Have you ever seen a dam or road or some other massive public works project and wondered who could be responsible for such a massive project? Chances are it was the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). George Washington appointed the first army engineers on June 16th, 1775 and the Corps of Engineers was … Continue reading The Problem Solvers
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
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
As Memorial Day 2018 approaches, we thought it would be appropriate to draw attention to a unique series in our Still-Picture Branch, RG 117-KDS, which covers a competition that took place in the 1980’s to design the Korean War Veterans Memorial. In 1986, the American Battle Monuments Commission was authorized to build a war memorial … Continue reading Looking Back at the Korean War Veterans Memorial Competition
When the Soo Canal was completed at Sault Ste. Marie in 1855, the journey through the rapids of the St. Mary’s river went from seven weeks of arduous portaging to seven minutes through the newly constructed State Locks.1 Over the next century, four locks would be constructed, repaired, and replaced, leading to more tons of … Continue reading The Mighty Soo: Construction of the Locks at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan
This post was written in collaboration with Ellen Mulligan. The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 was the worst flood in U.S. history. Following the mass destruction caused by the flood, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expanded the existing levee system to more than 3,500 miles, making it the longest in the world. Plans and progress from 1938 … Continue reading Taming the Mississippi
