President Harry S. Truman with Christmas packageson a trip home to visit family in Independence, Missouri. December 25, 1945.
Source: trumanlibrary.org
“I think I have a good deal of my Uncle Theodore in me, because I could not, at any age, be content to take my place by the fireside and simply look on.”
-Eleanor Roosevelt
On this day in 1884, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born. Learn more about her life here.
-from the FDR Library
Source: fdrlibrary.marist.edu
The Wedding of John and Jacqueline Kennedy
Jacqueline Lee Bouvier and John F. Kennedy were married the morning of September 12, 1953, in the picturesque St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Newport, Rhode Island. Read more
Here, a photo of the newlyweds at their wedding reception at Hammersmith Farm. 9/12/53.
Source: jfklibrary.org
In memory of Neil Armstrong, first man to walk on the Moon (August 5, 1930-August 25, 2012). More photographs of Neil Armstrong from our holdings.
(via todaysdocument)
Source: usnatarchives
Hemingway in Italy, 1918
On August 22, 1864, The International Red Cross was founded as part of the Geneva Convention. We found this photo of Ernest Hemingway in an American Red Cross Ambulance during World War I in Italy. Circa 1918.
The American Red Cross was established in 1881.
-from the Ernest Hemingway Collection of the JFK Presidential Library. Learn more here.
Source: jfklibrary.org
JFK poses with a much younger generation of Kennedys.
The Ford Family in the Oval Office prior to the swearing-in of Gerald R. Ford as President. August 9, 1974. (left to right) Jack, Steve, Betty, Gerald, Susan, Gayle, and Mike.
Late in the night of August 1, 1943, Lieutenant John F. Kennedy’s Patrol Torpedo boat, the PT-109, was attacked by a Japanese destroyer in the South Pacific.
The destroyer struck PT-109 in the darkness of the moonless night, ripping away the starboard side of the boat. The impact tossed Kennedy around the cockpit. Most of the crew were knocked into the water. The one man below decks, engineer Patrick McMahon, miraculously escaped, although he was badly burned by exploding fuel.
From the wreckage, Kennedy ordered the men with him, to identify the locations of their crewmates in the water.
Kennedy swam out to McMahon and Charles Harris. Kennedy towed the injured McMahon by a life-vest strap, and alternately cajoled and berated the exhausted Harris to get him through the difficult swim. Floating on and around the hulk, the crew took stock.
After a discussion of options, the men abandoned the remains of PT-109 and struck out for an islet three and a half miles away.
Kennedy had been on the swim team at Harvard; even towing McMahon by a belt clamped in his teeth, he was undaunted by the distance. Some of the other men were also good swimmers, but several were not; two, Johnston and Mauer, could not swim at all. These last two were lashed to a plank that the other seven men pulled and pushed as they could. Read more
Source: jfklibrary.org
Franklin D. Roosevelt with Fala and Ruthie Bie in Hyde Park, New York, 1941 One of the few photographs of Roosevelt in his wheelchair.
Franklin D. Roosevelt contracted infantile paralysis, more commonly known as polio, in 1921 when he was thirty-nine years old. After several years of rehabilitation, he returned to politics. Concerned his disability would be used against him in the political arena, Roosevelt was reluctant to be photographed or filmed in situations that highlighted his disability.
More - Franklin D. Roosevelt and Polio
This week in history, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed. To honor the anniversary, The U.S. National Archives has created a space to explore disability history through Presidential records. Throughout the week, we’ll be featuring records and posting questions to explore disability history.
Source: fdrlibrary.marist.edu
Tomorrow is the birthday of President Gerald R. Ford
The 38th President of the United States was born on July 14, 1913 in Omaha, Nebraska. Gerald R. Ford (christened Leslie Lynch King, Jr) is pictured here with his mother Dorothy Gardner King. Circa 1913.
Source: presidentialtimeline.org
