Prologue: Pieces of History

It was impossible to decide if “Treeus” was funnier than references to Santa or poor drivers, so we asked for assistance from our guest judge Laura Brandt, who manages the Foundation for the National Archives Facebook page. After much agony, she decided that David T’s caption held the most humor and historical value. This two [...]

Ladies and Gentlemen, you have astounded your judge with your caption compositions. Words and phrases like “historical sub-context” and “ingenuity” were used. Also used was the word “shibboleth,” which I had to look up. For the uninitiated, it refers to “any distinguishing practice that is indicative of one’s social or regional origin,” and it was [...]

Call him John. Call him Mr. Poppins. But do not call him neglectful of his strict skin-care regime. Or so says this week’s winner, Janis! So what was the story with our parasoled paratrooper? This photo is from the Records of the United States Coast Guard (RG 26) and was taken about 1943. But despite [...]

Each month the National Archives in the Regions puts together a calendar of events that lays out all the great things going on around the country related to our nation’s records. At the top of that calendar is always a great story based on a few records found in our regional locations, and this month [...]