Political cartoonist Clifford Berryman made use of Thanksgiving throughout his career to highlight timely political issues near the holiday. Below are two examples of his Thanksgiving-themed cartoons: These and other cartoons by Clifford Berryman can be found in Record Group 46 in the series “Berryman Political Cartoon Collection, 1896-1949″ (ARC Identifier 306080) as part of the Center [...]

Thanksgiving is considered by many to be the quintessential American holiday.  As Thanksgiving 1918 approached, American had more reason than the usual to give thanks.  On November 11, 1918, Germany signed the armistice that brought World War I to an effective end.  In the wake of that event, the United States made an attempt to [...]

This post was written by Harry B. Kidd, a volunteer at Archives II, for the volunteer newsletter, The Columns. In the spring of 1918, the German Army launched a major offensive in the hope of achieving a quick victory before the full weight of American Forces could be brought to the line.  Beginning in May [...]

Today’s post is written by Judy Luis-Watson, volunteer coordinator at Archives II in College Park, Maryland. During World War I (WWI), more than 12,000 American Indians served in the armed forces of the United States.  In the army, their many roles included serving as gunners, snipers, patrol workers, messengers, scouts, medical personnel, radio operators, as [...]

To assist researchers interested in records of the Department of State and other foreign affairs agencies, the most heavily used records in the National Archives, the Textual Archives Services Division has launched a newly revamped set of pages on the Archives’ website for providing an introduction to foreign affairs records. The conduct of foreign affairs [...]

What do Walt Disney, Ernest Hemingway, and Whitney Houston have in common? They all served with the American Red Cross! Disney served as a Red Cross ambulance driver in France during World War I. Likewise, Hemingway served as an ambulance driver in Italy during World War I. In fact, Hemingway’s service was the inspiration for [...]

On January 7, 1919, the same day the Christmas Uprising started in Montenegro, members of the American National Red Cross (ANRC) arrived in Montenegro to provide relief to civilians after World War I and the Austro-Hungarian occupation of the country. This relief effort was known as the Commission to Montenegro. This commission was part of [...]

Today’s post is by Lee Preston, a National Archives volunteer. During the Cold War, I was drafted into the U.S. Army and in 1955-56 stationed in Verdun, France. Verdun is the principal city of the Meuse River valley, a historic corridor of aggressive contact between French and German interests. The Verdun area had been fortified [...]

Today’s post is the second in an occasional series where we will highlight some of the work of our volunteers. Jean Onufrak is a volunteer with the Volunteer Office at the National Archives at College Park.  When you think of the term “chemical weapons”, you probably think of their use nowadays in terrorist actions or contentious [...]