 1812. Please … Continue reading Researching the War of 1812: Where to Begin
By Jason Clingerman In June 1954, Guatemalan president Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán was overthrown in a coup that was orchestrated by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and carried out by the Guatemalan exile Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas. Arbenz was targeted in large part because of his land reform policies that affected U.S. companies, namely the United … Continue reading The CIA in Guatemala
By Monique Politowski In 1774, British Parliament implemented the Coercive Acts in response to the destruction of British property by colonists during the Boston Tea Party. Paul Revere reproduced an engraving from a London newspaper that depicted the relationship between the British government and America, and he circulated it among the colonies. A copy of this … Continue reading Boston Tea Party Etiquette Lesson 2: Swallowing the Bitter Draught in Rhode Island
Today's post is written by Monique Politowski, and is part of her ongoing series on the Federalists. Today is the 238th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. On December 16, 1773, men dressed as Native Americans and wearing disguises, destroyed British owned tea by throwing it into the water of Griffin’s Wharf in Boston. Archives II has … Continue reading Boston Tea Party Etiquette
Today's post is written by Katie Hines, a processing archivist with military records in College Park. In December 1969, six-year-old Shannon Hensley wrote to Captain William Q. Sinnott, commanding officer of the 363rd Transportation Company, 92nd Battalion, 80th General Support Group, Da Nang, requesting him to allow her daddy to return home for Christmas. Her … Continue reading “Send my Daddy home”
By T. Juliette Arai With the annual Army-Navy game less than two weeks away, I thought I would share an interesting letter I found among the records of the Adjutant General’s Office (Record Group 94). 2nd Lieutenant Robert C. Foy, 8th U.S. Infantry, sent a letter to Major John A. Johnson, Assistant Adjutant General, on … Continue reading Go Army! Beat Navy!
One of the most frequent kinds of research requests we receive concerns gaining access to military veterans' service records. To do our part to commemorate Veterans Day tomorrow, we've asked Theresa Fitzgerald of the Archives' National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis to write a post on everything you ever wanted to know about accessing … Continue reading Accessing veterans’ records
Many of our NARA colleagues are historians and researchers themselves. In this post, written by Lopez Matthews, we have the opportunity to learn about a few current research projects our staff members are undertaking. If you'd like more information on any of these projects, leave a note in the comments and we'll make sure the … Continue reading Students Share Scholarly Research at NARA
By T. Juliette Arai As we are in the midst of the college and professional football seasons, I thought it might be interesting to have a blog about this sport during its early years, one which shows a few of the football-related records we have here at Archives I. At the turn of the last … Continue reading Football and the U.S. Army in the Early 20th Century
