Prologue: Pieces of History

If things look ugly in this picture, it’s nothing compared to our office when we tried to pick a winner for last week’s nautical naughtiness.

We turned over the responsibility to guest judge Mark Mollan, who has been a Navy/Maritime Reference Archivist for 9 years at the National Archives.

Mark is used to tackling large projects: he is working on a collaborative effort with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to digitize Navy and Revenue Cutter/Coast Guard logbooks. NOAA will use the data to track changes in ocean and air temperatures around the globe from the 1840s.

Congratulations to Paul Croteau! Mark notes you correctly reference the  long-honored US and British Naval forces’ tradition of “Crossing The Line”: a rite of passage for first-time crossers of the equator (Pollywogs) to become veteran Shellbacks. Check your email for a discount code for 15% off in our eStore.

(Mark also wanted to give Philip Croft and Janis Comstock-Jones honorable mentions. “They made me laugh out loud,” he said.)

The photograph comes from Record Group 80, General Records of the Navy, and the original caption reads: “Neptune party on USS ENTERPRISE. Pollywog V. E. Christensen, S2c., gives his shipmates a song or two on the flight deck., 09/1944″

Things are little more serious for at least one man in today’s photograph! Give us your wittiest caption in the comments below.… [ Read all ]

Today’s “History Crush” comes from Jessica Kratz, an archives specialist with the Center for Legislative Archives. She’s been carrying a torch for one of our record-makers for quite some time!

Most of my colleagues are all too aware that Alexander Hamilton is my history crush. Maybe the gigantic replica $10 bill hanging in my office gives it away?

I’ve been fascinated by Hamilton for as long as I’ve studied American history. In school, most of my teachers touted the importance of founders like James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, but after reading the Federalist Papers, I became hooked on Alexander Hamilton. An orphan from the British West Indies who traveled alone to America as a teenager, Hamilton rose from his humble beginnings to become one of the most important men in our nation’s history.

I often wondered why Jefferson was so beloved while Hamilton, clearly brilliant with remarkable foresight, was so underappreciated. Were his negatives—he was born out of wedlock, philandered, promoted the benefits of child labor, and lost a duel—overshadowing his many accomplishments? Hamilton served in the Continental Army, Continental Congress, and Constitutional Convention; was the first Secretary of Treasury; and established the first National Bank, the U.S. Mint, and the Coast Guard.

Even Hamilton’s contemporaries scorned him—John Adams, for instance, called him “the bastard brat of a Scotch pedlar.” But Hamilton’s ability to frustrate … [ Read all ]