Having recently seen The Lady in the Van (three times!) I was reminded of how much I have enjoyed the work of Alan Bennett over the years—which led me to his Untold Stories, published in 2005. In a section on “Art, Architecture and Authors” he writes: “Sometimes when one’s reading a book, a novel say, … Continue reading Why I Read
One of the benefits of starting my library and archives life as a shelver in the Humanities Library at MIT was exposure to some great writers. As an employee I took advantage of my borrowing privileges and went on a literary journey that set the foundation for my passion for reading to this day. One … Continue reading A Christmas Memory
Just before Memorial Day, Eva Wall, a third grader at the Fiske School in Wellesley, Massachusetts wrote to tell me that her class was working on a Flat Stanley project. If you are not familiar with Jeff Brown’s 1964 children’s classic, illustrated by Tomi Ungerer, check it out. Eva sent me a hand colored flat … Continue reading Flat Stanley’s Magical Visit to Washington
In 1997 President and Mrs. Clinton created the White House Millennium Council with the theme “Honor the Past—Imagine the Future.” The Council asked former presidential and congressional medal winners and students from across the country to identify artifacts, ideas, and accomplishments which represent America at that time in history for inclusion in a National Millennium … Continue reading What Happened to Those Twinkies?
This week we had an opportunity to honor volunteers who contributed more than 100 hours of their time to the National Archives this year in our Washington and College Park locations—295 volunteers who contributed 42,284 hours! These amazing numbers demonstrate their love of history and the work that we do. A parade of staff supervisors … Continue reading Celebrating Our Volunteers
As a kid I had a “talent” for finding four leaf clovers. Stretching before a run recently I looked down and noticed one staring me in the face. And reconnected with my childhood. In fact, over the past weekend I found 23! According to my favorite encyclopedia, Wikipedia, 1 in 10,000 clovers has four leaves. … Continue reading Look Down
On Tuesday of this week I had a chance to visit the construction site of the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum on the Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas, Texas. Some 700 workers were onsite at the time, inside and outside, to bring this latest addition to the National Archives in on schedule … Continue reading A New Presidential Library
Many, many years ago when I was shelving books in the MIT Humanities Library I was fortunate to have the benefit of advice from several members of the staff who took an interest in my “career.” One of them was the Science Librarian, Irma Johnson. I got to know Irma well because every summer she … Continue reading Thank You, Irma Johnson
The National Archives keeps looking for ways to work with other agencies to spark citizen engagement with our records. Our most recent project is the Document Your Environment contest for students, which we co-sponsored with the Environmental Protection Agency. We invited students aged 13 and older to explore some of the nearly 16,000 photos in … Continue reading iRevolution
Last week we celebrated Bill of Rights Day here at the National Archives in my favorite activity—a Naturalization Ceremony in the Rotunda. On December 15, 1791, the first ten amendments the Constitution were adopted and for many years we have been marking the anniversary by hosting the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia’s … Continue reading Becoming a Citizen
