Prologue: Pieces of History

After a brief hiatus, Facial Hair Friday is back with a special Valentine’s week post! When Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri wanted to encourage Americans to emigrate to the west as part of the Manifest Destiny movement, he decided that eyewitness descriptions of the landscape were necessary. So in 1842, Benton sent off his son-in-law [...]

This week’s winner is Tommy R! His clever caption combines the discoveries of the atomic age with a nifty Latin neologism. Tommy, we’ll be sending you a 15% discount for the National Archives eStore. The original caption tell us that “Sister Mary Helene ven Horst, science instructor at Marycrest College in Davenport, Iowa, teaches students [...]

Monday is a federal holiday, but what holiday is it? So many ads on television and in print tell us it’s Presidents/President’s/Presidents’ Day. Images of Lincoln and Washington sometimes accompany these ads. But here at the National Archives, we know it’s still officially Washington’s Birthday. This year the holiday is actually close to GW’s birthday [...]

Do you like jelly beans? So did Ronald Reagan—and this month marks his 100th birthday. Even if you didn’t share Reagan’s political views, you might share his sweet tooth! Tweet your favorite jelly bean flavor using the hashtag #100jellybeans at twitter.com, and on Friday we’ll randomly pick a winner to receive a discount at our eStore. [...]

I was worried I would never find love at the National Archives. When Scribd.com approached my office about promoting Prologue magazine by creating a collection of romantic records for their Valentine’s Day “Eat Say Love” event, I was very doubtful. Would I be able to find enough romance in the records to put together a [...]