AOTUS: Collector in Chief

Today NARA is releasing the entirety of our digital preservation framework for public comment. This digital preservation framework consists of our approach to determining risks faced by electronic files, and our plans for preserving different types of file formats. The public is encouraged to join the discussion, September 16 through November 1, 2019, on GitHub.

Read the full post on the AOTUS blog.

Truman Library Ground-breaking Ceremony

The Harry S. Truman Presidential Library in Independence, MO, is undergoing a year-long renovation that will result in a new Truman permanent exhibition, new amenities for visitors, and enhanced educational and community programming.

Yesterday, I joined Missouri Governor Mike Parson, Missouri State Senator John Rizzo, Clifton Truman Daniel (President Truman’s oldest grandson), and Library Director Kurt Graham for a ceremonial ground-breaking to mark the beginning of this major renovation and expansion project.

Read the full post on the AOTUS blog.

Declassification Diplomacy: The United States Declassification Project for Argentina

This morning I presented the final tranche of newly-declassified U.S. Government records to Argentine Minister of Justice and Human Rights, the Honorable Germán Carlos Garavano. The ceremony marks the successful completion of the U.S. Declassification Project for Argentina, the largest government-to-government declassification release in United States history.

This represents the final stage of an historic effort by the U.S. Government to search, identify, review for public access, and provide records that shed light on human rights abuses in Argentina between 1975 and 1984. More than 43,000 pages of U.S. documents from 16 Executive Branch agencies were provided to the Government of Argentina.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has posted the collection as a whole, which can be found here: intel.gov/argentina

Records released by the National Archives’ National Declassification Center are available to the public here:  https://www.archives.gov/argentina/humanrights

Read the full post on the AOTUS blog

Special Document Display: Emancipation Proclamation

The National Archives marks the 156th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation with a special 3-day display of the original document.

The National Archives will display the Emancipation Proclamation in the museum’s East Rotunda Gallery from April 14 through 16, coinciding with the anniversary of Lincoln’s death on April 15. Concurrently, the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act of 1862 will be featured in the West Rotunda Gallery from April 12 through 16 in celebration of DC Emancipation Day on April 16.

On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared “that all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “are, and henceforward shall be free.”

Modernizing the Proposed Records Schedule Commenting Process

The records management program at the National Archives has been working to build an open and collaborative electronic records management community with federal and industry stakeholders for many years. 

Since 2017, we have been planning, developing, and engaging with stakeholders inside and outside of the National Archives on a new approach for public comment and review. We have now changed the process by which the public can review and comment on proposed records schedules. Now, these schedules will be available on the Federal eRulemaking Portal, regulations.gov.

We are transitioning to regulations.gov as a way to improve our own internal business processes, and also to be responsive to clear, widespread interest from the public to use a web-based platform for a more modern, transparent, and efficient way to review and comment on records schedules.

Read the full post on the AOTUS blog.

Happy Sunshine Week 2019!

Each year, Sunshine Week honors and promotes a dialogue about the importance of open government and access to information—values that are central to the mission of the National Archives and Records Administration.

I can’t think of a better place to be celebrating Sunshine Week than here at the National Archives, because we not only contribute, but serve as a leader in open government. This year’s celebration of information access began with an event on Monday, March 11, where I was fortunate to host a special one-on-one conversation with Beryl A. Howell, Chief Justice of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Our discussion on the role of the Freedom of Information Act, open government, transparency, and the legal landscape was sponsored by the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS).

More information about this event and participants is available on our Sunshine Week website. My conversation with Judge Howell, as well as the other panels and discussions from the event are now available to watch on the National Archives YouTube channel.

Read the full post on the AOTUS blog.

Remembering “Remembering Vietnam”

Our exhibit commemorating the Vietnam War closed last week after a 15-month run in our Lawrence F. O’Brien Gallery. We used the records in our holdings as well as interviews with historians, American and Vietnamese military and civilians to describe twelve critical episodes in the Vietnam War from Truman Sides with France (1946-53) to the Fall of Saigon in 1975.

As a Vietnam Vet, this was an important 15 months to me personally. I often wandered into the exhibit to see who was there, how they were interacting and reacting to the materials we had chosen, and listened in to the hushed conversations—parents explaining to their children, Vietnam Vets comparing notes, lots of tears on every visit.

Early on the morning after the exhibit closed and just before deinstallation began, I had my last walk through. It was a powerfully emotional experience, as it was during my first walk through before the exhibit opened. Proud of what we accomplished!

Read the full post on the AOTUS blog.

Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote

Today’s post comes from Debra Steidel Wall, Deputy Archivist of the United States.

Almost 100 years ago, the United States House and Senate passed the proposed 19th Amendment to the Constitution. A little over a year later the 36th state – Tennessee – ratified it, and the new amendment prohibiting the states and the federal government from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex became law.

Here at the National Archives we are making plans to commemorate this important anniversary. The cornerstone of our celebration is a new exhibit, Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote. It will run in our Lawrence O’Brien Gallery at our building in Washington, DC, from May 10, 2019, through January 3, 2021. The exhibit commemorates the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment by looking beyond suffrage parades and protests to the often-overlooked story behind the landmark moment in American history. This fuller retelling of the struggle for women’s voting rights uses our records to illustrate the dynamic involvement of American women across the spectrum of race, ethnicity, and class to reveal what it really took to win the vote for one half of the people.

Read the full post on the AOTUS blog.

NARA and Obama Foundation Sign a Digitization Memorandum of Understanding

This week, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the Barack Obama Foundation agreed on a memorandum of understanding (MOU) regarding the plan to digitize all of the unclassified textual Presidential records of the Obama administration. The Foundation will select the vendor, with NARA approval, and oversee the contract.

Approximately 30 million pages of unclassified Presidential records at the Obama Library will be scanned, and the scanned images and associated metadata will become part of the Electronic Records Archives.

Last September we signed a Letter of Intent with the Obama Foundation and, as promised, have continued to work toward an agreement for the digitization of the unclassified textual records of the Barack Obama administration. I am pleased with the progress that this MOU represents and look forward to further progress as NARA and the Obama Foundation partner on this exciting new model.

Read the full post on the AOTUS blog.

Remembering President George Herbert Walker Bush

Late Friday, November 30, 2018, our nation lost its 41st President, George Herbert Walker Bush. We join our National Archives colleagues at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, Texas, in mourning the President and honoring his legacy.

In tribute, the staff posted this statement on www.bush41.org/:

President Bush was intimately involved in the Presidential Library and local community, from attending exhibit openings and forums, to frequently being seen in the museum and surrounding grounds. So many people here have been touched by his life and knowing him personally. Through his Presidential Library and Museum, we will continue to honor his life and legacy with our utmost reverence.

We mourn President Bush together and honor his legacy. A patriot, a statesman, a leader who worked ceaselessly for a kinder, gentler, America, President Bush promoted the values of democracy that we uphold every day through our work. Please join me in remembering his service to our Nation.

Read the full post on the AOTUS blog.

Images:

George Bush in the cockpit of his TBM Avenger during World War II, ca. 1944. National Archives Identifier 186383

Vice President Bush picnics on the lawn of his Kennebunkport home with his family, 8/6/1988. National Archives Identifier 186370

President and Mrs. Bush Walk down Pennsylvania Avenue after the Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol, 1/20/1989. National Archives Identifier 6987989

Photograph of President George H. W. Bush Enjoying Thanksgiving Dinner with Troops, 11/22/1990 National Archives Identifier 186423

President Barack Obama with former Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Jimmy Carter during the dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Center at the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, April 25, 2013. Barack Obama Presidential Library Flickr

President George W. Bush and Former President George H. W. Bush in the Oval Office, 5/2/2001. National Archives Identifier 7431321

President George H. W. Bush Signs the Americans with Disabilities Act, 7/26/1990. National Archives Identifier 6037489

We the People of the United States…

Constitution Day and Citizenship day, celebrated every year on September 17, marks the 1787 signing of the U.S. Constitution, which defines the U.S. Government and outlines the fundamental rights of all citizens. As the guardians of the nation's Charters of Freedom, including the Constitution, we serve a key role in this yearly celebration.

Thirty-one new United States naturalized citizens took the oath of allegiance on Constitution Day on Monday at the National Archives Rotunda in Washington, DC. Sworn in just steps away from the Charters of Freedom—the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights—the new Americans hail from 25 different countries: Australia, Cameroon, Chile, China, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Eritrea, Ethiopia, France, The Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Nepal, Peru, Philippines, Romania, Spain, Togo, United Kingdom, and Vietnam.

Learn more about the event on the AOTUS blog, and visit the National Archives News page on Constitution Day, where you can find events and resources about the Constitution, read a transcript of the Constitution or watch a number of related videos.

Celebrate July 4 with the National Archives!

This year, the National Archives celebrates the 242nd anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence with special events in Washington, DC, and at Presidential Libraries nationwide.

As the trustees of our nation’s founding documents—the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights—the National Archives and Records Administration is a natural place to celebrate this national holiday.

For those of you in Washington, DC this July 4, stop by Constitution Avenue at 10 a.m. for a Declaration of Independence Reading Ceremony, then head inside for family activities from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. You can also join us for celebrations at our Presidential Libraries around the nation, or join the Washington festivities through Facebook Live, which will broadcast the events live. Watch last year’s celebration for a taste of the festivities.

Learn more and find a celebration near you on our July 4 Celebration events page. Wherever you are on July 4th, share your celebrations on social media using the hashtag #ArchivesJuly4.

U.S. Coast Guard Logbook Scan-a-Thon

The featured scanning project from the National Archives Innovation Hub focuses on logbooks of the U.S. Coast Guard vessels that served in the Vietnam War. These vessels participated in Operation Market Time, an effort to patrol the South Vietnamese coast to keep supplies from reaching North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong forces.

The logbooks contain the highlights of each ship’s voyage, written up every four hours by the deck officer on watch. Information recorded may include incidents of shots fired, transportation of detainees, and contact with friendly or unfriendly vessels. Many veterans of the Vietnam War use these logbooks today to help establish their eligibility for veterans’ benefits.

To support this digitization project, the Innovation Hub recently held a scan-a-thon, inviting staff and the public to help veterans access the history of the ships they served on by scanning logbook pages. Thanks to our citizen scanners, we exceeded our goal of 2,000 pages and scanned a total of 2,314 pages in one day!

Many thanks to all of our citizen scanners and scan-a-thon participants for helping to make these important records more accessible to our veterans. We estimate that there are over 100,000 total pages that need to be scanned for this project, so there is more work to be done. If you are interested in helping scan, visit us in the Hub! You can learn more about this project and how to volunteer at the National Archives Innovation Hub.

Delighting Audiences, One Hashtag Party at a Time

Since launching the #ArchivesHashtagParty in August 2016, the National Archives has brought together over 600 archives, libraries, and museums around the world and reached millions of people on Twitter and Instagram. More than 48,000 tweets have used our campaign hashtags and the initiative has generated thousands of visits to the online National Archives Catalog.

Each monthly hashtag theme is chosen to spur discovery of our holdings, interest in our mission, and hopefully to spark delight in discovering archival materials.

Join us today, Friday, May 4, with our co-host the National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. We’ll share photos and stories about animal care and conservation with the theme #ArchivesAnimals.

I am proud of the National Archives staff who have contributed to this campaign and have collaborated in a meaningful way, taking NARA’s social media efforts to a new, worldwide audience. They have also strengthened the global community of archives, bringing visibility to our collective holdings and the value of the work we do.

Great and Good Friends: National Archives Loans Artifacts to Thai Exhibition

The National Archives played a major role in the grand opening last week of a new exhibition in Bangkok, Thailand, at the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles. An international group effort, the exhibit—“Great and Good Friends: 200 Years of U.S.-Thai Friendship”—features more than 40 records and gifts loaned from the National Archives.

The items exchanged between Thai royalty and American Presidents—including ceremonial letters, head-of-state gifts, and an 11-foot facsimile of the 1833 U.S.-Siam Treaty—have never before been exhibited outside the United States. They will be featured among manuscripts, musical instruments, textiles, and other 19th-century artifacts loaned from the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution.

Read the full post on the AOTUS blog.

Celebrating Information Access: Sunshine Week 2018

Sunshine Week is an annual nationwide celebration of access to public information. It was launched more than a decade ago by the American Society of News Editors, and is embraced by journalists, librarians, concerned citizens, civil society organizations, elected officials, and government employees as an opportunity to discuss the importance of open government and its impact.

The National Archives and Records Administration will host several events in observance of Sunshine Week. Events include an educational symposium, a week-long transcription challenge engaging citizen archivists, and a panel discussion. Sunshine Week allows the National Archives to highlight how it is a leader in open government.

Make Access Happen

The National Archives and Records Administration has been able to accomplish some incredible digitization and outreach work over the years due in part to contributions and support by anonymous donors and the National Archives Foundation. Two examples of this are the World War I Wartime Films project, and the Ratified Indian Treaties vault digitization project.

Read more about these projects on the AOTUS blog.

Image source: Women’s machine gun squad police reserves, New York City. National Archives Identifier 31474833