in West Branch, Iowa.

The library has an unusual location: it's inside of a National Park. And the archival contents are no less unusual. Along with official Presidential correspondence, there is flour sack art, typescript drafts of several of Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" books, and paintings from World War I in support of the Food Administration.

Learn more about the material available for research or plan a visit to the museum: http://go.usa.gov/YRRx

Photo via http://ourpresidents.tumblr.com/

g Grain, Presenting Pixels: Film Preservation and Restoration in the Digital Age” on October 19 at 7 p.m. at the National Archives building in Washington, DC.

In 2007, the Academy’s Science and Technology Council released their landmark study The Digital Dilemma. Five years later, archival institutions and film industry continue to address the “digital dilemma” when facing the task of preserving and restoring our motion picture history.

A panel including Josef Linder, Preservation Officer for the Academy Film Archive, and Criss Kovac and Bryce Lowe, Motion Picture Preservation Specialists at the National Archives, will discuss this important issue and present examples from their latest projects.

Image: Deteriorating film before and after being treated in the Motion Picture Preservation Lab at the National Archives.

tings hint that something else was going on.

During the next 13 days, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum will be tweeting archival documents, audio and video clips, and quotes from the Kennedy administration on their Twitter account @JFK1962. Follow every crucial moment from the #13days here!

You can also visit the exhibit "To the Brink: JFK and the Cuban Missile Crisis" at the National Archives in Washington, DC, or download the new app: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id570032141

rthur Zimmermann, offering support to Mexico in exchange for an attack on the United States. Five weeks later, America entered World War I. Historian Thomas Boghardt challenges the accepted views of what happened as a result of this event. A book signing will follow the program.

Image: Zimmermann Telegram, 1917 (ARC ID 302025)

before supper. Mr. Howard installed running water in his kitchen but dirty hand washing is usually done at the front yard faucet. Gilliam Coal and Coke Company, Gilliam Mine, Gilliam, McDowell County, West Virginia., 08/13/1946 "

encountered while volunteering at the National Archives on the Civil War Widows Pension files project.

This letter was the second and final rejection sent to Henrietta Frances Kane in her petition to have her widow's pension restored. Why was she rejected and what happened to her? Read her story in today's blog post: http://go.usa.gov/YXTw

First Lady Pat Nixon (bravely!) holds a football for the "kickoff." Senator Bob Dole, the RNC Chairman, stands by the bus front wheel while Anne Armstrong officiates on the podium.

Does anyone recognize the kicker?

Image from the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum via http://ourpresidents.tumblr.com/

of a nuclear strike force in Cuba, just 90 miles from the United States—with missiles that could reach most major U.S. cities in less than five minutes. President Kennedy stated that the missiles would not be tolerated, and insisted on their removal. Khrushchev refused.

Now, 50 years later, curators at the Kennedy Library and designers from the National Archives have created an exhibit where you can listen to clandestine real-time White House recordings from Kennedy’s meetings with his advisors during the 13 terrifying days in October 1962.

Do you remember the Cuban Missile Crisis?

Image: Medium Range Ballistic Missile Field Launch Site in San Cristobal, Cuba, taken October, 14, 1962. From the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Learn more about the JFK Library here: http://go.usa.gov/Y8f9

and in honor of American archives, we're highlighting the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum on our blog: http://go.usa.gov/Y8cF

(Photograph of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt from the FDR Library, via http://ourpresidents.tumblr.com/)

home game in this Major League Baseball playoff series, here's a photograph of President Roosevelt throwing out the ceremonial first pitch on October 5, 1933, for Game 3 of the 1933 World Series, when the Giants played the Senators. (Image from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum)

Who do you think will make it to the World Series this year?

ates the authority to appoint educated, well-read electors to vote on behalf of their citizens.

However, it became clear that that electing a President and Vice President from different political parties didn’t work as well in practice as it did in theory. In 1804, the 12th Amendment was ratified, which meant that the second-place Presidential finisher didn’t end up as the Vice President.

What do you think? Is the Electoral College a good idea?

Image: 1824 Electoral Vote Tally from the Federal Register. You can read more about the process here: http://blogs.archives.gov/prologue/?p=10655

ntial election was looming. But parts of the country still seethed over the Civil Rights Act that President Lyndon B. Johnson had signed into law just a few months earlier.

Many white southerners and politicians considered the law an assault on their long-established way of life. Southern Democrats threatened to bolt just as racial politics threatened to splinter the party and cost Johnson the election.

It was during this tumultuous time that Lady Bird Johnson embarked on perhaps her most difficult assignment as First Lady. She traveled through eight southern states in a four-day, 1,628-mile trip aboard a train dubbed the Lady Bird Special.

This was the first time a First Lady campaigned on her own for her husband, and she championed the new legislation that eliminated “Jim Crow” laws and guaranteed African Americans access to all public accommodations and the right to equal employment opportunities.

Along the way, Mrs. Johnson was met with invective that no First Lady has experienced since. But the ultimate success of the trip, as she defended the need for the Civil Rights Act, was a testament to Lady Bird’s spirit and stoicism.

While she loved her role as First Lady, she wrote at the end of her tenure, “I wouldn’t trade anything for the experience. But not for anything would I pay for the price of admission again.”

Images: “Please don’t forget to vote” Postcard, 1964 ; Lady Bird Johnson on her Whistle Stop Tour, 10/6/64.

Text and images from today's post on http://ourpresidents.tumblr.com/

y, filling 2.3 million cubic feet of records on 385,000 shelves. There are 6.2 billion feet of paper in the military records alone. This picture shows the building under construction in 2011. The shelves that are being installed are 29 feet high.

About 600 full-time staff work in St. Louis. In 2011, the NPRC received 1,093,522 written requests for records, about 3,000 requests per day.

Read more about this incredible building and the work our staff do for veterans: http://go.usa.gov/YbeH

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The National Archives at Boston (http://go.usa.gov/Y2t3) has a research room that is open to the public. You can research maritime records, court cases, and genealogy, or use their lesson plans in your classroom.

We're spotlighting all of our research rooms in honor of American Archives Month. One down, 26 to go!

ATE: Lots of good guesses--and some correct ones! The von Trapps lived in Vermont, and so this document is in the holdings of the National Archives at Boston.

Learn more here: http://go.usa.gov/Y2t3

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Even though the two navies represented a small percentage of the Union and Confederate fighting forces, they were crucial to the war’s outcome. McPherson will discuss the war’s naval campaigns, their leaders, and military innovations such as ironclad vessels, naval mines, and the first submarine to sink an enemy vessel.

A book signing will follow the program. http://go.usa.gov/YY9B

What's your favorite book by James M. McPherson?

she became the first First Lady to be elected to the Senate. In 2008, she ran for President but did not win the Democratic nomination. On January 21, 2009, the former First Lady was sworn in as Secretary of State, becoming President Obama's chief foreign affairs adviser. (This wasn't her first Presidential appointment--in 1978, President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the board of the Legal Services Corporation.) What do you think is most inspiring about this former First Lady's career?

You can learn more about Hillary Clinton at the William J. Clinton Presidential Library Facebook page.