The records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Irrigation Division held by the Cartographic Branch are fully digitized and available to view and download from the National Archives Catalog. The records of the BIA Irrigation Division consist of maps showing Indian reservations and irrigation projects and plans for the construction of irrigation facilities and … Continue reading Irrigation Records from Bureau of Indian Affairs Now Digitized
Residing in Record Group 19 in the holdings of the Cartographic Branch are three drawings of a very early submarine owned by United States Navy. Though the USS Holland was not the first submarine owned by the Navy, she was the first to be commissioned and is the reason that we observe National Submarine Day. … Continue reading Celebrating National Submarine Day with a Dive into Drawings of the USS Holland (SS-1)
Today’s post is written by Larry Shockley, archives specialist in NARA’s Office of Innovation. In 1972 a freelance photographer by the name of Erik Calonius was hired by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to capture photographs relating to EPA activities, environmental problems, and everyday American life in the 1970’s. Many of the photos that Calonius … Continue reading Documerica Photographer Spotlight: Erik Calonius
Every year, around this time, many people’s minds turn towards New Year’s Resolutions. Things like saving more money, learning a new skill, and better self-care are timeless classics when it comes to resolutions. So, we here in the Cartographic Branch would like to offer up some patents related to resolution keeping, just in case you … Continue reading New Year’s Resolutions 101: Examples and Suggestions from Old Patents
The Moving Image and Sound Branch is pleased to announce that the sound recordings of RG 267: Records of the Supreme Court of the United States have been fully digitized and are available for listening and download through the National Archives Catalog. The audio recordings in Record Group 267 are organized into three series, Sound … Continue reading Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! Sound Recordings of the Supreme Court of the United States Now Fully Digitized
Spring has sprung and the bees are a buzzin’! Beekeeping and bee hives have a long and interesting history. People have been collecting honey for thousands of years - starting out by simply foraging from wild hives. However, the first recorded instance of beekeeping was the ancient Egyptians. They created hives from hollowed out trees … Continue reading Patents Causing a Buzz!
The Cartographic Branch is pleased to announce that RG 242: Target Dossiers Pertaining to the British Isles, 1938-1945 (NAID 3371016) has now been fully digitized and is available for viewing and download through the National Archives Catalog. The records in this series are a subset of RG 242: National Archives Collection of Foreign Records Seized, … Continue reading RG 242: Target Dossiers Pertaining to the British Isles, 1938-1945 Now Fully Digitized!
World War II records from the Adjutant General’s Office of the War Department (Record Group 407) have been digitized and are available to view and download from the National Archives Catalog. This series consists of maps and charts, overlays, city plans, aerial photographs, photomaps, pencil sketches, and architectural drawings relating to the European, Mediterranean, and … Continue reading World War II Records Digitized
Maps of Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay from the Army Corps of Engineers have been digitized and are available to view and download from the National Archives Catalog. The records are part of the Civil Works Map File series from Record Group 77, Records of the Office of the Chief of Engineers. The records make … Continue reading Maps of Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay from the Army Corps of Engineers Now Digitized
When you work with cartographic records at the National Archives, it is fair to say that you never know what you are going to randomly come across when you open a folder. Sometimes, it is a newer, published map. Sometimes (on a really great day) it is a 200-year-old manuscript map, and somedays, it's random … Continue reading Of Civil Works, Red-Bellied Woodpeckers, and the Randomness of Records in the Cartographic Branch
