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American Originals exhibit
American Originals

  • Stacey Bredhoff

    "For anyone who can't visit the National Archives and see the Declaration of Independence under glass or view the billions of documents chronicling the development of our nation, American Originals is the next best thing."

    --Douglas Brinkley, Director of the Eisenhower Center of American Studies, University of New Orleans, from the Historian's Perspective in American Originals

      Original documents are the raw stuff of history. They are physical links to the past. The original documents of the U.S. Government--those that have been identified as having permanent value--are preserved and made available to the public by NARA. American Originals presents a selection of the nation's most significant and compelling documents, pieces of history--the glorious and inglorious--in its most unprocessed form.

      George Washington's account of expenses, kept throughout the Revolutionary War. Harriet Tubman's pension claim for her service during the Civil War. Richard Nixon's letter resigning the Presidency. These and other rarely seen documents from the National Archives offer fascinating insights into the towering figures and events in American history.

      Combining the familiar with the obscure, American Originals presents glimpses of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, Abraham Lincoln, Helen Keller, Elvis Presley, John Muir, Rosa Parks, John Brown, Susan B. Anthony, and many others, through a selection of the nation's greatest documentary treasures.

      8 1/2" x 11", 128 pages, 123 illustrations (89 in full color)
      National Archives and Records Administration and the University of Washington Press, 2000 #200010 Softcover $17.95
      ISBN 0-295-98077-X


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    DRAW! cover
    DRAW! Political Cartoons from Left to Right (OUT OF PRINT)

    Stacey Bredhoff

    • There is nothing subtle about the American political cartoon. Throughout our nation's history, political cartoonists have presented their unvarnished opinions on the President, the Congress, the Supreme Court, indeed, on the entire Federal establishment. Consisting primarily of drawings from the Presidential libraries, this spirited collection of 130 cartoons documents a century of plain speaking. Included are works by such notables as Thomas Nast, Joseph Parrish, Clifford Berryman, "Ding" Darling, Bill Mauldin, Oliphant, Charles Schultz, David Levine, and Gene Basset.

      Based on a National Archives exhibition that commemorated the 200th anniversary of the Bill of Rights, DRAW! illustrates how some Americans have boldly exercised their first amendment rights of freedom of speech and of the press.

      8 1/2" x 11", 144 pages, 130 illustrations
      National Archives and Records Administration, 1991 #200021 Softcover
      ISBN 0-911333-85-1

      A New Deal for the Arts cover
      • A New Deal for the Arts
        Bruce I. Bustard
        • "This is an easy-to-read book, free of artistic jargon. The art is indescribably wonderful."
          -Caryn E. Neumann, American Reporter

        During the depths of the Great Depression of the 1930s and into the early years of World War II, the Federal Government as one of its efforts to employ some of the millions of Americans then without work supported the arts in unprecedented ways. For 11 years, between 1933 and 1943, Federal tax dollars paid artists, musicians, actors, writers, photographers, and dancers. Never before or since has our Government so extensively sponsored the arts. This book, based on a 1997 NARA exhibit, tells the story of these short-lived, but remarkable, cultural endeavors. The New Deal arts projects provided work for jobless artists, but they also had a larger mission: to promote American art and culture and to give more Americans access to what President Franklin Roosevelt described as "an abundant life." The arts projects covered the entire country and reflected the broad diversity of American life. They supported African American and Yiddish theater; employed Native American, Hispanic, women, and black artists; sponsored contemporary dance; and preserved traditional folksongs and stories. The projects saved thousands of artists from poverty and despair and enabled Americans all across the country to see original paintings for the first time, attend their first professional live theater, or take their first music or drawing classes. The topical organization of A New Deal for the Arts reflects several of the important themes found within New Deal art the projects' use of American history, their celebration of the common man and woman, their support for the New Deal, their political activism and the art that was a product of these concerns, and their sponsorship of "practical" arts.

        8 1/2" x 11", 144 pages, 134 illustrations (25 in color)
        National Archives and Records Administration and the University of Washington Press, 1996

        #200040 Softcover $24.95
        ISBN 0-295-97600-4

        Please note: The University of Washington Press is responsible for ALL trade sales.


    Picturing the Century cover

    Picturing the Century: One Hundred Years of Photographs from the National Archives

    Bruce I. Bustard

     

    Marking the end of the 20th century, Picturing the Century selects 157 photographs from one of the world's largest photographic archives--the vast collections of the National Archives and Records Administration in the Washington, DC, area, regional records facilities, and Presidential libraries. The photographs depict momentous events, illustrate changes in American society, and capture the hopes and fears of the American people. At the same time, they demonstrate the role of government photography in the United States. Interspersed through the book are portfolios of the work of eight photographers especially well represented in NARA's holdings: Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Walter Lubken, Lewis Hine, George Ackerman, Charles Fenno Jacobs, Yoichi Okamoto, and Danny Lyon.

     

    8 1/2" x 11", 136 pages, 157 illustrations (22 in color)
    National Archives and Records Administration and the University of Washington Press, 1999

    #200053 Softcover $19.95
    ISBN 0-295-97772-8

    Also Available: Picturing the Century Screen Saver CD

    This compelling collection features 22 high-quality images from the "Picturing the Century" exhibit. Includes numerous screen saver effects, desktop wallpaper, and an image puzzle to challenge and amuse. Created in conjunction with Second Nature Software, Inc. System Requirements:

    • Color VGA monitor with 256 color minimum
    • Mac system 7.1 or later
    • Windows 95, 98,2000, or NT4.0 with 8MB RAM
      or
    • Windows 3.1 or later with 4MB RAM1.5MB hard disk space for disk collection
      or
    • 4MB for CD collection

    #9004--$9.95


    Tokens and Treasures cover

     

    Tokens and Treasures: Gifts to Twelve Presidents

    Lisa B. Auel


     

    • As the highest representative of the people and Government, the President accepts gifts on behalf of the United States of America. This tradition, as old as the Presidency itself, grows with each administration. Today, a President may receive 15,000 gifts a year. They come from every State in the nation and every country in the world. Gifts from foreign leaders continue the diplomatic tradition of exchange between heads of state; those from citizens, both Americans and others, symbolize ordinary people freely addressing, in every manner and form, the leader of the world's largest democracy.

      This lavishly illustrated book, based on the exhibition of the same name, showcases over 200 gifts sent to Presidents from Hoover through Clinton. The gifts range from opulent presents from heads of state to handmade offerings from American citizens. The objects were selected from the holdings of NARA's Presidential library museums and Presidential materials projects.

      8 1/2" x 11", 144 pages, 212 illustrations (137 in color)
      National Archives and Records Administration and the White House Historical Association, 1996

      #200052 Softcover $24.95
      ISBN 1-880875-10-1

      Please note: The White House Historical Association is responsible for ALL trade sales.

    Treasures of Congress cover


    Treasures of Congress

    • Bruce I. Bustard
      with Kenneth Kato



       

      Few institutions have been as central to the course of American history as the U.S. Congress. Most of the great issues in our national life have been debated there, and many of our most memorable political figures have served in the House of Representatives or the Senate.

      Celebrating the 200th anniversary of the move of the Congress to Washington, DC, from Philadelphia, Treasures of Congress showcases the role the House and Senate have played in our history through reproductions of fascinating petitions, resolutions, roll call votes, and bills. Chapters feature congressional documents from events such as the adoption of the Bill of Rights, the Missouri Compromise, the Civil War, and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Coupled with illustrations, these records connect us intimately to the great decisions made by our representatives and personalize the lawmaking process in ways that no textbook can.

      8 1/2" X 11", 78 pages, 115 illustrations
      National Archives and Records Administration, 2000 #200014 Softcover $15.00
      ISBN 1-880875-20-9


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