Benjamin Franklin began publishing Poor Richard's Almanack in 1732 and proved an immediate success. The 1734 edition opens with a thank you to all its readers, and we share the same with you: Courteous Readers,Your kind and charitable Assistance last Year, in purchasing so large an Impression of my Almanacks, has made my Circumstances much … Continue reading Courteous Readers
Sometimes the right gift makes all the difference. Here is Lora Webb Nichols (1883-1962) studying a negative in her new darkroom. For her sixteenth birthday, a beau gave her a camera, and at Christmas that year “Pop” presented her with a developing outfit. The Kodak became Lora’s instrument of liberation. It guaranteed her access to … Continue reading The Perfect Gift
Where are the snows of yesteryear? Right here in the records. On the night of December 10, 1802, we had our first taste of winter in Washington. So notes President Thomas Jefferson: “the 1st snow fell last night, just covers the ground.” Jefferson began keeping daily observations of the weather when he was in Philadelphia attending … Continue reading Jefferson’s Notes of the Seasons
The National Historical Publications and Records Commission is now open for applications for five programs in 2021. Archives CollaborativesFor projects to plan and develop a working collaborative designed to enhance the capacity of small and diverse organizations with historical records collections.Final Deadline: June 9, 2021 Access to Historical Records: Major InitiativesFor projects that will significantly … Continue reading New Funding Opportunities
WASHINGTON, November 30, 2020 –Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero will award 36 grants totaling $2,947,836 to projects in 28 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, pending appropriations of a final budget for FY 2021. The National Archives grants program is carried out with the advice and recommendations of the National … Continue reading NATIONAL ARCHIVES AWARDS $2.9 MILLION FOR HISTORICAL RECORDS PROJECTS
Ben Franklin had a few thoughts about our national bird. "For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen as the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perch’d on some dead Tree near … Continue reading Talking Turkey
A National Historical Publications and Records Commission grant to California State University, Dominguez Hills is supporting a project to digitize and make accessible 10,400 archival records relating to 20th century Japanese-American history from 19 collections, including photographs, organization and family manuscript collections, and oral histories held at eight institutions throughout California. While spanning the 1920s … Continue reading The Japanese American Digitization Project
From 1914 to 1919, women all over America rallied to the aid of their country and volunteered for overseas service with the U.S. Army Expeditionary Forces of World War I. Over 11,000 Red Cross nurses served with the Army and Navy Nurse Corps. Others were assigned duties in the Ordnance, Quartermaster and Signal Corps, and … Continue reading They Also Served
Have you ever wondered who used to live in your old house? Or tracked the demographic changes in your city? The History Center in Ithaca, New York has created HistoryForge, a web application that combines information from U.S. census records, Sanborn maps, and other records into an interactive framework of human and spatial relationships that … Continue reading Mapping History
A few scares in the records in honor of the season: A Bat in the StacksHappy Halloween from the Wildlife Conservation Society Archives! This vampire bat image was likely taken during a 1934 expedition to Trinidad, where the Bronx Zoo’s first Herpetology Curator Raymond Ditmars and his associate Arthur Greenhall studied the elusive species and … Continue reading Happy Halloween!
