This morning we’re checking out “Social Storytelling Q&A” with Tumblr’s own Mark Coatney as part of DC’s Social Media Week!
Italian airship “Roma” over Norfolk, Virginia.
In one of the largest aviation disasters at that time, the US Army’s airship Roma (purchased from the Italian government) crashed into power lines on February 21, 1922, with the loss of 34 crew.
“This temple of our history will appropriately be one of the most beautiful buildings in America, an expression of the American soul.”
— Herbert Hoover, February 20, 1933, at the laying of the cornerstone of the National Archives Building. (Photo: 64-NA-136)
via Prologue: Our Story — How the National Archives Evolved Over 75 Years
Frederick Douglass, February 1818 - February 20, 1895
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”
Born into slavery in Maryland in 1818, Frederick Douglass went on to become a prominent abolitionist, author, orator and statesman.
Frederick Douglass, ca. 1879
From the Frank W. Legg Photographic Collection of Portraits of Nineteenth-Century Notables:
The Beginning of National Black History Month - 1976
What first began as Negro History Week in February 1926 expanded into a month-long celebration in 1976. President Gerald R. Ford issued this message recognizing National Black History Month on February 10, 1976.
-from the Ford Library
Fact Sheet—Astronaut Glenn’s Space Mission
A somewhat dry by-the-book recap of John Glenn’s historic mission to become the first American to orbit the Earth on February 20, 1962. With the world watching the historic and live-televised event, Glenn orbited the Earth three times in his space capsule, Friendship 7. Four hours and 55 minutes after ignition, John Glenn and Friendship 7 returned to Earth and splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean.
Want to see more? Try this 5-minute version of NASA’s film “Friendship 7”:
Enlistment paper of William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody from his compiled military service record, 7th Kansas Cavalry, Civil War., 02/19/1864
A little Presidents’ Day* Quiz, from our colleagues at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library:
Happy Presidents Day! This quiz about various U.S. Presidents was sent to Truman by one of his friends, Max Lowenthal, who was on a cruise to Europe on the RMS Queen Mary in 1964. He thought Mr. Truman might be interested in it. Mr. Truman wrote him back, saying he thought most of them were “catch” questions, and rather insignificant. How many can you get right without looking up the answers?
There is no such thing as Presidents Day. Or President’s Day.
There is such a thing as Washington’s Birthday, and the National Archives Research Rooms in DC (but not the museum side) will be closed on Monday, February 19, in observance of this holiday.
“Before 1971, Washington’s Birthday was one of nine federal holidays celebrated on specific dates, which fell on different days of the week (the exception being Labor Day—the original Monday holiday). Then came the tinkering of the Ninetieth Congress in 1968. Determined to create a uniform system of federal Monday holidays, Congress voted to shift three existing holidays to Mondays and expanded the number further by creating one new Monday holiday.
Washington’s Birthday was uprooted from its fixed February 22 date and transplanted to the third Monday in February, followed by Memorial Day being relocated from the last day in May to the last Monday in May.
When a new federal law was implemented in 1971, only two days separated Abraham Lincoln’s Friday birthday of February 12 from the Washington’s Birthday holiday that fell on February 15—the third Monday in February.
For advertisers, the Monday holiday change was the goose that laid the golden “promotional” egg. Using Labor Day marketing as a guide, three-day weekend sales were expanded to include the new Monday holidays. Once the “Uniform Monday Holiday Law” was implemented, it took just under a decade to build a head of national promotional sales steam.
Local advertisers morphed both “Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday” and “George Washington’s Birthday” into the sales sound bite “President’s Day,” expanding the traditional three-day sales to begin before Lincoln’s birth date and end after Washington’s February 22 birth. In some instances, advertisers promoted the sales campaign through the entire month of February. To the unsuspecting public, the term linking both presidential birthdays seemed to explain the repositioning of the holiday between two high-profile presidential birthdays.”
For the full story, go to http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2004/winter/gw-birthday-1.htmlImage: S. 623, A bill to make the 22nd day of February George Washington’s Birthday, RG 46, Records of the United States Senate. Text via the Center for Legislative Archives.
Residence of G. L. Rule Feb. 18, 1898. Have lived here since Sept. 1893. Family stands in foreground; sod building and cabin in background, Arizona Territory
From the Series: Photographs Accompanying Reports to the Secretary of the Interior
Coming Soon to the National Archives:
Searching for the Seventies: The DOCUMERICA Photography Project
DOCUMERICA fan? Get a behind-the-scenes sneak peek at the National Archives’ latest exhibit on Pinterest.
“…when the attack was made on the City of Washington and on the City of Baltimore, the citizen soldiers were in service without pay or rations, several months in each of the years 1812-1813 and 1814. And it is for the consideration of those service that your memorialists think they are entitled to 160 acres of Land each.”
Memorial of the “Association of Defenders of Baltimore in 1814” for a grant of 160 acres per man as remuneration for services in the war, 02/17/1853
Marilyn Monroe sings several songs for an estimated 13,000 men of the First Marine Division. Miss Monroe stopped at the First Marine Regiment on her tour of the military units in Korea., 02/16/1954
Received by the U.S. House of Representatives on February 15, 1830 this petition from the Cherokee Nation, which was written in both Cherokee and English, asserted the tribe’s status as a sovereign nation in response to a bill which had been introduced to remove them from their land. Despite the petition, the legislation passed three months later, setting the stage for the eviction of the tribe in 1838 and the hardships they endured on the “Trail of Tears.”
Memorial of the Cherokees, HR 21A-H11, 2/15/1830, Records of the U.S. House of Representatives (ARC 306680)
Photograph of the wreckage of the USS MAINE, 1898
From the Series: Court of Inquiry into the Sinking of the USS Maine, 02/1898 - 03/1898
This telegram from the Key West Naval Station forwards word from Charles S. Sigsbee, Captain of the Maine about the destruction of his ship in Havana harbor on the evening of February 15, 1898, a pivotal event leading up to the Spanish-American War. Read More about the legacy of the USS Maine at Prologue…