October is American Archives Month—and it’s also the birth month of Eleanor Roosevelt, born on October 11 in 1884. Did you know that FDR established the first Presidential Library? So for today, in honor of the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and in honor of American archives, we’re highlighting the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum on our blog: http://go.usa.gov/Y8cF Image: Eleanor Roosevelt and Shirley Temple, July 1938. ARC Identifier 195615.
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October is American Archives Month—and it’s also the birth month of Eleanor Roosevelt, born on October 11 in 1884.

Did you know that FDR established the first Presidential Library? So for today, in honor of the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and in honor of American archives, we’re highlighting the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum on our blog: http://go.usa.gov/Y8cF


Image: Eleanor Roosevelt and Shirley Temple, July 1938. ARC Identifier 195615.
Happy American Archives Month! In honor of this important time of year, we’ll be highlighting the research rooms and archives across the country. From Boston to San Francisco, there are National Archives facilities that you can use and archivists ready to assist you! But we’ll also be sharing some fun vintage photos of archivists at work from Record Group 64, which holds the historic photographs of National Archives staff. So what is this woman doing? She’s showing off the cellulose acetate used for the lamination of documents, of course.
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Happy American Archives Month! In honor of this important time of year, we’ll be highlighting the research rooms and archives across the country. From Boston to San Francisco, there are National Archives facilities that you can use and archivists ready to assist you!

But we’ll also be sharing some fun vintage photos of archivists at work from Record Group 64, which holds the historic photographs of National Archives staff.

So what is this woman doing? She’s showing off the cellulose acetate used for the lamination of documents, of course.

Source: research.archives.gov

Reporters race through the White House to be the first to break the news of the Japanese surrender after President Truman’s announcement of the unconditional surrender of Japan, which ended World War II.

Images: Photographs taken by Abbie Rowe. From the holdings of the Truman Presidential Library. (August 14, 1945).

Source: research.archives.gov

Just 5 days until the release of the 1940 Census! “For the first time, the census did not ask if a person served in the Civil War. Veterans (columns 39–41) were asked if they served in the World War, Spanish-American War, Philippine Insurrection, or Boxer Rebellion and if in a Regular Establishment (Army, Navy, or Marine Corps), peacetime service only, or another war or expedition. The wife, widow, or under 18-year-old child of a veteran was also required to answer the questions.” However, it’s possible that Civil War veterans might have been enumerated in the 1940 Census. This photograph of Union and Confederate veterans at Gettysburg was taken in 1938, just 2 years before the 1940 count. Find out what else is new about the 1940 Census in this Prologue article.
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Just 5 days until the release of the 1940 Census!

“For the first time, the census did not ask if a person served in the Civil War. Veterans (columns 39–41) were asked if they served in the World War, Spanish-American War, Philippine Insurrection, or Boxer Rebellion and if in a Regular Establishment (Army, Navy, or Marine Corps), peacetime service only, or another war or expedition. The wife, widow, or under 18-year-old child of a veteran was also required to answer the questions.”

However, it’s possible that Civil War veterans might have been enumerated in the 1940 Census. This photograph of Union and Confederate veterans at Gettysburg was taken in 1938, just 2 years before the 1940 count.

Find out what else is new about the 1940 Census in this Prologue article.

Source: research.archives.gov

Just 6 more days until the 1940 Census!

This was the first time that census takers asked a random sample of the population (about 1 in 20 people) additional detailed questions. These included new questions for women. For women who had been married, they were asked: whether they had been married more than once, age at first marriage, and number of children born.

The photos above were taken by Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration:

“On Arizona Highway 87, south of Chandler, Arizona. Grandmother and sick baby of migratory family camped in a trailer in an open field. They came from Amarillo, Texas, to pick cotton in Arizona. 11/1940”

“Destitute pea pickers in California. Mother of seven children, ca. 02/1936”

“Kern County, California. A couple from Oklahoma, now resettled in California. They came four years ago. Photograph is in large-scale potato field where husband is crew foreman and oldest son operates the mechanical digger. They own their home in Shafter, 04/11/1940”

Just 8 more days until the 1940 Census will be released online! Dorothea Lange took this photograph just days after the 1940 Census. This woman’s story reflects the experience of many Americans who lived through the 1930s. The original caption reads: Edison Kern County, California. Age 70, she came from near Greely, Nebraska, with sister age 65 nephew age 30, and brother age 68. She says, “My father was a pioneer in Nebraska. He went there in ‘79. He was born in Ireland. I remember when we lived in a dugout in Nebraska, but he left us three good farms. He had a timber claim, a homestead, and he bought one farm. My father’s been dead for 20 years and we lost everything including our minds, nearly, trying to keep what he left us. We paid taxes for nearly 50 years there, but we only saved out enough to build us this trailer home. We came to California in June 1938. We just started out. We had good land back there - wheat, corn, orchard, chickens, cows, cream, eggs. Independent, we had everything ‘til the drought came. There’s not many of the old settlers left. It’s discouraging I tell you to go out once or twice a week and come home with a dollar. Yesterday we went 37 miles to pick peas and worked 5 hours. We’ve got relatives back East and they just can’t understand how these things are.”
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Just 8 more days until the 1940 Census will be released online!

Dorothea Lange took this photograph just days after the 1940 Census. This woman’s story reflects the experience of many Americans who lived through the 1930s.

The original caption reads:

Edison Kern County, California. Age 70, she came from near Greely, Nebraska, with sister age 65 nephew age 30, and brother age 68. She says, “My father was a pioneer in Nebraska. He went there in ‘79. He was born in Ireland. I remember when we lived in a dugout in Nebraska, but he left us three good farms. He had a timber claim, a homestead, and he bought one farm. My father’s been dead for 20 years and we lost everything including our minds, nearly, trying to keep what he left us. We paid taxes for nearly 50 years there, but we only saved out enough to build us this trailer home. We came to California in June 1938. We just started out. We had good land back there - wheat, corn, orchard, chickens, cows, cream, eggs. Independent, we had everything ‘til the drought came. There’s not many of the old settlers left. It’s discouraging I tell you to go out once or twice a week and come home with a dollar. Yesterday we went 37 miles to pick peas and worked 5 hours. We’ve got relatives back East and they just can’t understand how these things are.”

Just 10 more days until the release of the 1940 Census! This photograph shows where the census data was stored. The original caption reads: “Population Files Stored 154,071 Portfolios, Linear Feet of Filing Space is in Excess of Four Miles, 1940-1941” Why so many files? Enumerators counted 132.2 million U.S. residents in the 1940 Census. Alaska and Hawaii, which were territories at the time, were included in this count of 132.2 million. Puerto Rico was enumerated in the census, but its 1.9 million residents were not included in the total count. There are about 21.2 million people in the United States and Puerto Rico alive today who were eligible to be counted in the 1940 Census. Do you know one of them? Facts and figures via the U.S. Census Bureau.
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Just 10 more days until the release of the 1940 Census!

This photograph shows where the census data was stored. The original caption reads: “Population Files Stored 154,071 Portfolios, Linear Feet of Filing Space is in Excess of Four Miles, 1940-1941”

Why so many files? Enumerators counted 132.2 million U.S. residents in the 1940 Census.

Alaska and Hawaii, which were territories at the time, were included in this count of 132.2 million. Puerto Rico was enumerated in the census, but its 1.9 million residents were not included in the total count.

There are about 21.2 million people in the United States and Puerto Rico alive today who were eligible to be counted in the 1940 Census. Do you know one of them?

Facts and figures via the U.S. Census Bureau.

Just 11 days until the release of the 1940 census! Enumerators (census takers) attempted to count as many people as possible. About 120,000 enumerators went out into the city and the countryside with instructions to count every house, building, tent, cabin, hut or other place where people might be living. This photograph’s original caption reads: “Roseville, Placer County, California. On the Freights. Five o’clock in the morning in Roseville switch yards for freight going over the Sierra, 04/19/1940” Looking at this image, you wonder if the enumerators manage to count this family on this move? And where was this family going?
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Just 11 days until the release of the 1940 census!

Enumerators (census takers) attempted to count as many people as possible. About 120,000 enumerators went out into the city and the countryside with instructions to count every house, building, tent, cabin, hut or other place where people might be living.

This photograph’s original caption reads: “Roseville, Placer County, California. On the Freights. Five o’clock in the morning in Roseville switch yards for freight going over the Sierra, 04/19/1940”

Looking at this image, you wonder if the enumerators manage to count this family on this move? And where was this family going?

Source: media.nara.gov

Just 12 days until the release of the 1940 census!

It’s also Women’s History Month. Many women were employed by the Census Bureau, working in the office or in the field. These photographs from the National Archives document their work.

In processing the 1940 Census, operators transferred information appearing on the schedules filled out by enumerators to punch cards. This permitted processing of census returns by sorting machines.

Unit Wiring Boards for Tabulating Machines, Highly Trained Experts Prepared the Charts and Instructions for Wiring the Boards for Each Job, these Girls Did the Actual Wiring, No Small Job in Itself, 1940–1941

Alphabetic Accounting Machine Equipped with Gang Summary Punch, IBM, Census Used 12 Machines of this Type, 1940–1941

Enumeration, One Day was Devoted to the Enumeration of Trailer Camps and Other Places Inhabited by Transients, 1940-1941

Population and Housing Editors, Negro Section, 1940–1941

Geographers Division, a Planimeter, 1940–1941

Occupational Coding, Peak Employment on this Operation was 806, there are 25,000 Occupational Designations and 10,000 Industry Designations Classified in 541 Occupational Groups for Census Purposes, 1940–1941

Occupational Coder, Average Daily Production of a Trained Clerk was 1,886 Lines, and the Highest Record was 6,000 Lines, 1940–1941

Review Section in Machine Tabulation Division, All Work is Checked before Transfer to Subject Divisions, 1940–1941