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Archive for 'Researchers'

The Challenge of Federal Bureau of Investigation Records: Abbreviations and Euphemisms

Today’s post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher. The National Archives holds a substantial quantity Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) records. And in the forthcoming years even more records will be accessioned.  The FBI case files contain  a variety of documentation, including FBI agent reports; teletype-messages; prosecutive summaries; accounts of interviews and physical surveillance; letters; memorandums; [...]

The National Gallery of Art, the National Archives, and Art Provenance Research

Today’s post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher. Nancy Yeide, head of the Department of Curatorial Records at the National Gallery of Art (NGA) in Washington, D.C., in December 1997, began doing provenance research on the NGA’s holdings to ascertain whether any of the works of art had provenance problems.  In the wake of the revelations [...]

Searching for a Shellback Ceremony in the Navy Deck Logs

Today’s post is written by Archives II volunteer Jan Hodges. Do you know what a shellback ceremony is? Chances are that unless you’re a Navy man or a relative, you probably don’t. It’s a ritual conducted aboard ship after it crosses the equator. And not just any old ceremony–one that becomes part of the sailor’s permanent record. The Reference Unit [...]

A Shameless Plug

Today’s post is written by Adam Minakowski, an archives technician who works with researchers in College Park. Opening a box of records in the Textual Research Room at Archives II, you expect to file folders stuffed with typed or handwritten documents.  Sure, you’ll sometimes encounter log books, photos, and maps, but these are still paper-based [...]

Know Your Records: USAID, RG 286, Part II

So, what is in the RG 286 records and how should researchers approach diving in to world of USAID?  Most important is for researchers to have as much specific information as possible depending on how specific your research needs are.  Knowing specific offices, project names, beneficiary countries or regions, or any other relevant data that [...]

Make Your Research Visit to NARA More Successful

The “National Archives Researcher News” recently carried an FAQ that provides guidance on ways to improve your research experience at the National Archives. It is reissued here to bring it to the attention of readers of The Text Message. HOW CAN I MAKE MY VISIT MORE SUCCESSFUL? The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) reference [...]

Launch of new web pages on Foreign Affairs records

To assist researchers interested in records of the Department of State and other foreign affairs agencies, the most heavily used records in the National Archives, the Textual Archives Services Division has launched a newly revamped set of pages on the Archives’ website for providing an introduction to foreign affairs records. The conduct of foreign affairs [...]

From a researcher’s perspective

Today’s post is written by  Aaron Mannes, a citizen researcher from the University of Maryland’s Laboratory of Computational Cultural Dynamics. He is a doctoral candidate at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy who is writing a dissertation on the national security role of the vice president.  If you have a lot of time [...]

Accessing veterans’ records

One of the most frequent kinds of research requests we receive concerns gaining access to military veterans’ service records. To do our part to commemorate Veterans Day tomorrow, we’ve asked Theresa Fitzgerald of the Archives’ National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis to write a post on everything you ever wanted to know about accessing [...]

Students Share Scholarly Research at NARA

Many of our NARA colleagues are historians and researchers themselves. In this post, written by Lopez Matthews, we have the opportunity to learn about a few current research projects our staff members are undertaking. If you’d like more information on any of these projects, leave a note in the comments and we’ll make sure the [...]

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