Received by the U.S. House of Representatives on February 15, 1830 this petition from the Cherokee Nation, which was written in both Cherokee and English, asserted the tribe’s status as a sovereign nation in response to a bill which had been introduced to remove them from their land. Despite the petition, the legislation passed three months later, setting the stage for the eviction of the tribe in 1838 and the hardships they endured on the “Trail of Tears.”
Memorial of the Cherokees, HR 21A-H11, 2/15/1830, Records of the U.S. House of Representatives (ARC 306680)
Photograph of the wreckage of the USS MAINE, 1898
From the Series: Court of Inquiry into the Sinking of the USS Maine, 02/1898 - 03/1898
This telegram from the Key West Naval Station forwards word from Charles S. Sigsbee, Captain of the Maine about the destruction of his ship in Havana harbor on the evening of February 15, 1898, a pivotal event leading up to the Spanish-American War. Read More about the legacy of the USS Maine at Prologue…
Somewhere in England, Maj. Charity E. Adams…and Capt. Abbie N. Campbell…inspect the first contingent of Negro members of the Women’s Army Corps assigned to overseas service, 02/15/1945
First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes inauguration and life in the White House-
In honor of Valentine’s Day we present a brief collection of America’s First Sweethearts.
Check out our newest blog! “Rediscovering Black History: Updates from the National Archives” is now live.
This blog is a partner project to the work of National Archives staff who are updating Dr. Debra Newman Ham’s guide “Black History: A Guide to Civilian Records in the National Archives,” originally published in 1984.
The updated version of this award-winning black history guide will be more user friendly. It will also introduce non-traditional researchers to the valuable resources that the National Archives has to offer regarding the black experience.
Visit the blog at http://blogs.archives.gov/blackhistoryblog/
Image: Letter from Ida B. Wells to “Mrs. Dawes” ARC Identifier 578368. Ida B. Wells was among many individuals who wrote to the Department of Justice demanding Federal help to fight racial violence. Read the full story of this letter on the blog!
We interrupt this regularly scheduled LBJ Time Machine:
To tell y’all that we have posted the 1934 love letters between LBJ and Lady Bird, available in full for the very first time, on the web. You can find them here: searchable, downloadable, and transcribed.
LBJ and Lady Bird met on September 5, 1934 and ”committed matrimony,” as Lady Bird described it, on November 17 of that same year. These 90-odd letters are their correspondence during the time of their (brief) courtship, while he was in Washington and she was in Texas. Enjoy—and Happy Valentine’s Day, from us to you.
— LBJ Presidential Library Archives Staff
Does 90 letters in 90 days in 1934 equal 5,000 text messages in 2013?
The love letters of LBJ and Lady Bird have finally been digitized and released to the public this morning. You can read them all at www.lbjlibrary.org.
Image: LBJ sent this photo to Lady Bird during their courtship. The caption reads “For Bird—A lovely girl with ideals, principles, intelligence, and refinement from her sincere admirer, Lyndon” (Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library)
On Valentine’s Day at 10 a.m. EST, we are releasing all of the 1934 love letters between Lady Bird and Lyndon from their whirlwind 10-week courtship. The letters are all digitized, transcribed, and will be available for download online via www.lbjlibrary.org.
“Lyndon, my dear, do you want me to keep on loving you? Shall we keep on writing each other every day? Shall you, (perhaps, sometimes) call me? And are you going to keep on loving me, with an eye to the now somewhat-more-distant future? I want to know. For me—I shall keep on writing you. I shall keep on loving you. I do not want anything to come between us.” (Lady Bird, 10/22/34 letter)Image and text from the LBJ Presidential Library. Photo of Claudia Alta “Lady Bird” Taylor, 1935.
Choosing the appropriate Valentine’s Day card appears to have been a perennial problem, as observed by cartoonist Clifford Berryman 101 years ago:
“The Issue-Love or Laughter”, 02/13/1912
Q:Where is the Black History Month info lately? Lincoln is interesting but...
We have posted a few so far this month but hope to have more coming. We also routinely tag items with the #African-American-History tag so be sure check that for more related items from over the entire year.
That said, we’re always open to suggestions! If there’s an item in the National Archives holdings you’d like us to feature, please feel free to suggest it!
The National Archives at New York just reopened at a new location earlier this month:
Congratulations to the National Archives at New York!
Our colleagues in New York City officially opened their new location to the public today. They are now at the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House at One Bowling Green.Researchers and visitors are welcome from Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., as well as the first Saturday of the month from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.Please go visit them in this new beautiful space!To learn more about the records available for research, exhibits, and educational programs, visit http://www.archives.gov/nyc/
In 1926, historian Carter G. Woodson helped create “Negro History Week” during the second week of February, chosen because it coincided with Frederick Douglass’s birthday (February 7), as well as Abraham Lincoln’s (February 12).
In 1976, the Federal government expanded the week to “Black History Month.”
Check out our newest board on Pinterest: “Celebrating Black History Month.”
Text and image via the Foundation for the National Archives.
Image: “Carter G. Woodson - Teacher, Historian, Publisher, 1943” by Charles Henry Alston. National Archives Record Group 208, ARC 535622.
Alone, 2/13/1916
Would Theodore Roosevelt run for President in 1916? That was a question on the minds of many Republicans and Democrats, as well as Roosevelt’s old Bull Moose Party of 1912. Cartoonist Clifford Berryman thinks the answer would be “no” and portrays a tearful bull moose sitting alone on a dock as the ship steams out of port without him.
Lost in a storm on February 12, 1935, the airship USS Macon emerges from the clouds in this stock Navy footage.
RIGID AIRSHIP GROUND OPERATIONS, SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA, 1934 - 1935
Macon’s sister airship the USS Akron shared the same fate and was lost in the Atlantic 2 years earlier. However lessons learned from the Akron disaster enabled the rescue of nearly the entire crew of the Macon.
Both were among the largest airships ever built, and included their own complement of Sparrowhawk “parasite fighters” that could be launched while in flight.
Honest Abe’s Congressional Expenses:
Researchers at the National Archives are still finding fascinating records related to President Lincoln. Our guest blogger David Gerleman of the The Papers of Abraham Lincoln just found a missing piece of Lincoln’s history—his pay and mileage records for the 30th Congress.
Congressional pay was based on a per diem basis stemming from an 1818 law by which members received $8 per day and $8 per 20 miles traveled to and from their districts. However, the legislation did not specify the shortest route, a fact later prompting investigation when former member-turned-newspaperman Horace Greeley publicly reproached members for taking less-than-direct routes home
You can read the whole story here:Prologue: The Check is in the Mail: The Hunt for Abraham Lincoln’s Congressional Pay Records