Posts about searching and using the records at NARA.
Today's blogger is Meghan Milam, a summer 2013 intern in the Archives I Reference Section who worked with court records. Rights guaranteed by the First Amendment are by no means clearly defined. Contentious, news-worthy cases like those involving Pfc. Manning or Edward Snowden bring the debate into the broader public. The phrase “clear and present danger” is used … Continue reading A Glimpse into the Sedition Case of 1944
Today's post is by College Park processing archivist Alan Walker. True story: Thursday, March 28 was shaping up to be a typical day. I had before me a cart’s worth of boxes full of case files from the Department of Justice that needed to be listed for a spreadsheet of “temporary” files to be disposed. These … Continue reading On the Waterfront, or, The Smell of Discovery
By David Langbart The motto of the National Archives is "What is Past Is Prologue." Recently, while assisting a researcher at Archives II, I ran into my Dad, even though he died several years ago. A bit of background will help you understand. My father's first Government service, like most in his generation, came in … Continue reading A personal prologue at the National Archives
By David Langbart From time to time while working in the records, NARA staff find documents that provide new perspectives on events through which they lived. I recently had that experience. I remember well the terrible humanitarian disaster that befell local populations as Yugoslavia ripped itself apart during the 1990s. I remember, too, how many … Continue reading Yugoslavia 1970: The Writing on the Wall
Today's post (part one in a two-part series) is by National Archives Volunteer Bill Nigh. When I was assigned my first volunteer project, one associated with the U.S. Secret Service (Record Group 87), I wasn’t sure what to expect. Like many my age, I picture the Secret Service agent climbing on the rear deck of … Continue reading The U.S. Secret Service: It Took 42 Years to Protect the President
Today’s post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher. I would wager that few NARA staff members, especially those hired during the past five years, and most researchers are familiar with the Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group (IWG) nor its website: www.archives.gov/iwg. The website contains a wealth of valuable information not … Continue reading A Brief History of the Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group (IWG)
Today’s post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher. The National Archives holds a substantial quantity of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) records. And in the forthcoming years even more records will be accessioned. The FBI case files contain a variety of documentation, including FBI agent reports; teletype-messages; prosecutive summaries; accounts of interviews and physical surveillance; letters; … Continue reading The Challenge of Federal Bureau of Investigation Records: Abbreviations and Euphemisms
Today’s post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher. Nancy Yeide, head of the Department of Curatorial Records at the National Gallery of Art (NGA) in Washington, D.C., in December 1997, began doing provenance research on the NGA’s holdings to ascertain whether any of the works of art had provenance problems. In the wake of the revelations … Continue reading The National Gallery of Art, the National Archives, and Art Provenance Research
By Monique Politowski In 1971, the National Archives established the Center for the Documentary Study of the American Revolution through its American Revolution Bicentennial Administration (Records of the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration: RG 452), at Archives I in Washington, DC. As one of the major Bicentennial projects, the center was a sort of “one stop” … Continue reading Are you down with the PCC? (every name, every place, every subject)
Today's post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher. During the first days of August 2012, at the National Archive in College Park, MD (Archives II), I looked at three archival boxes that were labeled as Captured Korean Documents. They were Japanese documents, bound together in small groups of pages by the Allied Translator and Interrogator … Continue reading From Rabaul to Stack 190: The Travels of a Famous Japanese Army Publication
