Starting in 1907, the American National Red Cross (ANRC) began selling Christmas Seals in an effort to raise money to combat tuberculosis. The seals resembled postage stamps, and could be collected or used on holiday correspondence. The first year of sales, 1907, only generated $3,000 towards tuberculosis. However, successive years earned in the millions! A [...]

  From 1943 to 1946, Colonia Santa Rosa in Guanajuato, Mexico was the site of a US-government sponsored home for Polish refugees. About 240 miles northwest of Mexico City and “10 minutes’ ride by mule-drawn tram from the Leon railway station,” the hacienda included a 39-room ranch house, a flour mill, ten wheat storage warehouses, [...]

Today’s post is written by student technician Robert Finch. While working on the Navy Deck Logs (RG 24, Records of the Bureau of Naval Personnel) project I called my uncle and asked him which ships his father-in-law, “Mr. W.”, served on during World War II. “Mr. W.” was at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 [...]

This post looks at an unusual find in the Secretary of the Commission of Fine Arts’ papers.

Today’s post is written by archivist David Langbart, who works primarily with diplomatic records. Researchers who use Department of State records may be interested to know a bit more about the types of documents used by Foreign Service Posts to communicate with the Department of State.  This is the fifth, and final, in a series [...]

“What records do you have here?” is a common question we are asked everyday at Archives I.  This post — Part 3 of a 3-part series — provides a brief description of the civilian agency records one can find at our facility in Washington, DC.  Part 1, Army [records at AI], and Part 2, Navy/Maritme [records [...]

Today’s post is written by archivist David Langbart, who works primarily with diplomatic records. Researchers who use Department of State records may be interested to know a bit more about the types of documents used by Foreign Service Posts to communicate with the Department of State. This is the fourth in a series of postings [...]