Victory at Yorktown

On the morning of October 19th, 1781, British troops along with their allies marched out of Yorktown, Virginia with flags furled to surrender to combined American and French forces.  The siege and surrender at Yorktown proved to be the decisive blow to British hopes of regaining control of the American colonies. To celebrate the anniversary … Continue reading Victory at Yorktown

Boston, 1775: A City Under Siege!

Of all the record groups in the Cartographic Department's holdings, one of the most interesting and varied is RG 77.   This record group, with its myriad of smaller series, holds many Revolutionary War, Civil War and Civil War-era maps, (both printed and manuscript), drawings and schematics of forts, posts, and reservations, and original designs for … Continue reading Boston, 1775: A City Under Siege!

Performing the Past: Archives Specialist Mark Meader Makes History Come Alive

It’s no surprise that history is a passion for many of the employees at the National Archives and Records Administration. But even in this environment, there are people whose dedication to interpreting the past stands out. For over forty years, Mark Meader, an Archives Specialist in NARA’s Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Branch, has participated … Continue reading Performing the Past: Archives Specialist Mark Meader Makes History Come Alive

Images of the Week: Select Lists

This week I’ve decided to highlight some of the images selected by staff, mostly in the 1970s and as late as the 1990s, to be part of hard copy leaflets on popular subjects.  For a number of years, these select audiovisual lists could be ordered as complete slide sets by researchers.  In the 1990s, the … Continue reading Images of the Week: Select Lists