Today’s post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher. Seventy-years ago, on November 9, 1942, forty-nine year old Allen W. Dulles arrived in Bern, Switzerland to head up the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) operations in Switzerland. Dulles was lucky to be in Switzerland. His train passed from Vichy France into Switzerland only minutes before the Germans … Continue reading Allen Dulles and No. 23 Herrengasse, Bern, Switzerland, 1942-1945
By Jason Clingerman 70 years ago today, Japanese Americans at the Tule Lake Relocation Center celebrated a harvest festival by wearing costumes. At the Tule Lake Relocation Center, later the Tule Lake Segregation Center, over 24,000 Japanese Americans were imprisoned because of suspected disloyalty to the U.S. government under Executive Order 9066. Starting in 1943, Tule … Continue reading Halloween at the Tule Lake Relocation Center
Today’s post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher. One clear, chilly evening this week fifteen years I was alone in the foothills above the town of Ascona, Switzerland, wondering “how in the world did I end up here?” The answer begins in December 1996, in the wake of revelations about Switzerland having dormant bank accounts of … Continue reading An American Archivist at Ascona, Switzerland, October 1997
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. Seventy years ago, on September 19, 1942, one of the most important intelligence organizations in the Southwest Pacific Area was created and not long afterwards its commander, Sidney F. Mashbir, arrived in the theater to take command of it. This was the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section, … Continue reading Seventy Years Ago: Colonel Sidney F. Mashbir and the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS), September-October 1942
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. This September 17th is the 225th birthday of the Constitution. Undoubtedly thousands of people will visit the Rotunda of the National Archives to see the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, as well as the Articles of Confederation. If they look up at the murals … Continue reading Elbridge Gerry and the Constitutional Convention, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights
Today’s post is by Dr. Greg Bradsher. Some sixty-five years ago, in September 1947 the Freedom Train, carrying key documents of American history, including the Bill of Rights, began its journey across the United States. At each stop visitors had an opportunity to see the documents, many of them from the National Archives. The idea … Continue reading The Travels of the Bill of Rights, Emancipation Proclamation, and other National Archives Holdings on the Freedom Train, 1947-1949
Today’s post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher. On May 10, 1966, J. Edgar Hoover, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, wrote Alex Rosen, head of the Bureau’s General Investigation Division, thanking him for a gift certificate to a Washington, D.C. nursery. The gift was in honor of Hoover’s anniversary as director. “I shall … Continue reading “Thank you very, very much J. Edgar Hoover”
