We head next to Chicago! While we enjoy the modern cosmopolitan sights, it’s fun to remember the lengthy history of the city as an agricultural and industrial hub. The Still Picture Branch collection of Army Signal Corps Photography (111-SC NAID 53707) includes some great images illustrating the Central Department Supply Depot in Chicago’s role in … Continue reading Summer Road Trip: Chicago and Pittsburgh
If there is a straighter stretch of the US Interstate Freeway System than I-90 across South Dakota I'll eat my map. Heading east out of the Badlands, we pass through fields of blooming sunflowers stretching to the horizon and lose count of bikers riding the opposite direction to Sturgis. Before lunch we make our first stop: the … Continue reading Summer Road Trip: Great Plains and 10,000 Lakes
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the iconic Woodstock Music Festival, which took place August 15-18, 1969 at a farm near Bethel, New York. The festival, billed as three days of peace and music, drew nearly half a million attendees and has become legendary in American history. Although the Special Media Division doesn't hold … Continue reading Spotlight: Aerial Photography of Woodstock Festival Site
Trans-Continental Motor Convoy crossing the Continental Divide NAID 86733688 and 86733684 This post was co-written with Ashley Behringer and Amy Edwards. We've been offline since saying goodbye to Seattle on Thursday, busy exploring the mountains and high desert of the Northwest, then dropping South to Yellowstone National Park. Fans of the Unwritten … Continue reading Summer Road Trip: Across the Great Divide and into the Badlands
It’s 75 miles from Port Angeles to the City of Bremerton, Washington, the next stop on our NARA summer road trip. Our drive takes us past Discovery Bay and over the Hood Canal Bridge. We can see the Olympic Mountains in the West, prompting us to remember yesterday’s visit to Olympic National Park. As we … Continue reading Summer Road Trip: Maritime Matters in Bremerton and Seattle
If you are just joining us we have been doing a summer road trip across the United States. We began our journey in College Park, MD and have been on the road for almost two months now. As we left San Francisco on our way to Yosemite National Park, two images of the past come … Continue reading Summer Road Trip: Olympic Peninsula
A crowd greets the Apollo 11 astronauts in Paris, France. (Still image from 255-FR-8950) In late September of 1969, a mere two months after the successful Apollo 11 Moon landing mission, the Apollo 11 astronauts found themselves about to begin a new journey. President Richard Nixon gave permission for the use of Air Force 2, … Continue reading Celebrating Apollo 11 Around the World
This post was co-written by Audrey Amidon and Ashley Behringer. On the Streets of San Francisco Next on our summer tour of the National Archives’ non-textual holdings, we move on from Los Angeles to San Francisco. The city has featured prominently in 20th Century American culture and history, from the devastating 1906 earthquake, to the Haight-Ashbury district’s … Continue reading Summer Road Trip 2019: San Francisco and Yosemite National Park
Los Angeles, the City of Angels, La-La-Land, Tinseltown, no matter what you call it, the city of Los Angeles has long been a center of commerce, culture, and entertainment in the United States. It is a must see on any road trip through California. Still from FC-FC-2434 "Nature has been extravagant in bestowing gifts upon … Continue reading Summer Road Trip: Los Angeles
This Saturday will be the 75th Anniversary of the failed plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler and implement Operation Valkyrie by German military leaders. The assassination attempt was carried out by Lieutenant Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg at Hitler’s Wolf’s Lair field headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia. On July 20, 1944, Stauffenberg placed a bomb housed in … Continue reading 20 July Plot and Operation Valkyrie
