The National Archives has a program of presentations called Know Your Records through which archivists, volunteers, and others share their knowledge of our records with you, the public.  It is a great way for interested individuals to learn what we have and how to use what we have to their advantage. The Text Message, in [...]

Today is Henry Dunant’s birthday, which is also celebrated as World Red Cross Red Crescent Day. In honor of that holiday, I thought I would mention some Red Cross records of historical interest that can be found at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland (Archives II) in Collection ANRC, Records of the American National [...]

Photograph caption: Albert Johnson, member of the Milk Wagon Drivers Union, at work, Duluth. From RG 69, General Records of the Workers’ Service Program, Service Division, Work Projects Administration. Not directly related to the information below; just a beautiful image. In June 1941, W. G. Campbell launched a sweeping investigation. As the Commissioner of Food [...]

In her 2005 study Drawing The Line: Nature, Hybridity and Politics in Transboundary Spaces, geographer Juliet Fall recounts a parable from a tumultuous corner of Europe: “A local tale told of a man who was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, christened in Czechoslovakia, married in Hungary, had his first child in the USSR, and died [...]

In February 1963, the United Nations (UN) held the UN Conference on the Application of Science and Technology for the Benefit of the Less Developed Areas (UNCAST) in Geneva, Switzerland. This conference, held at the peak of the Cold War, brought together about 1,600 delegates from 96 countries, including delegations from both the West and [...]

The “National Archives Researcher News” recently carried an FAQ that provides guidance on ways to improve your research experience at the National Archives. It is reissued here to bring it to the attention of readers of The Text Message. HOW CAN I MAKE MY VISIT MORE SUCCESSFUL? The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) reference [...]

Tomorrow we are all Irish.  So, to celebrate St. Patirck’s Day I had a look around our holdings to see how The Text Message could celebrate Eire.  As always I used our Online Public Access (OPA) system and found some expected things: Consular records in RG 84 (Records of the Foreign Service Posts of the Department [...]

Today’s post is written by Amber Thiele, a processing archivst with civilian textual records in College Park.   Sometimes while processing textual records you find something that makes you think, “hmmm…this would get more use if it was in another part of the National Archives and Records Administration.”  Usually in the Textual Archives Services Division, [...]

As Black History Month draws to a close, nothing illustrates the great progress of the civil rights movement more than a glimpse at a bleaker era. The work we do every day at the National Archives is for the express purpose of preserving historical context, even the disturbing parts, as exemplified in today’s post, written by [...]

Today’s post is by Alan Walker, a processing archivist at Archives II. As a kid I was captivated by the sinking of the RMS Titanic. The drama of such a man-made behemoth falling victim to an iceberg and the scope of the human tragedy conspired to trigger the imaginations of this impressionable youth. I read [...]