The Allure of the Archives

Arlette Farge, Director of Research in Modern History at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris, has written a wonderful little book about doing research in archives. “Contact with the archives begins with simple tasks, one of which is handling the documents.  Combing through the archives—a beautifully evocative term—requires a host of tasks, … Continue reading The Allure of the Archives

Patent of the Month: Higgins boats

Today marks the 70th Anniversary of the D-Day invasion. To commemorate this anniversary, this month’s patent is Andrew Higgins’s landing boat. It is dated February 15, 1944, less than four months before D-Day. LCVPs--or Higgins boats, as they are now commonly known --transported troops from the 1st Infantry onto Omaha Beach. They could each carry … Continue reading Patent of the Month: Higgins boats

One Year of Founders Online

This month we celebrate the one year anniversary of the launch of Founders Online – a tool for seamless searching across the papers of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Alexander Hamilton. In the past year, the site has received over 400,000 visits. An example of the power of the … Continue reading One Year of Founders Online