The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. Signed on July 26, 1990 by President George H.W. Bush, the ADA was the world’s first comprehensive civil rights law for people with disabilities. The National Archives holds many records that relate to American citizens with disabilities. In addition to the historic legislation … Continue reading 25th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act
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?
As part of our efforts to digitize photographic and moving image records related to World War I and World War II, we recently digitized a series of British Photographs from World War I (1914-1918) and made them available in our online catalog. This series of photographs taken by British photographers depicts the military activities and … Continue reading What’s New in the National Archives Catalog: British Photographs of World War I
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
The National Archives recently embarked upon a large scale digitization project, focused on photographic and moving image records related to World War I and World War II. These public domain records are being digitized through a gift to the National Archives Trust Fund with the goal of making them more accessible for everyone to use, … Continue reading What’s New in the National Archives Catalog: WWI Photographs
On Saturday, wearing my Chair of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission hat, I accepted the Thomas Jefferson Prize from the Society for History in the Federal Government for the NHPRC in creating Founders Online. This is a particularly meaningful award because of the caliber of the professional community represented among the Society. There was … Continue reading Thomas Jefferson Prize for Founders Online
The National Archives’ Strategic Plan includes the bold initiative to digitize our analog records and make them available for online public access. Our new digitization strategy outlines the many approaches we will use to achieve this goal, and I am proud share with you the results of some of our recent digitization work. Recently digitized … Continue reading What’s New in the National Archives Catalog: Photographs from the Battle of the Bulge
Calling all history enthusiasts and citizen archivists! Participate in the Transcription Challenge this week and help us meet -- and surpass! -- our goal of transcribing more than 1000 pages. Join us in celebrating Sunshine Week and transcribe records in our new National Archives Catalog. We’ll be tracking our progress every day this week, so … Continue reading Participate in the #1000pages Transcription Challenge
