Tell Me A Story.

todaysdocument: The siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi by Union...

Sat, 18 May 2013 08:32:54 -0500

The siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi by Union forces under Major General Ulysses S. Grant began 150 years ago on May 18, 1863. Confederates forces would surrender the fortress city after 40 days, effectively yielding control of the Mississippi River to the Union.

Map of the Siege of Vicksburg, Miss., By the U. S. Forces Under the Command of Maj. Genl. U. S. Grant, U. S. Vls., Maj. F. E. Prime, Chief Engr. Surveyed and constructed under direction of Capt. C. B. Comstock, U.S. Engrs., and Lt. Col. J. H. Wilson, A. I. Genl. 1st Lt., Engrs….Drawn by Chs. Spangenberg, Asst. Engr., 08/20/1863

lbjlibrary: April 18, 1967. Jackie Robinson sends this letter...

Mon, 13 May 2013 09:39:55 -0500

lbjlibrary:

April 18, 1967. Jackie Robinson sends this letter to LBJ, thanking him for his work on civil rights but expressing concern about the growing impact of Vietnam.

White House Central File, Name File, “Robinson, Jackie (baseball player),” box 209, LBJ Library.

Welcome!

Thu, 09 May 2013 07:06:32 -0500

This is my quarterly post to explain this blog. I started this as a grad school project and kept...

usnatarchives: For Teacher Appreciation Week, here’s an article...

Wed, 08 May 2013 17:28:27 -0500

usnatarchives:

For Teacher Appreciation Week, here’s an article written by Herbert Hoover dedicated to a teacher in Salem, Oregon. Miss Gray helped him develop a love of reading.

Readers Digest asked Herbert Hoover to prepare an article on the best advice he had ever received. “Thank You Miss Gray” was published in July 1959.

(Images: “The best advice I ever had” article by Herbert Hoover, 7/1959. From Hoover’s Articles, Addresses and Public Statements in the Herbert Hoover Papers in the Hoover Presidential Library. More teacher-inspired records are being posted at the National Archives Education page.)

americas-royalty: In the summer of 1961, Jack displays a...

Tue, 07 May 2013 19:00:54 -0500

americas-royalty:

In the summer of 1961, Jack displays a mystery bandage that created a minor buzz. He claimed he bumped his head picking up his children’s toys, but credible sources said it was a party-related wound.
Photographed by Jacques Lowes

retrocampaigns: On May 12, 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt...

Mon, 06 May 2013 12:18:03 -0500

retrocampaigns:

On May 12, 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt visited San Francisco, a parade captured by cameraman H. J. Miles and later released as The President’s Carriage. In the filmed footage, Roosevelt passes on Market Street.

wrestleforgold: greenteaandgreatworkouts: descroissants: In...

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 16:32:04 -0500

wrestleforgold:

greenteaandgreatworkouts:

descroissants:

In 1967, Kathrine Switzer was the first woman to run the Boston marathon. After realizing that a woman was running, race organizer Jock Semple went after Switzer shouting, “Get the hell out of my race and give me those numbers.” However, Switzer’s boyfriend and other male runners provided a protective shield during the entire marathon.The photographs taken of the incident made world headlines, and Kathrine later won the NYC marathon with a time of 3:07:29. [Wiki]

Awesome women in history.

ALWAYS REBLOG

I can’t explain how much I love rulebreaking, society changing, progressive women.

todaysdocument: Happy Birthday to the Man of Steel! Superman...

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 12:06:32 -0500

todaysdocument:

Happy Birthday to the Man of Steel!

Superman first debuted 75 years ago in Action Comics #1, published April 18, 1938.

ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN: STAMP DAY FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN

Copyright by National Comics Publications and Superman Inc. and donated to the Treasury Department as a public service by Superman, Inc.

From the Moving Images files of the Department of The Treasury

H/T to the USPS Stamps Tumblr for the tip!

todaysdocument: The Jefferson Memorial, as it appeared 40 years...

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 18:15:12 -0500

todaysdocument:

The Jefferson Memorial, as it appeared 40 years ago. The memorial to the third President was dedicated 70 years ago today, on April 13, 1943.

JEFFERSON MEMORIAL (FOREGROUND) TO CAPITOL, LOOKING EAST, 05/1973

Yoichi R. Okamoto, photographer

From the DOCUMERICA series, a program sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency to photographically document subjects of environmental concern in America during the 1970s.

Find more images from DOCUMERICA at “Searching for the Seventies: The DOCUMERICA Photography Project,” now open at the National Archives in Washington, DC.

todaysdocument: Seventy years ago today on April 13, 1943, the...

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 09:51:39 -0500

President Truman with Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes and others, standing inside the Jefferson Memorial looking up at a statue of Thomas Jefferson., 01/14/1946 ARC Identifier 199303

Page 1 of Franklin D. Roosevelt's address at the dedication of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, 04/13/1943 NARA ID 197370

Photograph of the Jefferson Memorial, with the Washington Monument in the background, illuminated at night during President Truman's Inaugural celebration., 01/20/1949 ARC Identifier 200070

A view of the Jefferson Memorial as seen through the branches of a cherry tree in blossom, 04/12/1983 ARC Identifier 6372599

A view of the statue of Thomas Jefferson in the Jefferson Memorial, 12/24/1989 ARC Identifier 6455382

todaysdocument:

Seventy years ago today on April 13, 1943, the Jefferson Memorial was dedicated in Washington, DC, on the 200th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson’s birth (4/13/1743).

By far my favorite memorial in DC

coolchicksfromhistory: Today is World Holocaust Rememberence...

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 21:56:21 -0500

coolchicksfromhistory:

Today is World Holocaust Rememberence Day

The photos above are part of the US Holocaust Museum’s Remember Me? Project. They are children displaced by World War II who the museum is hoping to further identify.

If you recognize yourself or someone you know in one of the photos, please contact the Museum’s Holocaust Survivors and Victims Resource Center at RememberMe@ushmm.org or via phone at 202-488-0416.

Tobka Kaplan

Francine Schaffran

Erika Szychter

Maria Krakovics (Verneuil, France)

Betty Alfandari

Ala Baumstein (Otwock, Poland)

Ida Dzisienbruck

Nicolle Eisner

Viviane-Denise Ezratti

Caludine Fisher

todaysdocument: Presidential Proclamation 1364 of April 6,...

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 08:09:21 -0500

todaysdocument:

Presidential Proclamation 1364 of April 6, 1917, by President Woodrow Wilson declaring war against Germany. 04/06/1917

President Woodrow Wilson had campaigned on his promise to keep the United States out of World War I. However, a series of events, including Germany’s resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare and the Zimmermann Telegram, eventually drove Wilson to request a declaration of war against Germany during his address to Congress on April 2, 1917. Congress complied, leading to this formal declaration of war, and bringing the United States fully into World War I.

todaysdocument: An enduring legacy of the New Deal, FDR...

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 09:05:59 -0500

Photograph of Civilian Conservation Corps Enrollee Planting a Tree ARC Identifier 594253

D. K. Major letter to Robert Fechner regarding funding for the Civilian Conservation Corps., 04/05/1933 ARC Identifier 194778 (handwritten notes at top are FDR's)

Civilian Conservation Corps at an experimental farm in Beltsville, Maryland, ca. 1933 ARC Identifier 195830

Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees on the fire line in a big forest fire in the west., ca. 1933 ARC Identifier 195838

Civilian Conservation Corps - Washington ARC Identifier 7004721

Civilian Conservation Corps in California, March Field District, cooks, ca. 1933 ARC Identifier 197115

Civilian Conservation Corps - Camps - California ARC Identifier 7004794

President Franklin Roosevelt visited with CCC enrollees near Camp Roosevelt on August 12, 1933, at Big Meadows, Skyland Drive, Virginia. (35-GE-3A-5)

Civilian Conservation Corps, Third Corps Area: Yorktown, Virginia, Co. 1351- vocational projects for "colored veterans", ca. 1933 ARC Identifier 197154

Supervisor Burgess and Ranger Cooke Trying Out the Civilian Conservation Corps Constructed Hobby Horse, Douglas Fir Forest Camp, Mt. Baker National Forest, 1936: ARC Identifier 5585735

todaysdocument:

An enduring legacy of the New Deal, FDR established the Civilian Conservation Corps with an executive order signed April 5, 1933.

In the midst of the Great Depression, the program put thousands of unemployed young men to work, planting trees, building roads, improving State and National Parks, even combating forest fires and other natural disasters.

Never a permanent agency, the scale of the CCC was reduced as the economy improved, and it was disbanded in 1942 as the country geared up for World War II.

More at Prologue: “Into the Woods: The First Year of the Civilian Conservation Corps”

lbjlibrary: March 13, 1967. Lady Bird travels to North Carolina...

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 09:04:01 -0500

lbjlibrary:

March 13, 1967. Lady Bird travels to North Carolina as part of a three-day tour publicizing the impact of the Great Society’s educational components.

LBJ Library photos #C4710-20a and C4714-5A, public domain.

lbjlibrary: February 16, 1967. Lady Bird Johnson and Mary...

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 09:06:28 -0500

lbjlibrary:

February 16, 1967. Lady Bird Johnson and Mary Lasker accept on behalf of their beautification program a surprise donation of flower seeds to be used in Washington, DC school grounds, in a presentation at the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden of the White House.

LBJ Presidential Library photo #C4560-20a, public domain.

retrocampaigns: The “Rail Splitters,” a group similar to the...

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 12:14:26 -0500

retrocampaigns:

The “Rail Splitters,” a group similar to the “Wide-Awakes,” supported Abraham Lincoln (nicknamed the “Rail Splitter” to play up his rise from humble beginnings) in the 1860 election in marches and parades carrying wooden axes.

Cornell University Collection of Political Americana

coolchicksfromhistory: Alberta Hill at suffrage parade on March...

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 10:55:22 -0500

coolchicksfromhistory:

Alberta Hill at suffrage parade on March 13, 1913.

Alberta may have been one of the riders behind Jane Burleson in this photo.

Alberta was a New York suffragette who worked closely with Harriot Stanton Blatch. You can read more about Alberta here.

bartlet4america: Just here to give Millard “Shifty-Eyes”...

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 20:23:57 -0600

bartlet4america:

Just here to give Millard “Shifty-Eyes” Fillmore a little bit of love this president’s day.

Fillmore was elected as the Whig Vice-President in 1848 on Zachary Taylor’s ticket and only took the office of President when Taylor died in 1850. Millard Fillmore signed into law the Compromise of 1850, which included the Fugitive Slave Law that caused many in his own party (the Whigs) to turn their backs on him. He failed to win his party’s nomination in 1852 after serving as president for less than two years, so instead he ran on the Know Nothing Party ticket. He went on to lose to the 14th President of the United States, Franklin Pierce, and so was never elected president in his own right.

Milliard Fillmore also usually boasts the title of being both one of the five worst presidents of all time and one of the most often forgotten presidents in our history.

It also seems fairly clear that he couldn’t find any good hair gel to keep his hair from performing the patented “Carol Brady” upturn. Though perhaps Fillmore meant for his hair to do this, and as such anticipated a fashion trend more than a century before its time. Historians will debate this point for years to come.

The world may never know the truth.

notinthehistorybooks: When we think of presidents and...

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 19:00:38 -0600

notinthehistorybooks:

When we think of presidents and premonitions, not that the thought occurs often, we tend to go straight to Abraham Lincoln’s presidency. Lincoln’s stories of his dreams and premonitions of his own death are so rooted in American folklore, they are a must to discuss when describing the Lincoln presidency. They overshadow other stories of presidential premonitions, as well. Above is the picture of Jane Appleton Pierce, wife of Franklin Pierce— the 14th President of the United States. Her premonition of a negative outcome to her husband’s election left her unable to fulfill the duties of First Lady, something she never forgave herself for.

After winning the Presidential election in 1852, Jane Pierce was all but smiles. She had a strong sensation within her that something horrible was going to happen before her husband took office in March of 1853. In early January, her biggest fear became reality. The Pierces, along with their eleven year old son Benjamin, were on a train, when the train’s front axle broke. The train car was being dragged on the tracks. In an instant, the train car was thrown over a ledge and rolled over twice before hitting the bottom of the ledge. After moments of moans and groans, people in the train car started to account for others. Suddenly, a scream burst into the air. It was Mrs. Pierce. She couldn’t find Benjamin. The president-elect searched for his son around the splintered car. He soon found a lifeless body of an eleven year old boy— crushed by the train. Benjamin was declared dead on the scene. The Pierces buried their son, and continued to Washington DC for his inauguration.

Mrs. Pierce became a recluse, and didn’t carry out the duties of First Lady. She believed the death of her son was only the beginning of her premonition, and feared that someone was going to assassinate her husband while he was president. She spent the first two years of her husband’s presidency writing letters to her dead son. Her first official appearance as First Lady was a New Year’s Party in 1855. She regretted this distancing up until her death in 1863.

Some interesting things about the Pierce administration:

He was the first President born in the 19th century

He was the first and only President from New Hampshire

He was the first President to “affirm” his oath of office rather than swear it. He did so by placing his hand on a law book, instead of a Bible

He was the first President to recite his inaugural address from memory.

In the first year of his presidency, he was arrested for running over a woman with a horse. The chargers were later dropped.

Sources: Shocking Secrets of American History by Bill Coate, Franklin Pierce’s White House bio

pastperfect-online: Did you know that Herbert Hoover was the...

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 06:33:43 -0600

pastperfect-online:

Did you know that Herbert Hoover was the first U.S. president born west of the Mississippi River?

This is one of his campaign posters from 1928. It can be found in the collection of the Kentucky Historical Society.

Answer to Wednesday’s What Is It: microscope

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