As you may know, the Cartographic Branch holds many maps relating to Civil War battles and sites. However, what you may not know is that many of these maps are available to view anytime and anywhere through the National Archives Online Catalog. Today we're featuring maps showing the Shiloh Battlefield. All of the maps featured … Continue reading Mapping the Battle of Shiloh
We are very excited to announce that all of the maps in the US File Unit RG 77: Civil Works Map File have now been digitized and are available online for viewing and download! These images can be found by searching the National Archives Catalog, NAID #7491452. The records in this series comprised the main … Continue reading Now Available Online: RG 77, Civil Works Map Files, US File Unit!
The Cartographic Branch holds aerial imagery covering much of the United States and also many areas around the world. Today's post will focus on getting started with aerial imagery covering the United States, and specifically, Record Group (RG) 145 imagery. For more information on locating foreign aerial photography, see our previous posts: Researching Foreign Aerial … Continue reading Researching Aerial Photography of the United States : RG 145 Aerial Indexes Now Digitized
Chances are that if you stop by the Cartographic Research Room on any given day, at least one person will be working with aerial photography. It's easily the most commonly requested record type in our research room and one of the most common offsite reference requests that we receive. The Cartographic Branch holds over 29 … Continue reading Researching Foreign Aerial Photography
Time to hit the road! Our virtual road trip begins where the photographs, films, sound recordings, maps, and more within the Special Media Division live – at the Archives II building in College Park, Maryland. If you haven't yet visited Archives II, or are unable to travel here and see it for yourself, Still Pictures … Continue reading Summer Road Trip 2019: Maryland and the Traveler’s Toll
This post was written in collaboration with Meghan Ryan Guthorn. The Jewish celebration of Passover began this year on April 19th, 2019. In honor of the holiday, the Still Pictures Branch pulled together some images of servicemen celebrating Passover around the world through the years. The images below depict celebrations from 1918 to 1985, in … Continue reading Celebration of Passover (Photos)
This post was written by Harry Kidd. Harry is a volunteer at the National Archives working on textual and photographic digitization projects. Harry is a former Navy photographer himself and came across this story while researching military photographers. John Purroy Mitchel (1879 – 1918) was a native New Yorker. Trained as a lawyer, he gained … Continue reading John Purroy Mitchel: The Boy Mayor of New York
Today’s post is written by Larry Shockley, Archives Specialist in NARA's Office of Innovation. One of the more rewarding aspects of working for an institution such as the National Archives is our ability to serve archival colleagues at state and local levels. A recent trip to the West Virginia Archives and History provided one such … Continue reading NARA Film Preservation Unit Serves State and City Level Colleagues
In honor of Grand Canyon National Park celebrating it's 100th Anniversary on February 26th, The Unwritten Records presents select records from our holdings. Cover of Master Plan for Grand Canyon National Park, 1938 Photo No. 106-WA-227. Grand Canyon, 1872. Photograph by William Bell. Photo No. 57-PS-431A, Grand Canyon looking east from Foot of Torowap, Photograph … Continue reading Spotlight: Grand Canyon
This post was written by Harry Kidd. Harry is a volunteer at the National Archives working on textual and photographic digitization projects. Harry is a former Navy photographer himself and came across this story while researching military photographers. In the early morning of January 1st 1919 Surfman Roger Smith reported sighting the U.S.S. Northern Pacific … Continue reading Rescue from Fire Island
