Prologue: Pieces of History

The year 1861 was a dire one for the United States. In its opening months, five southern states joined South Carolina in seceding from the Union. In the recent 1860 election, the victor Abraham Lincoln hadn’t even appeared on the ballots of a third of the states in the Union. A bloody civil war loomed. [...]

In honor of our Bill of Rights Twitter Contest, we thought it was high time to review all the tweeting that goes on in the National Archives family. While our tweets may be short, they are many, and so to help you navigate the micro-blogging waters, we’ve put together a short list that describes what [...]

Readers, we now live in a brave new world of abbreviation. What was once Kentucky Fried Chicken is now KFC. What was once the Science Fiction Channel is now SyFy. For many people, this sentence makes sense: “IMHO this is NSFW” (for the record, this post is). Even the National Archives hasn’t been spared: sometimes we call it the [...]

When you think of Ben Hur, your mind probably goes to Charlton Heston riding a chariot around (and around) an arena in the 1959 classic. But what you should be thinking of is Union General Lewis Wallace’s impressive goatee. Lew not only fought in the Civil War, but authored the novel that is one of [...]

Lynn Ansfield, with her short, historically on-the-nose caption took the top honors in the last photo caption contest. Congrats, Lynn, you’ve won 30% off at the National Archives eStore just in time for the holidays! The Truman Library contains this photo of President Truman receiving a Thanksgiving turkey from members of the Poultry and Egg [...]