U.S. National Archives

Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Atkinson will be at the National...

Sun, 19 May 2013 10:00:45 -0400

Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Atkinson will be at the National Archives on Wednesday, May 22, at noon to discuss his bookThe Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944–1945.

Watch live on Ustream or join us in person for this free public program.

This book is the conclusion to his Liberation Trilogy about the battle for Western Europe during World War II. Atkinson describes the final campaign of the European war, from D-Day to Germany’s surrender.

A book signing will follow the program.

Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero hosts another...

Sat, 18 May 2013 10:00:55 -0400

Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero hosts another edition of Archives Jeopardy! Audience members will be selected to test their historical knowledge and win prizes.

Join us on Tuesday, May 21, at noon at the National Archives!

Jennifer Armstrong tells the story of the making of a classic...

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:01:32 -0400

Jennifer Armstrong tells the story of the making of a classic and groundbreaking TV show.

Join us in person or watch on Ustream on Monday, May 20, at noon as we present “Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted.”

As the first situation comedy to employ numerous women as writers and producers, The Mary Tyler Moore Show became a guiding light for women in the 1970s and helped increase involvement, responsibility, and visibility of women in future television programs.

A book signing will follow the program.

It’s Bike to Work Day! For today’s Flashback Friday post in...

Fri, 17 May 2013 10:01:06 -0400

It’s Bike to Work Day! For today’s Flashback Friday post in honor of our exhibit “Searching for the Seventies” we found this DOCUMERICA photo of a bike in El Paso, Texas, in 1972.

Did you have a bike in the 1970s? Did it have a banana seat? Streamers flowing from the handlebars?

“Beyond the Basics” Genealogy: Nonpopulation Census...

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:01:10 -0400

“Beyond the Basics” Genealogy: Nonpopulation Census Records

Claire Kluskens will show you how to better understand our ancestors’ lives from information in the 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880 census schedules of agriculture, industry, mortality, and social statistics, as well as the 1935 census of business.

Saturday, May 18, at 10 a.m.
Room G-25, Research Center (Penn. Ave. Entrance)

Original Caption: Enumeration, a Farmer Supplies Answers to the 232 Questions on the Farm Schedule, 1940 - 1941

Tonight at 7 pm! Join us live or watch on Ustream as former...

Wed, 15 May 2013 09:23:00 -0400

Tonight at 7 pm! Join us live or watch on Ustream as former members of Congress discuss how the White House and Congress can work together.

“Congress and the White House: Partners or Foes?” will be streamed live on our UStream channel at 7 p.m.

Peter Cook, Bloomberg TV’s chief Washington correspondent will moderate panelists Steve LaTourette (R-OH), Vic Fazio (D-CA), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), and Larry Pressler (R-SD). Presented in partnership with U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress.

Freedmen who fled from slavery during and after the Civil War...

Tue, 14 May 2013 10:01:26 -0400

Freedmen who fled from slavery during and after the Civil War did not expect that their flight toward freedom would lead to sickness, disease, and death. As Jim Downs reveals in Sick from Freedom, the war produced the largest biological crisis of the 19th century.

Join us Friday, May 17, at noon at the National Archives in Washington, DC, for “Sick from Freedom: African-American Illness and Suffering during the Civil War and Reconstruction.”

You can also watch online as we stream this program live on our Ustream channel.

A book signing will follow the program.

Learn how to use Civil War court-martial records in your...

Mon, 13 May 2013 10:29:40 -0400

Learn how to use Civil War court-martial records in your genealogy research. Archives specialist Timothy Syzek will present ‘Beyond the Basics Genealogy: Civil War Courts-Martial” (all skill levels welcome).

Wednesday, May 15, at 11 a.m.
Room G-25, Research Center (Penn. Ave. Entrance)

Image: Army of the Cumberland, court martial group, (111-B-2002)

“Congress and the White House: Partners or...

Sat, 11 May 2013 10:00:56 -0400

“Congress and the White House: Partners or Foes?”

Join on Wednesday, May 15, at 7 p.m. as former members of Congress will discuss how the White House and Congress can work together.

They will explore how the two branches interacted in the past to try to solve our nation’s biggest problems. Anecdotal evidence of bipartisanship and common ground will lead to a focus on today’s challenges.

Moderated by Peter Cook, Bloomberg TV’s chief Washington correspondent, panelists include former members of Congress Steve LaTourette (R-OH), Vic Fazio (D-CA), Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), and Senator Larry Pressler (R-SD). Presented in partnership with U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress.

President Johnson and his first school teacher Mrs. Kathryn...

Thu, 09 May 2013 08:47:21 -0400

President Johnson and his first school teacher Mrs. Kathryn Deadrich Loney—“Miss Kate”—sat together as President Johnson signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 into law
on Sunday, April 11, 1965.

The ceremony took place at Junction School, the one-room schoolhouse near Stonewall, Texas, where Johnson began his education. The Act was the first general aid to education law, represented a major new commitment of the federal government to education, and focused on disadvantaged children in city slums and rural areas.

What do you remember about your first teacher?

For more great photos of teachers all week, visit the National Archives Education page on Facebook.

(Image: Photograph of President Lyndon Johnson at the Signing Ceremony for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act at the Former Junction Elementary School, Johnson City, Texas, 04/11/1965. From the White House Photo Office Collection at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum http://research.archives.gov/description/2803432)

— in Stonewall, TX.

For Teacher Appreciation Week, here’s an article written...

Wed, 08 May 2013 14:56:00 -0400

For Teacher Appreciation Week, here’s an article written by Herbert Hoover dedicated to a teacher in Salem, Oregon. Miss Gray helped him develop a love of reading.

Readers Digest asked Herbert Hoover to prepare an article on the best advice he had ever received. “Thank You Miss Gray” was published in July 1959.

(Images: “The best advice I ever had” article by Herbert Hoover, 7/1959. From Hoover’s Articles, Addresses and Public Statements in the Herbert Hoover Papers in the Hoover Presidential Library. More teacher-inspired records are being posted at the National Archives Education page.)

Christian Caryl shows how the world we live in today began to...

Tue, 07 May 2013 10:01:06 -0400

Christian Caryl shows how the world we live in today began to take shape in 1979.

Join us Friday, May 10, at noon for “Strange Rebels: 1979 and the Birth of the 21st Century” or watch on Ustream.

Few moments in history have seen as many seismic transformations as 1979. That year marked the emergence of revolutionary Islam as a political force, the beginning of market revolutions that would radically alter the international economy, and the first stirrings of the resistance movements that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

A book signing will follow the program.

Seventh graders work with teachers at a Tennessee Valley...

Tue, 07 May 2013 09:14:02 -0400

Seventh graders work with teachers at a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) School in Sheffield, Alabama, in 1937. The Pickwick Landing Dam, a TVA project, was completed there in 1938.

This week on the National Archives Education page, we’re featuring teachers at work. We’ll post more education-inspired images from our holdings until the bell rings on Friday!

(Image: TVA School-Village #1, Seventh Graders with Teachers, 1937. From the Records of the Tennessee Valley Authority. National Archives Identifier 280008. http://research.archives.gov/description/280008)

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! This week on the National...

Mon, 06 May 2013 11:05:40 -0400

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! This week on the National Archives Education page, we’re featuring teachers at work.

This class photo of a teacher posed with her students in front of their sod schoolhouse in Woods County, in the Oklahoma Territory, was taken about 1895. How many students do you count?

(Image: Teacher and children in front of sod schoolhouse. Woods Co., Okla. Terr., ca. 1895. From the Records of the Office of the Secretary of the Interior. National Archives Identifier: 516448. http://docsteach.org/documents/516448/detail) — at Woods County, Oklahoma.

Holocaust survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein captivates audiences...

Wed, 01 May 2013 10:00:50 -0400

Holocaust survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein captivates audiences worldwide with her powerful message of hope, inspiration, love, and humanity.

She will speak at the National Archives on Thursday, May 9, at 7 p.m.

In this program for Jewish American Heritage month, we will show the Academy Award–winning HBO documentary of her life, One Survivor Remembers (40 min.), and then the celebrated author, 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, and Holocaust survivor will discuss the film after the screening.

A book signing will follow the program. Presented in partnership with Citizenship Counts and the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington.

The Knights of the Golden Circle was a secret Southern society...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 14:01:00 -0400

The Knights of the Golden Circle was a secret Southern society that sought to establish a slave-holding empire in Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America.

Join us on Wednesday, May 1, at noon as author David C. Keehn provides the first comprehensive analysis of the society and how they carried out clandestine actions to support the southern cause. Even with the war all but lost, various Knights supported one of its members, John Wilkes Booth, in his plot to assassinate President Lincoln.

(If you aren’t in DC, you can watch line on our Ustream channel. The program will also be archived later on that page.)

The public program is free and will be held in the National Archives in Washington, DC. Enter through the Special Events door on Constitution and Seventh.

A book signing will follow the program.

Learn how to do basic genealogical research using Federal...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 09:09:31 -0400

Learn how to do basic genealogical research using Federal records at the National Archives.

“Introduction to Genealogy at the National Archives” Wednesday, May 1, at 11 a.m. in Room G-25, Research Center (use the Penn. Ave. Entrance).

Image: Fraktur of the Family of Joseph Smead, ca. 1861, ARC 300024

Jimmie Walker got his start performing comedy in small clubs,...

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 20:01:18 -0400

Jimmie Walker got his start performing comedy in small clubs, and ultimately became a 1970s icon playing J.J. Evans on Good Times.

Walker will be talking about his memoir at the National Archives on Friday, May 3, at noon.

He was the first successful young black sitcom star, and his catchphrase—“Dyn-o-mite!”—remains an indicator of the era. In Dynomite!, Walker talks candidly about his rise and the tensions on the set of Good Times that contradict the show’s image of a close-knit blue-collar family.

A book signing will follow the program.

Each change of Presidential administration requires a massive...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 13:00:55 -0400

Each change of Presidential administration requires a massive move of records and materials.

The George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum holds more than 70 million pages of textual records, 43,000 artifacts, 200 million emails (totaling roughly 1 billion pages), and 4 million digital photographs (the largest holding of electronic records of any of our libraries).

Collecting this material, cataloging and processing it, and making it available to the public was a task that began on January 20, 2009.

Read more about how National Archives staff got it all done on the Prologue blog.

Image: This moving van was outside the White House on January 20, 1993. From the Clinton Presidential Library.

Presidents—past and present—share a laugh before...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 11:43:22 -0400

Presidents—past and present—share a laugh before taking the stage at the dedication!

Are you watching the ceremony online? It’s live now!

Image via the #BushCenter pic.twitter.com/yGRdlGMQlv