Cropped image of doodles of faces in the margins of a naturalization record.

Morose Marginalia on Naturalization Records

Today's post was written by Andrew Salyer, archives technician at the National Archives at Philadelphia. National Archives staff reference staff respond to thousands of requests for records every year, and many of those requests are for naturalization records. These records are pretty standard, oftentimes looking very similar to one another…but not always. During the course … Continue reading Morose Marginalia on Naturalization Records

top of Bill of complaint

The Past is the Present in the Asian American/Pacific Islander Records Aggregation Project

Today’s post is by Leah Booth and John Marden, Archives Technicians at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. As part of the Asian American/Pacific Islander Records Aggregation Project at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) we are working to assess our holdings of records and materials relevant to the Asian American and Pacific … Continue reading The Past is the Present in the Asian American/Pacific Islander Records Aggregation Project

Cuban refugees on a sailboat, clipped from New York Times article

Castro, Cuba, and a Fleet of Fishing Boats: The Causes and Effects of the Mariel Boatlift

Today’s post was written by Lynn Nashorn, textual processing and accessioning archivist at the National Archives at College Park. In 2020, the United States marked the 40th anniversary of the Mariel boatlift that brought approximately 125,000 Cubans to the United States in the course of just over six months. The journey to this mass exodus … Continue reading Castro, Cuba, and a Fleet of Fishing Boats: The Causes and Effects of the Mariel Boatlift

photograph from file of Eng Goon

Bringing the Past to Light through the Chinese Exclusion Act Case Files

Today’s post is by Katherine Stinson, Archives Specialist in Motion Pictures at the National Archives in College Park, MD. When National Archives staff began working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I was looking for new telework projects to do. One of the projects I discovered, through email updates from the National Archives Catalog, … Continue reading Bringing the Past to Light through the Chinese Exclusion Act Case Files

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