The next Decennial (ten-year) Census of the United States will be available online next year. In 1978, Public Law 95-416, also known as the “72-Year Rule,” restricted access to decennial records to everyone except for the individual named on the record for 72 years. The National Archives will release the 1950 Census records in April … Continue reading Preparing for the 1950 Census
Class in reconnaissance, Group #1, showing calibration of hands and field glasses for use in rapid calculation of firing data (names in caption). Le Valdahon, Doubs, France National Archives Identifier: 86708077 FY2019 FY2020 Number of Record Group descriptions in the National Archives Catalog569*576*Number of Collection descriptions in the Catalog4,7524,764Number of creating organization authority files in … Continue reading By the Numbers 2020
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, a large portion of NARA has been teleworking 100%. Even with limitations on our ability to conduct work on-site and despite the incredibly challenging circumstances, our employees have continued to demonstrate their creativity, initiative, and commitment to moving our mission forward. Across the nation, staff from the Office … Continue reading Moving our Mission Forward
Communicating with our customers is key to achieving the mission and goals of the National Archives. In fact, as part of the National Archives Strategic Plan, 2018-2022, NARA established a strategic goal to Connect with Customers along with the specific objective of having one million records enhanced by citizen contributions to the National Archives Catalog. … Continue reading News You Can Use: Subscribe to the National Archives Catalog Newsletter
Today is a celebration of the creation of the world's largest online encyclopedia and the radical idea that information can be created by and open to everyone. This concept resonates with our work at the National Archives, where we strive to support open government values of transparency, collaboration and participation. We believe in government that … Continue reading Happy Birthday, Wikipedia!
The National Archives Strategic Plan for FY 2018-2022 contains a goal to “Maximize NARA’s Value to the Nation.” One of the performance measures of this goal is to collaborate with external platforms and organizations to use NARA’s digitized holdings, or data sets, from the Catalog as a primary source. In fulfilling our mission to drive … Continue reading Maximizing NARA’s Value to the Nation: Wide Scale Use of NARA’s Data
Every four years, when it is a Presidential election year, the National Archives and Records Administration readies itself for one of its lesser-known duties: preparing for a Presidential transition. NARA is one of a handful of agencies that are designated as having special transition responsibilities because of our government-wide responsibilities relating to Presidential and Federal … Continue reading National Archives’ Role in a Presidential Transition
The National Archives launched a new web-based finding aid featuring digitized historical photographs from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) records in Record Group 75. For the first time, you can explore digital copies of over 18,000 photographs through an engaging and easy to use interactive experience: the Bureau of Indian Affairs Photographs Finding Aid. … Continue reading A New Way to Explore Bureau of Indian Affairs Photographs
Our recently released social media strategy focuses on creating engaging digital content, while expanding digital storytelling to make records increasingly available and relevant with online audiences. The National Archives GIPHY channel does just that: combining our staff’s knowledge of new and emerging technologies with the rich content of the Archives showcases our holdings in fun … Continue reading Animated Archives: Meeting People Where They Are
Thanks to the generous donation from an anonymous donor, NARA collaborated with our digitization partner to launch the Indigenous Digital Archive’s Treaties Portal on Indigenous People’s Day, October 12, 2020. This website provides public access to digital copies of NARA’s series of ratified Indian Treaties. We worked with Dr. Anna Naruta-Moya and her team at … Continue reading National Archives and Museum of Indian Arts & Culture Share New Online Education Tool Expanding Access to Treaties between the U.S. and Native Nations
