Dorothea Lange, whose photographs of the unemployed and migratory farm workers became synonymous with the Great Depression, was born on May 26, 1895. The caption of this photo reads "On Arizona Highway 87, south of Chandler. Maricopa County, Arizona. Children in a democracy. A migratory family living in a trailer in an open field. No sanitation, no water. They came from Amarillo, Texas. Pulled bolls near Amarillo, picked cotton near Roswell, New Mexico, and in Arizona. Plan to return to Amarillo at close of cotton picking season for work on WPA."

The photo is one of a series taken for an agricultural "Community Stability and Instability" study by the Bureau of Agricultural Economics. Taken by Dorothea Lange and Irving Rusinow, the photographs are a record of pre-World War II rural life and social institutions. Of particular interests are images of African Americans in Alabama and Georgia and migrant laborers hired to work in cotton fields in Arizona and California.

"Photograph taken after midnight on April 17, 1912, G St. near 14th. These boys, 10, 11, and 12 years old, were stuck with over fifty papers in their hands, and vowed they would stay until they sold out if it took all night. The oldest said, ‘my mother makes me sell.’"

Written on April 13, 1989, this letter was sent from second-grader Kelli Middlestead of the Franklin School in Burlingame, California, to Walter Stieglitz the Regional Director of the Alaska Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, lamenting the Exxon Valdez oil spill of March 24, 1989.

Taken on February 18, 1915, this photo shows a fruit and vegetable stand in Washington DC’s Center Market. The market once operated on the land now occupied by the National Archives Building.

Born on February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth President of the United States (1861-1865).

Just in time for Groundhog Day, this latest find comes courtesy of Gary H. Stern, Archives Specialist on NARA’s Digital Strategies and Services Staff, who’s too busy creating new archival descriptions to post this himself. While clearly not as significant as the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the groundhog and its owner are just a bit cuter.  Be [...]