Today’s post is written by  Aaron Mannes, a citizen researcher from the University of Maryland’s Laboratory of Computational Cultural Dynamics. He is a doctoral candidate at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy who is writing a dissertation on the national security role of the vice president.  If you have a lot of time [...]

One of the most frequent kinds of research requests we receive concerns gaining access to military veterans’ service records. To do our part to commemorate Veterans Day tomorrow, we’ve asked Theresa Fitzgerald of the Archives’ National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis to write a post on everything you ever wanted to know about accessing [...]

Many of our NARA colleagues are historians and researchers themselves. In this post, written by Lopez Matthews, we have the opportunity to learn about a few current research projects our staff members are undertaking. If you’d like more information on any of these projects, leave a note in the comments and we’ll make sure the [...]

Today’s post is written by Onaona Guay, a processing archivist in College Park. Banners and flags comprise a good portion of the September 11 Recovery Program records.  Some are handmade and some are signed.  One particular United States flag was recovered from the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City after the horrific bombing on [...]

Today’s post is written by Onaona Guay, a processing archivist in College Park. The American Red Cross September 11 Recovery Program received many gifts of compassion and sympathy from people around the world: cards from Australia, letters from Romania and Indonesia, drawings from Belize, postcards from Hong Kong.  Students, faculty and staff of Ecole Routhier [...]

The most asked question this weekend will be “where were you?”  I was living in Massachusetts and on my way to the doctor.  The news on the radio said that something, probably a small plane, had hit the World Trade Center.  By the time my appointment was over all hell had broken loose.  The odd [...]

Today’s post is written by Erin Townsend, an archivist based out of Archives II who helps coordinate our digitization projects.   This year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Peace Corps.  Numerous events and activities have already taken place to commemorate this milestone, including programs at the Smithsonian Folk Life Festival, 50th [...]

This post was written by Katie Beaver, a student intern working with civilian records.  It is a follow-up to A few good lawmen and is based on documentation found in  ”Appointment Files for Judicial Districts, 1853-1905.” The American South was a particularly tumultuous area after the Civil War and during the occupation of the U.S. Army. Slaves became [...]

This post was written by Katy Berube, a student intern working in civilian processing.  It is a follow-up to the post A few good lawmen.  Documentation for this post can be found in the series “Appointment Files for Judicial Districts, 1853-1905.” As guns unloaded into British subject and cattle investor, John H. Tunstall, in the [...]

Today’s post is written by Denise Henderson. A few months ago, I was asked to locate a record about Pat Garrett, the famous sheriff who killed Billy the Kid in 1881 when cowboys and cattle thieves made the West wild and dangerous and a place in serious need of law enforcement.  Understanding the index to, [...]