Prologue: Pieces of History

With Independence Day around the corner, we caught up with a few of this year’s speakers to get their thoughts on the Declaration of Independence, their connection to history, and celebrating at the National Archives. Four descendants from the original signers will read the Declaration of Independence this year. Three are members of the Society of the Descendants [...]

His parents were victims of the Nazis when he was only four, and he and his uncle spent two years hiding in the forests of Poland, waiting until the end of World War II. But the ordeal of Michael Pupa was far from over. He became a “displaced person,” or DP, moving from one DP [...]

I, Agent “M,” am on a very important mission.  I must help thousands of Girl Scouts save the future by becoming an Agent of Change. Agents of Change is an online, interactive game that is being played at the National Archives and 11 other cultural institutions in Washington, DC, during the Rock the Mall event. The goal [...]

As the Girl Scouts of the USA prepare to celebrate their 100th anniversary, we will be featuring stories from NARA staff who were former Girl Scouts. This post is from Director of Preservation Programs Doris Hamburg. Happy 100th birthday, Girl Scouts!  Juliette Gordon Low began the first Girl Scout troop in 1912 in Savannah with just a [...]

In the wake of the 150th anniversary of the Homestead Act, the Exhibits Division’s senior registrar, Jim Zeender, and archivist Greg Bradsher flew out to America’s heartland to share a document that made it all possible. Last month, they visited the Homestead National Monument of America, four miles west of Beatrice, NE, to install the [...]