Each year in the United States, National Nurses Week is celebrated starting on May 6. We have been reminded this past year of the incredible work nurses do on a daily basis and of the sacrifice they make to care for the wellbeing of others. To mark National Nurses Week, the Unwritten Record is celebrating … Continue reading Celebrate Nurses Week with the Military Nurse
Though our research rooms remain closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, National Archives staff have been diligently working from home to make records more accessible to the public. In this vein, Still Picture staff have been converting finding aids into online catalog descriptions. Making descriptions searchable via the catalog will ultimately help researchers locate and … Continue reading An Update on Still Picture Catalog Additions
Original caption: Somewhere in England, Maj. Charity E. Adams,…and Capt. Abbie N. Campbell,…inspect the first contingent of Negro members of the Women’s Army Corps assigned to overseas service. National Archives Identifier: 531249. Local Identifier: 111-SC-200791. As we make our way through Women’s History Month, we are reminded of the incredible accomplishments of women throughout history. … Continue reading African American Women in the Military During WWII
In August of 1946, a year after the end of World War II, the United States Navy mounted an expedition to Antarctica officially titled The United States Navy Antarctic Developments Program, 1946-1947. The mission, more commonly referred to as Operation Hi-jump, was organized by Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, Jr., USN (Ret) and led by Rear Admiral Richard H. … Continue reading Operation Hi-jump: Exploring Antarctica with the U.S. Navy
America stands unique in the world: the only country not founded on race but on a way, an ideal. Not in spite of but because of our polyglot background, we have had all the strength in the world. That is the American way. –President Ronald ReaganDecember 1945, in honor of Kazuo Masuda andAugust 10, 1988, at … Continue reading Fractured Ideals: Japanese American Internment through a Government Lens
This post was written by Kaitlyn Crain Enriquez. **Edit: Seven additional photographs were added on 12/21/2018. ** In December 1944, American forces had been spread across a 75 mile stretch of the Ardennes Forest. The Ardennes was considered to be a minimal fighting area and therefore, the troops that had been placed in the area … Continue reading Christmas in Wartime: Battle of the Bulge
Guest bloggers Jan Hodges and Gene Burkett became interested in World War I combat art as a result of their volunteer work in a holdings maintenance project for the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) documents at the National Archives at College Park. This is part three in the series about World War I Art and Artists. … Continue reading World War I Combat Artists – Walter Duncan
For forty-seven days Louis Zamperini drifted idly in the Pacific Ocean. Armed with a few small tins of drinking water, a flare gun, some fishing line, and a couple of Hershey D-Ration candy bars, Zamperini and two other soldiers struggled to stay alive. Their struggle was exacerbated by vicious sharks, blistering heat, treacherous swells, and … Continue reading Louis Zamperini: The Story of a True American Hero
The story of the North Platte, Nebraska canteen reads more like a Frank Capra movie rather than an Army film production. As the story goes, a rumor had started that a train carrying troops from Nebraska would be arriving at North Platte on Christmas Day 1941. About five hundred townspeople came to greet the train bearing food and … Continue reading Supporting Troops on the Homefront: The North Platte, Nebraska Canteen
Jack Lieb went to Europe in 1943 with two movie cameras: He brought his 35mm black and white camera to film war coverage for Hearst’s News of the Day newsreels and his 16mm home movie camera to shoot color film to show to his family back home. After the war, Lieb edited the color footage … Continue reading A Newsreel Cameraman’s View of D-Day
