Prologue: Pieces of History

Walt Whitman, ca. 1860-ca. 1865 (111-B-2245). Song of My Beard  (with apologies to the original Whitman poem!) 1. I celebrate my beard, and sing my beard, And what I grow you shall grow For every follicle belonging to me as good as belongs to you. I loafe and stroke my beard I lean and stroke [...]

Fact: this photo is actually from a post-apocalyptic future, and that’s actually the Washington Monument,  fenced to protect the only known remains of a land once known as “the District” … strange that the future looks like rural Texas in 1894 … Wait, apologies, we were looking at the wrong book. So, just what is [...]

The Summer 2010 issue of Prologue has just hit the shelves, and YouTube. While our award-winning magazine is packed with Ponzi schemes, prison themes, and polar dreams, we’ve added something extra for our online readers: the silver screen. Our hardworking writers have searched the motion picture holdings to find some footage related to three of [...]

If you’ve ever been to Washington, DC, we have a challenge for you! We’ve found pictures of some of the famous monuments and buildings in the District, and we’d love to compare our old photos with some of your own. Here’s what you do. Take a look at the photos below, and if you have [...]

What is the Archivist’s favorite thing about the Federal Register’s new website?  “Its translation into English, into words that make sense. I think that’s the biggest contribution,” Archivist Ferriero explains in a video detailing the history of the Federal Register. And it’s true. The newspaper of the Federal Government has often been obscured in diplo-speak, [...]