Lighthouses and Range Lights Photographs at the National Archives

In honor of  National Lighthouse Day on August 7, I am posting some of the content I received from the National Archives Catalog e-newsletter on 9 July 2020. To see the 213 images of the South Carolina lighthouses and range lights, including some in Beaufort County, use this link: https://catalog.archives.gov/search?q=South%20Carolina&f.ancestorNaIds=513238  You Light Up My Life Lighthouse fans and photography aficionados! Allow us to navigate you to a completely digitized series of Coast Guard lighthouse photographs: 26-LG: Lighthouses, 1855 -1933. Photograph of the Construction of the St. George Reef Light Station in California, 1892. National Archives Identifier 7682787 The photographs, Coast Guard records that were originally taken by the Lighthouse Board and Lighthouse Service, document a fascinating period of U.S. Lighthouse history as well as the development of photographic technology.  Because they were taken between 1855 and 1933, the Albumen, Collodion, Gelatin-Silver Printing Out, and Gelatin-Silver Developing Out photographic processes are all represented in the series. There are also a few Cyanotypes. Most of the photographic prints were mounted, and mounts often contain caption information that was transcribed during the digitization process. Images (Including Cyanotypes) of Esophus Island, New York L: National Archives Identifier 45692947 R: National Archives Identifier 45692951 26-LG: Lighthouses, 1855 -1933 is completely digitized and available to view and download in the National Archives Catalog. The series was arranged by district number with each district corresponding to a geographic area. Within these districts, photos were then arranged in loose alphabetical order according to the name of the lighthouses. This arrangement is reflected in our Catalog, where the file units are listed geographically. To browse for photographs by location, navigate to the 26-LG series description and click on the link: “1125 file unit(s) described in the catalog.” This will take you to a list of file units within the series, grouped by location. When you select the location that interests you, the file unit description will provide you access to the images you wish to see. For example, if you click on “Maine — Egg Rock,” you will see a page that contains specific information about the photos of Egg Rock in Maine. Typically there will be nothing extraordinary here. However, you can see that there are 7 Egg Rock, Maine images described in the Catalog. By clicking on either “7 item(s) described in the catalog” or the “Search within this file unit” button, you will be able to access all 7 Egg Rock, Maine photos at once. Images of Egg Rock, Maine L: National Archives Identifier 18237567 R: National Archives Identifier 18237561 To search the entire series by keyword, begin at the 26-LG series description, and select the “Search within this series” button. This will take you to a page where you can search every image in 26-LG at once using keywords in the search bar. You will see the wildcard symbol *:* is already in the search bar at the top of the page. This is very important – it tells the Catalog to only look at records within the series you have selected. If you know the name of the lighthouse or location you are looking for, remove the wildcard symbols and type the name in the search bar.  For example, if you wish to look for Egg Rock photos, remove the wildcard symbol and type in “Egg Rock”. This will take you to all the photos in 26-LG related to Egg Rock. It is important to notice that your search results using this method will often be different – there is an Egg Rock in Massachusetts as well as in Maine, and using the keyword “Egg Rock” returns photos from both locations. Images of Egg Rock, Massachusetts L: National Archives Identifier 45691499 R: National Archives Identifier 45691501 The digital images from 26-LG were scanned at high resolution and may be downloaded directly from our Catalog. They are not subject to copyright. We hope you enjoy these images as much as we do, and we encourage you to share your favorites with us! Today’s post comes from Kelsey Noel, currently a supervisory archivist in the Accessioning and Basic Processing Section at the National Archives. Read the full post on the Unwritten Record blog. Up for some coloring? Try our Lighthouses Coloring book! You can learn more about these incredible photographs in a Know Your Records presentation by Kelsey Noel, former processing archivist in the National Archives Still Picture Branch.

Sunshine Week

It's Sunshine Week  at the National Archives!

March 12-18 is Sunshine Week - the week we celebrate open government, accountability, and access to public information.

In honor of this yearly event, we’ve created a special transcription mission for FOIA, Special Access and recently declassified records. How many pages can we transcribe this week? 1,000? 1,500? Jump in and help us make these records more discoverable online! Every page you transcribe helps unlock history. Learn more about Sunshine Week from our Office of Government Information Services Source: National Archives Catalog newsletter received March 9, 2017

Get Ready for the 1940 Census Release

 
On April 2, 2012, users will be able to search, browse, and download the 1940 census schedules, free of charge, from their own computers through the new 1940 census website: www.1940census.archives.gov. For the release of the 1940 census online, the National Archives has digitized the entire census, creating more than 3.8 million digital images of census schedules, maps, and enumeration district descriptions.

NARA recommends that you go ahead and bookmark the new website www.1940census.archives.gov now!

A National Archives 3:13 minute video short on its YouTube channel (http://tiny.cc/1940Census) and on www.1940census.archives.gov provides a “behind-the-scenes” view of staff preparations and gives viewers tips on how to access the data once it is launched on April 2. This video is in the public domain and not subject to any copyright restrictions. The National Archives encourages the free distribution of it. Feel free to share it with whomever you want!

The National Archives is using social media to get the word out and inform family historians on Twitter (using hashtag #1940Census), Facebook,  Tumblr, Flickr, YouTube.  Customers can also subscribe to National Archives blogs: NARAtions and Prologue: Pieces of History to learn more about the 1940 Census.

Heads up:  On the morning of Friday, May 4th, the BDC will hold a program on how to use the 1940 Census to find yourself - or your relatives. Details forthcoming!

Looking Towards April 2nd

April 2, 2012 will be a very big date in a family historian's calendar. By federal law, there is a 72-year restriction on access to a Federal Census. So April 2, 2012 is the day upon which the Federal government will release the 1940 Census.

Given that genealogy is purported to be one of the largest hobbies, millions of genealogists will be counting down the days. (You can see a counter - days, hours, minutes, and seconds - at findmypast.com.)

What can you find in the 1940 Census? According to the National Archives, the 1940 Census asked for answers to these socio-economic questions on April 1, 1940. Bear in mind that the country was in throes of the Great Depression and although World War II had started in Europe and Asia, the United States was not a combatant yet. Unemployment and underemployment were still problems. Thus, there are lots of questions regarding work and income.

The National Archives is tasked with releasing the 1940 Census on time, not indexing its contents. If you've ever had to read the census page by page, you know that an accurate index is a wonderful aid to research. An index is particularly helpful for those researchers who might not know for certain where specific ancestors were residing on April 1st that year.

So, what's being done about the indexing? The indexing cannot start until the census is formally released at 9 am on April 2nd. According to the Ancestry Insider, a blog that critiques the big electronic genealogy databases companies, Archives.com, FamilySearch.org, and findmypast.com are joining together and leading an indexing effort utilizing volunteers who are ready to get to work as soon as the 1940 Census data is opened. Ancestry.com is doing its own project and states that the Ancestry.com index to the 1940 US Census will be up and ready to search by mid-April.

Let's hope so. There are a lot of us whose parents and grandparents should be listed. And, a potential for a semi-truck load of new data and clues to explore in our quest to learn more about our ancestors and in that process discover more about ourselves.

Once the index is released, the BDC will offer at least one program on how to use the Federal Census to uncover one's roots before the end of June.

"Hinky" Date on Lincoln Document Suspicious; Historian Confesses

Temptation can be hard to resist - even when one is a recognized researcher.

Thomas Lowry, a long-time Lincoln researcher from Woodbridge, VA, confessed on January 12, 2011, to altering an Abraham Lincoln Presidential pardon that is part of the permanent records of the U.S. National Archives. He admitted that he changed the date on Civil War soldier Patrick Murphy’s pardon, written in Lincoln’s hand, from April 14, 1864, to April 14, 1865, the day John Wilkes Booth assassinated Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC. If the date were real, this would be one of the final acts of Lincoln as President. Lowry sneaked a fountain pen into the Research Room, altered the date, and thence used his "discovery" to enhance his reputation as a Lincoln scholar.

The alteration was in direct violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2071. The statute of limitations has expired so criminal prosecution cannot be taken against Lowry. The National Archives, however, has permanently banned him from all of its facilitiehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifs and research rooms.

Read the National Archives press release about the Lowry alteration here.

Lowry has since recanted his admission of guilt.

There may be more to this tale yet. It also points to the reason behind the Special Collections security standards we do our best to follow in the BDC Research Room.

New National Archives Website is now live!

Adapted from a NARA Press Release:

Washington, DC… The National Archives and Records Administration launched a redesigned Archives.gov web site on December 13, 2010, as part of its flagship Open Government Initiative.

"It's essential for the National Archives to have a user-friendly online presence,” said Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero, (the first Archivist to blog, tweet, and launch a Facebook page). “We hope to reach new audiences while still engaging our long-time users, researchers and visitors. This redesign – part of the National Archives flagship Open Government Initiative – reflects the ongoing effort to engage the public and make records of the National Archives easier to find and use."

The new Archives.gov web site features:

* A brand new home page voted by the public in July 2010;
* A new interactive “Our Locations” map of NARA’s facilities nationwide;
* Historical documents and streamlined access to military service records (81 percent of Archives.gov visitors are looking for this information);
* Single topically organized sections focused on the needs of both casual browsers and professional researchers; and
* Easy links to National Archives’ social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and both the Archivist's AOTUS blog and other National Archives blogs.

Visit http://www.archives.gov/open/redesign/ for the explanation and examples of the key changes.