National Archives Featured On Jeopardy!
Press Release · Thursday, February 25, 2010

Washington, DC

Test your Archives knowledge on Jeopardy! See Alex Trebek in the Rotunda!

On what popular TV quiz show was the National Archives recently featured? Why, Jeopardy!, of course! Fans of the show and fans of the National Archives can test their wits and knowledge by seeing the segment on the National Archives YouTube channel at [http://tiny.cc/Jeopardy446]. The public is invited to come see the full show on the big screen in the National Archives William G. McGowan Theater on Thursday, May 20, at noon.

The Jeopardy show included a question category solely dedicated to the National Archives! The questions and answers (not that Archives fans need them) follow:

• For $200 - Q: "In 1940, in a letter to the president this then 14-year old future world leader asked FDR for a ten dollar bill. Yet he doesn’t cash the checks we send him for Guantanamo." A: "Who is Fidel Castro?"
   
• For $400 - Q: "American history might have been very different if this future country had agreed to the offer of statehood contained in Article 11 of the Articles of Confederation." A: "What is Canada?"
   
• For $600 - Q: "No one knows how it got there, but there is a handprint in the lower left hand corner of this important national document, just beneath the concluding words ‘and our sacred honor.’" A: "What is the Declaration of Independence?"
   
• For $800 - Q: "One of the Archives’ treasures is a 1912 wax cylinder recording, like this one, of this American president talking about his Progressive Party’s movement for social and industrial justice." A: "Who is Theodore Roosevelt?"
   
• For $1,000 - Q: "The Constitution was signed by representatives of each of the 13 colonies except for this one, which opposed increasing Federal power. Because it was the last to ratify, it is now our 13th state." A: "What is Rhode Island?”

Jeopardy! producers worked with Archives staff to develop clues and answers. Host Alex Trebek and the show’s “Clue Crew” spent a day shooting scenes and video clues in the National Archives Building in Washington, DC -- in the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom, the “Public Vaults” permanent exhibition, and in the temporary exhibition “BIG! Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the National Archives.” The filming took place on a weekday when the building was open to the public. Visitors to the National Archives swarmed Alex Trebek, who gladly posed with fans.

The National Archives Building is located on Constitution Avenue at 7th Street, NW. Winter hours (through March 14) are 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Spring hours (March 15 through Labor Day) are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., daily. Admission is free, and the building is fully accessible. Metro accessible on the Yellow and Green lines, Archives/Navy Memorial/Penn Quarter station.

For information on National Archives public programs, call 202-357-5000, or view the Calendar of Events online.

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For press information, contact the National Archives Public Affairs staff at 202-357-5300.

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