Yesterday we talked about some major projects, supported by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, documenting the contributions of African Americans to the American Story. While the history of Emancipation and the collected papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., are vital to understanding of our democracy, history, and culture, there are many other chapters: … Continue reading Celebrating Black History Month: Hidden Gems
Every day, we celebrate the remarkable contributions of African Americans to the American Story. The National Archives contains millions of records related to the interactions of African Americans with the Federal government—from the Emancipation Proclamation to the millions of historical records ranging from the Census to military service. The National Archives grant program, our National … Continue reading Celebrating Black History Month
I am pleased to announce a new pilot project from the Office of Innovation at the National Archives called the “History Hub.” This new platform may be thought of as an external collaboration network, a place where subject matter experts from the National Archives can engage with researchers and the public, to share information, work … Continue reading Launch and Learn: Our New History Hub Pilot Project
The Presidential Rank Award Program was created to recognize “sustained extraordinary accomplishment” by career senior executives in the Federal Government. In a highly competitive process, executives nominated by their agency heads are evaluated by citizen panels and designated by the President of the United States. Recipients are deemed to be strong leaders, professionals, or scientists … Continue reading Releasing All We Can, Protecting What We Must
On Tuesday, the White House announced the release of the third U.S. Open Government National Action Plan in conjunction with the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Global Summit taking place in Mexico City this week. In her opening remarks to the summit, Samantha Power, the US Ambassador to the United Nations discussed the status of the … Continue reading National Action Plan 3.0
When I first learned of the Social Networks and Archival Context (SNAC) Project, I knew that we had to be involved and assume some leadership. Why? Because the driving force of SNAC is collaboration within the archival and library communities to improve discovery and access to archival materials. I am a huge proponent for collaboration … Continue reading Introducing SNAC
Recently I came across a story about an archives in a box of Corn Flakes. A woman in Tennessee had stored some 400 letters written by former German prisoners-of-war who had lived in camp near the state’s southern border. After the war was over, many of the POWs wrote to the people in the community, … Continue reading What’s in Your Attic?
Last week I had an opportunity to visit with Dave Joens and his staff at the Illinois State Archives—the first AOTUS to visit since Wayne Grover was there in 1952. Dave and I were able to reenact the original photo op at the same catalogue drawer! … Continue reading Paying Homage to Margaret Cross Norton
Free and equal access to government records is essential to this country’s democracy. Citizens have the right to see, examine, and learn from the records that guarantee their rights, document government actions, and tell the story of the nation. As Archivist of the United States, it is my job to make sure we identify, save, … Continue reading Meeting the Government’s Email Challenge
Since 1985, the first week of May has been set aside to honor the men and women who serve our nation as Federal, state, county, and local government employees. It is also the time when I host the Archivist Awards ceremony at the National Archives to recognize the outstanding achievements of our staff in the … Continue reading Saying Thanks
