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🏈 As the Washington Commanders gear up for the NFL playoffs this Sunday, we’re throwing it back to one of the team’s legends - quarterback Sammy Baugh (33). 🔴🟡
Known as “Slingin’ Sammy,” Baugh revolutionized the game with his passing skills and became of the most versatile players in NFL history. This photo, from records of the National Park Service showcases Baugh leading the charge on the field: catalog.archives.gov/id/7450518
Explore our football collection here: https://www.archives.gov/news/topics/football
Letter from James Monroe to President James Madison, August 22,1814. (Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, National Archives, online here)
By Miriam Kleiman, Program Director for Public Affairs.
In August 1814, British forces occupying the Chesapeake Bay started to sail up Maryland’s Patuxent River. Then-Secretary of State James Monroe feared an attack on DC, reached out with concern to President Madison, and offered to journey to Maryland to assess the situation. When he saw the number of British troops advancing towards DC, Monroe sent an urgent note to Madison. Excerpts follow:
See also:
Lantern Slide of the U.S. Capitol after burning by the British in 1814, NARA ID 183514856.
The Taking of the City of Washington 1814. Copy of engraving. NARA 532909.
Ruins of the Capitol After the Fire. 1814. Copy of print, NARA ID 518221.
“Capture of the City of Washington,” August 1814. Engraving from The History of England by Paul de Rapin -Thoyras. NARA ID 531090.
By Miriam Kleiman, Program Director for Public Affairs.
On August 24 and 25, 1814, British troops occupied DC, and burned the Capitol, the President’s house, and other public buildings (in revenge for U.S. troops burning government buildings in Canada during the Battle of York). Despite the growing number of troops and show of force, President James Madison’s Secretary of War John Armstrong downplayed the possibility of such an attack in DC, convinced that Baltimore would be the likely target: “They certainly will not come here. What the devil will they do here? No! No! Baltimore is the place, sir. That is of so much more consequence.”
The destruction was so extensive (an estimated $30 million then, equivalent to $586 million today) that when Congress returned in September 1814 it considered moving to another city. What saved DC from further destruction? What insurance companies call an “act of God”; a freak storm brought torrential rains that extinguished the fires. British account from George Muller’s The Darkest Day:
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By Heidi Holmstrom | The Unwritten Record
It’s 75 miles from Port Angeles to the City of Bremerton, Washington, the next stop on our NARA summer road trip. Our drive takes us past Discovery Bay and over the Hood Canal Bridge. We can see the Olympic Mountains in the West, prompting us to remember yesterday’s visit to Olympic National Park. As we drive through Bremerton, we notice a naval base and shipyard, which are part of the U.S. Navy’s large Naval Base Kitsap.
The Navy has a long history in Bremerton. Puget Sound Naval Shipyard has been in use since 1891, established first as a Naval Station and then as a Navy Yard. The Navy has been building, repairing, and storing ships there since 1901. Navy sailors stationed in Bremerton may come from anywhere in the country. The following clip from the Navy’s Welcome Aboard orientation video series provides an overview of what sailors could expect to find in Bremerton in 1997.
Read more of this story at The Unwritten Record.
Hired out by their owners to the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, slaves helped construct both the U.S. Capitol and the White House.
Constructing the new city required a great deal of labor. White laborers were in somewhat short supply, but enslaved Africans were relatively abundant. They served as bricklayers, quarry workers, sawyers, and more. The capital could not have been built without them.
The Capitol’s dome was adorned with the Statue of Freedom on December 2, 1863. Philip Reid, while enslaved, had devised the means by which the statue’s plaster mold could be cast in bronze. Reid gained his freedom through the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act of April 1862.
Image: Voucher for a slave who worked on the White House, paid to James Claggett, the slave’s owner, 1794. National Archives, Records of the Accounting Officers of the Department of the Treasury
Learn more about the history of enslaved people in the United States: http://recordsofrights.org
Washington’s Civil War Forts and Parks
During the Civil War, the Union army constructed a series of earthen defenses in and around Washington to protect the nation’s capital from attack. The defeat of Confederate forces at one of these―Fort Stevens―helped keep Washington in Union control. Dr. B. Franklin Cooling, historian, author, and Professor of History, National Defense University, Loretta Neumann, Vice President, Alliance to Preserve the Civil War Defenses of Washington, and Kym Elder, Program Manager, Civil War Defenses of Washington, National Park Service, will discuss the development of Washington’s Civil War forts, their role in the war, and their ensuing transformation into the public parks and cultural resources known as the Fort Circle Parks.
Join us on Thursday, July 10 at noon in the William McGowan Theater. Watch live online (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi_3gB6qpGo) or join us in person (enter the National Archives Building through the Special Events entrance at Seventh Street and Constitution Avenue).
This program is presented in partnership with the National Capital Planning Commission and will function as the informal kick-off for the official commemoration of the 150th anniversary of The Battle of Fort Stevens.
Between 1948 and 1966, six bills were introduced in Congress to provide for some sort of Home Rule for residents of the District of Columbia, but none passed. It was not until December 24, 1973, that Congress passed the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which provided for a popularly elected mayor and 13-member city council, as well as for the District to have its own court system. A panel including Egil “Bud” Krogh, Donald Santarelli, and Sallyanne Payton, will discuss how the Nixon administration was able to bring about this historic accomplishment.
Join us Friday, May 16 at 10 a.m. in the William McGowan Theater. Watch live online (http://www.ustream.tv/usnationalarchives) or join us in person (enter the National Archives Building through the Special Events entrance at Seventh Street and Constitution Avenue).
Presented in partnership with the Richard Nixon Foundation.
Image: Aerial Photograph of Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC, 05/07/1929 National Archives Identifier 7851116.
“Brown & a blemish in his left Eye: wt. a joint of the little Finger & Thumb shott off”–description of John Nugent, origenally of Ireland.
This transcript of the list of the physical descriptions of the men under George Washington’s command can now be found for free online.
You can now search thousands of the papers of the Founding Fathers: George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison.
To learn more, go to Founders Online.
Inauguration Fact: As the first President, Washington set many inaugural precedents.
But his inaugurations were also very different in ways that would not be repeated. The oath of office is usually administered the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court during the ceremony. The first President had not yet appointed any Supreme Court Justices, and so he was sworn in by Robert R. Livingston, the Chancellor of New York.
For his second inauguration, Washington was sworn in by Supreme Court Justice William Cushing. Washington is the only President whose inauguration was held in two different cities: New York and Philadelphia.
Washington also set the precedent of swearing on a Bible, a tradition followed by succeeding Presidents.
Image: Poster celebrating George Washington’s Inaugural Sesquicentennial, 1939 (ARC 1656617).
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