We joined Flickr last summer as a new way to share our photos with the public. These photos are also available via our online catalog, the Archival Research Catalog (ARC). From the iconic Mathew Brady Civil War photographs to the stirring images from the Environmental Protection Agency’s DOCUMERICA endeavor in the 1970s, thousands of people [...]

We’re launching a public wiki that will allow researchers, historians, archivists, and citizen archivists to create pages on records or themes. We need your ideas and enthusiasm to make the wiki a success.  Please join us for the first organizing meeting at the National Archives Building in Washington, DC, on Friday, May 7th from 1-2 [...]

We are redesigning Archives.gov to make it easier and quicker for you to find the information you need as part of NARA’s Flagship Open Government Initiative.  We want your opinions to help us to develop a web site designed for participation.  Throughout the redesign process, we’ll be inviting you to participate by voting, sorting, commenting, [...]

Most genealogists are familiar with the federal population census records and begin their research with these records.  But did you know that the Census Bureau also took a series of Nonpopulation Census records between 1850 and 1880?  They included mortality, agricultural, industrial, social statistics and defective, dependent, and delinquent schedules. These censuses cover the 12 [...]

The internet provides lots of great tools and services to help genealogists and historians understand the evolution of relationships and events over time. From teachers to big corporations, researchers at all levels can benefit from these innovative new tools, one of the most effective of which is the interactive map or timeline. One example of [...]

Thanks to your great feedback on our recent Family Tree Fridays and NARA Staff Favorite posts, we’re considering introducing another specialized series here on NARAtions. This new set of posts, called Tech Tuesdays, would allow us to start a discussion about the cutting-edge technologies that are being developed across the archives field (a topic we’re [...]

With records available in so many different formats these days, researchers are often faced with a choice – which indexes to use, the original microfilm and printed indexes or the newer online indexes? Both types have drawbacks.  The microfilm and printed versions often have misspelled names.  Also, they sometimes skip people entirely.  My great grandfather’s [...]

We’ve loved reading your suggestions and comments about sharing NARA’s holdings on Flickr, and it’s been interesting to see which images people are marking as favorites. All of this got us wondering about which records NARA insiders are particularly fond of, so we asked a few of our experienced colleagues for their picks. This week’s [...]

There’s no question- the National Archives holds a LOT of stuff. That breadth can be a challenge to explain to new researchers and casual website visitors, whose understanding of NARA collections may be as broad as “all the records made in the U.S.” or as dismissive as “boxes and boxes of boring government paperwork.” One [...]

This week’s highlighted question comes from Dan in NARA’s Motion Pictures (NWCS-M) department. The unit has been looking for some time at new models for delivery of NARA’s film, video and audio holdings as it struggles with keeping the aging analog reference collection alive and well. Given limited resources, the problem requires a multi-faceted solution, [...]