#usnatarchives

[libraries-for-freedom]

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[usafphantom2]

"Two USAF F-117A Nighthawk aircraft from the 49th Fighter Wing, Holloman AFB, N.M., soar over the skies of New Mexico during an aerial refueling mission on Feb. 2, 2005 (U.S. Air Force PHOTO by MASTER SGT. Lance Cheung) (Released)"

📷📖 catalog.archives.gov/id/6690362 👁‍🗨 @USNatArchives

@MassiasThanos via X

[deadpresidents]

"I'm sure that the Presidents who stand out in our history and in our memory are those who led the nation through times of great trial and challenge...Washington, Jackson, Lincoln, Wilson, Roosevelt, Truman. On the other hand, these very same Presidents would not be regarded now as great if their reactions and their responses had been weak, or if they had failed to achieve some of their major goals of if they had run away from the challenges...Greatness is an elusive thing and the judgment of history is sometimes different from that that is made when a President's in office or just after he leaves office. Wilson died a broken and disappointed man because he failed to win approval of the League [of Nations]. Yet history has judged that he was right in that fight and the willful men of the Senate who opposed him were wrong...There are a great many misconceptions about the Presidency...Some people think the President is a man who welcomes visitors to our country, who signs the laws that Congress sends him, who occasionally makes a speech about one of our problems, a kind of father or figurehead. Others see him as a manipulator or as an arm twister who is interested in power and how to use it. Others see him as a solitary figure surrounded by yes men, insulated from all [counselors], isolated from the real world. But very few people have any idea of the long and tedious and grinding work that goes into every Presidential day. I doubt that there was a single day of the Presidency, Sundays included, that I didn't give two or three hours to just solitary reading. There was hardly a night that I was President that I didn't read two or three hours. Even if it were a State Dinner or dancing...when I retired for the evening, I would have two hours of night reading ahead of me...No President in history has been able to do all the things that he or the people hoped he could accomplish at the time of election. But that doesn't mean that the job is impossible and that doesn't mean it's doomed. It's doable."

-- Former President Lyndon B. Johnson, on some of the unseen work of the Presidency.

Here's a great photograph taken by White House photographer Robert Knudson of some of LBJ's "night reading" homework, waiting for the President on his bed in the White House on October 12, 1966:

(I want to thank the incredible archivists at the @lbjlibrary and the National Archives ( @usnatarchives on Tumblr) -- especially, in this case, Chris of the Audiovisual Archives at the LBJ Library -- for tracking down a high-quality version of this specific photo for me. Without having any specifics on when or where the photo was taken, I reached out to the LBJ Library and vaguely described seeing this photo in the past and they quickly found a high-quality file that they sent me. The LBJ Library has done this numerous times for me over the years and I cannot express how grateful I always am for their help. The archivists at the National Archives and the NARA's Presidential Library system are incredible public servants and one of the very best examples of our federal government providing services to and for the American people.)

[californiastatelibrary]

This month @usnatarchives #hashtagparty is #ArchivesWomenInSTEM (forgive us for putting the hashtags in the text, Tumblr friends) — so we thought we'd highlight the brilliant sister of astronomer Tycho Brahe, Sophia Brahe. She was a horticulturist fluent in astronomy, medicine and chemistry and she often worked with her scientist brother.

[congressarchives]

Retiring Account

We are no longer actively updating this account. For updates from the Center for Legislative Archives, please visit https://www.archives.gov/legislative.

Follow other @USNatArchives social media accounts: https://www.archives.gov/social-media

[preservearchives]

Retiring Account

We are no longer actively updating this account. For updates from the the Preservation Programs Division at the National Archives, please visit https://www.archives.gov/preservation.

Follow other @USNatArchives social media accounts: https://www.archives.gov/social-media

[phillyarchives]

Retiring Account

We are no longer actively updating this account. For updates from the National Archives at Philadelphia, please visit https://www.archives.gov/philadelphia.

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[fordlibrarymuseum]

Retiring Account

We are no longer actively updating this account. For updates from the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum, please visit us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/FordPresidentialLibrary/), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/fordlibrarymuseum/), and X (https://x.com/Ford_Library).

Follow other @USNatArchives social media accounts: https://www.archives.gov/social-media

[kaiyves-backup]

Skylab: High School in Space

Teenagers with some very funky early-70s outfits are student scientists designing experiments to fly aboard the Skylab space station in this @usnatarchives film.

[nuttysaladtree]

Support Public Institutions! (taken from @\tealdeer's 2022-11-11 post)

statelibraryqueensland, montereybayaquarium, usnatarchives, smithsonianlibraries, todaysdocument, u-mspcoll, uwmarchives, uwmspeccoll, detroitlib, othmeralia, riesenfeldcenter, lindahall, upennmanuscripts, hclib, philamuseum, hdslibrary

(Mostly) libraries, archives, and museums. Not comprehensive, just as a starting point.

Introducing Collections

Hello again, Tumblr. Labs division here!

A while back, we announced our comeback as a new team that would imagine big ideas for Tumblr—and would build them in public (aka with you). We recently announced our first failure, and today we're very excited to announce our first possible success!

A bit of context

As we've said before, an essential part of how we're working in Labs is speaking to people who use Tumblr pretty much on a daily basis and those who don’t use it at all.

In those interviews and focus groups, we learned that curating the Tumblr experience around different interests and fandoms is a big part of making Tumblr feel like your own space — and one of the main ways you do that is through blogs and tags (be it following or creating them).

So here at Labs we're working on ideas to help you curate the content you care about, and to help share what makes your experience fun with other people, even if they are not on Tumblr already.

Ok, but what's the idea?

Have you ever put together a song playlist to listen to when you're in a certain mood, or share with a specific friend? Or sent them books you know they'll love? Now imagine if you could do that with blogs and tags on Tumblr…

Maybe you're a veteran in a fandom and have the best recommendations of who to follow for your followers. Or your best friend won't join Tumblr because they don't know that their favorite TV show is actually really popular here. Or maybe you want to curate and browse content from a specific fandom, or a group of your mutuals, your own way.

That's the idea behind Collections!

You can check out that example collection on the web here!

We want your help

The first way we're testing Collections is by inviting some of you to create your own and share with followers and friends—they'll be able to follow all the blogs and tags in your collections. So we're looking for volunteers!

You want to help? Great! Here's what you need to do:

Come up with your own Collections of blogs and tags, write it down somewhere. Focus on introducing people to Tumblr or recommending stuff to your followers. What would you want them to first see on your version of Tumblr?

Come up with a name, cover image, and description for it. Also try to think of who you would send your collection to, and where you might post about it.

Write out that idea as a reply or reblog on this post!

We’ll give it a few days, and pick a handful of people to play with Collections. We'll let you know. Then we’re off to the races!

If you decide to participate (and get selected), please note that this early release won’t work on the apps yet, only in your web browser. 

What happens next?

Our goal is to keep working on improving and adding Collection functionalities while you test what we've built (and share your feedback with us).

Next we’re exploring making a collection something you can follow on Tumblr, as a way to curate Tumblr around your many interests and moods, and to give you more freedom to curate content on your dashboard.

And if this idea is not for you, remember we have many more experiments in progress, so stay tuned!

With love,

Labs division

[usafphantom2]

"A U.S. Air Force McDonnell Douglas F-4E-41-MC Phantom II (s/n 68-0527) from the 512th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 86th Tactical Fighter Wing, Ramstein Air Base (Germany), in 1982."

📖 commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:F-4E…

📷📖 catalog.archives.gov/id/6345374 👁‍🗨 @USNatArchives

@MassiasThanos via X

[deadpresidents]

Can you recommend any active history blogs?

I don't follow all that many blogs, so I'm sure some of my readers can share their recommendations in the replies. Of the blogs that I do follow, here are a few activate sites that regularly update with some great material:

•The Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum (@richardnixonlibrary)

•The California State Library (@californiastatelibrary)

•The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library (@fdrlibrary)

•Today's Document from the National Archives (@todaysdocument)

•The National Archives (@usnatarchives)

I really wish that the LBJ Library (@lbjlibrary) still updated their Tumblr regularly because they used to post some interesting stuff. The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum (@fordlibrarymuseum) has also been inactive for a few months, but they were one of my favorite things to see on my dashboard when they posted regularly. A few years ago, the National Archives actually started an awesome Tumblr called Our Presidents (@ourpresidents) that was like the mothership for all of the other Presidential Library blogs in the NARA's Presidential Library system. It was a GREAT idea and one of my favorite blogs, but it just stopped posting a couple years ago. I wish they would get that one going again. I think those inactive sites still have their old posts and archives available, so you can still go back and see what we're missing.

Like I said, I'm sure some of my readers have better suggestions than I do about this that they can share in the replies, so what are some of your favorite history blogs?

[wmproprt]

"When you start digging into the Bidens, you get a whole lot more than you expect."

@RepJamesComer: The @USNatArchives are under our radar

"Not only was he front and center, not only did @joebiden KNOW what his family was doing, but he was benefitting as well."

#BidenCrimeFamily

[congressarchives]

We are no longer actively updating this account. For updates from the Center for Legislative Archives, please visit https://www.archives.gov/legislative.

Follow other @USNatArchives social media accounts: https://www.archives.gov/social-media

[a-solitary-sea-rover-backup]

Via @usnatarchives:

“Shark Attacks”, a 1944 survey conducted by the Coordinator of Research and Development, U.S. Navy, Emergency Rescue Equipment Section, explains that prior to December 14, 1942, the Navy considered sharks an insignificant danger to personnel. A survey of available records revealed “only two, or perhaps three, authentic instances of shark bite.” In addition, existing information suggested that sharks were wary of strange objects and would likely be driven away by loud commotions (e.g. explosions), which typically accompanied wartime events where men would be thrown into the sea.