The most asked question this weekend will be “where were you?”  I was living in Massachusetts and on my way to the doctor.  The news on the radio said that something, probably a small plane, had hit the World Trade Center.  By the time my appointment was over all hell had broken loose.  The odd [...]

For today’s post we are thrilled to open our blog space to NARA’s Wikipedian-in-Residence, Dominic McDevitt-Parks. Everyone knows about Wikipedia (though there is certainly a lot of room for clarification of how it works in practice and why it is valuable for public history), so for this first post, I want to spotlight Wikisource, a [...]

Today I had the pleasure of attending a program in the National Archives’ William G. McGowan Theater called Are You In? Citizen Archivists, Crowdsourcing and Open Government that outlined some great projects that involve the public with making records available online. AOTUS Ferriero opened the program with remarks that described how President Obama’s Open Government mandate of December 2009 [...]

In March we begin processing the collection of American Red Cross records donated to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in 2009. This was made possible due to the closing of the American Red Cross’ Hazel Braugh Records Center and Archives in Lorton, Virginia. These records will be incorporated into NARA’s already existing collection, Records of [...]

Today’s post is written by archives technician Ingi House. Going through records, sometimes it’s a surprise what you can find right off the bat:  a cool name, a weird event, or even an interesting story.  But what lies underneath the obvious is sometimes even better.  All you need is a spark to start your mind turning [...]

Today’s post is written by archives technician Kate Sohasky. What exactly is it that you do? This is the question I was repeatedly met with during my first weeks of training at the National Archives.  This is the question I continue to be met with when I speak with other NARA employees.  Allow me to introduce us [...]