Prologue: Pieces of History

This coming Sunday is the dedication of the new Martin Luther King, Jr., National Memorial on the National Mall. It’s also the 48th anniversary of the March on Washington, when King gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech to the assembled thousands. As I looked at the program from the day and then at some [...]

Julius Henry Marx–better known by his stage name Groucho Marx–passed away on August 19, 1977. He left behind a legacy of humor on stage, radio, and film. I was not able to find to find any images of him in our holdings, which was disappointing as his trademark mustache was a fine candidate for Facial [...]

Last week’s photo may have sparked some of our funniest captions yet! As soon as we started reading about the ill-fated Florence in Apple Jacks, cereal killers, and the Shotz Brewery, we knew choosing a winner would be tough. So we turned to Denise Henderson, who blogs about her finds in the records over at [...]

The National Archives current marquee exhibit, “What’s Cooking, Uncle Sam?”, is drawing some good crowds and public press. It’s showing in our main building in downtown Washington through Jan. 3, 2012. It’s all about how the Government has tried through the decades to dictate, or influence, what we should eat and why we should eat something from each [...]

It’s finally time to announce the randonly chosen winner of our Potatriots contest! But first, a big thank you to the visitors who participated in our Potatriots activity–and a big thank-you to our staff and interns who put out those potatos, pipe cleaners, and historic backgrounds every day. We had lots of fun posting our Potatriots online [...]