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National Inventors Month 🔌💡🥽

The National Archives holds numerous patent records in our Catalog—documents that showcase American creativity and ingenuity. Let's dive into some fascinating inventions together! 💡

🎉 It's #NationalVolunteerWeek! Thank you to our 23,454 Citizen Archivists (as of March 31, 2025) who have contributed to the National Archives Catalog by transcribing 1,147,019 pages. We invite everyone to volunteer as a #CitizenArchivist and help bring history to life.

World Book Day: Washington's Revolutionary War account book

It's #WorldBookDay, and we're highlighting a page-turner in the holdings of the National Archives: George Washington's Revolutionary War account book.

General George Washington refused to accept a salary as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army, but he did receive reimbursement for his expenses. Washington was always meticulous with his finances. He accounted for every penny spent at his Mount Vernon estate and applied the same precision in managing the Continental Army. Throughout the 8 years of the Revolutionary War (1775 - 1783), Washington maintained a complete record of all the expenses he incurred as Commander in Chief. This book is written almost entirely in his own hand and includes the charges of his daily meals, housekeepers, and spies. According to his accounts, Washington had incurred expenses totaling $160,074 by the end of the Revolutionary War.

These records provide enlightening insights into the daily lives of Washington, his family, and the people who played vital roles around them.

On April 19, 1775, the "shot heard around the world," ignited the American Revolutionary War. 250 years later, we reflect on the battles of Lexington and Concord, where colonial resistance first erupted into open conflict.

Boston, the largest city in the 13 colonies, played a key role in stoking revolutionary fervor. Colonists, frustrated by taxation without representation, clashed with British troops in a fight that would shape the course of a nation.

Explore the full story in our latest blog post, part of our countdown to the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence. See how the National Archives is preserving the history of America's fight for liberty: https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2025/04/18/lexington-and-concord-22-hours-and-a-shot-heard-around-the-world

"Listen, my children, and you shall hear…" 🏇

On the night of April 18, 1775, Paul Revere rode through the Massachusetts countryside to warn patriots of the approaching British forces. His ride helped ignite the Revolutionary War.

But Revere didn't ride alone. William Dawes and Samuel Prescott were also crucial messengers that night. Their coordinated efforts alerted militias before the battles of Lexington and Concord. Dive into primary sources on Docs Teach: https://www.docsteach.org/activities/printactivity/prequel-to-independence

The National Archives holds powerful visual records of this moment in history, including art and documents that tell the full story of Revere's mission. Explore the ride's legacy in this curated photo set: https://www.archives.gov/research/military/american-revolution/pictures

The sport of basketball was invented in 1891 by a man named Dr. James Naismith. He was a physical education teacher at the YMCA Training School (now known as Springfield College) in Springfield, Massachusetts, and he came up with the idea of basketball as a way to provide his students with a fun, indoor activity that would keep them active and engaged.

The first basketball game was played on December 21, 1891, and it was a pretty simple affair. There were nine players on each team, and the game was played inside a YMCA gymnasium. The court was just half the size of a modern basketball court, and the baskets were simply peach baskets attached to the walls.

The game was a huge success and quickly became a popular activity at the YMCA. In fact, the game spread so quickly that just a few years later, the first professional basketball league was formed.

Before Fort Sumter became a symbol of the Civil War, it was a feat of engineering. Built on a manmade island in Charleston Harbor, the fort was designed to protect the U.S. coastline after the War of 1812, but construction was slow, spanning decades.

By the late 1850s, Fort Sumter still wasn't finished, yet its walls would soon be tested. In April 1861, Confederate forces opened fire, marking the first shots of the Civil War. The unfinished fort was now at the center of a national crisis.

Explore original engineering drawings, correspondence, and rare visuals of Fort Sumter's construction from the National Archives' holdings in this deep dive on the Unwritten Record blog: https://unwritten-record.blogs.archives.gov/2018/04/06/building-fort-sumter

Civil War in Focus – Mathew Brady’s Photography 🎩🥁

A century before smartphones, Mathew Brady and his team pioneered war photography. Brady (1820s–1896) organized dozens of photographers to document the Civil War – from bloody battlefields to stoic portraits. The National Archives holds thousands of these glass-plate images in the Brady collection (many originally War Dept records).

Brady’s photographs fundamentally changed how the public saw war. For the first time, civilians could see the reality of camp life, the aftermath of battles, and the faces of soldiers.

President Lincoln credited Brady’s portrait of him at Antietam with helping win re-election in 1864 (saying "Brady and the Cooper Union speech made me President.")

Brady’s crew didn’t just photograph battlefields but everyday stillness and the daily grind of camp life for soldiers and crew.

Field kitchens were a favorite Brady subject – this rare stereo image shows Army cooks preparing stew in big cauldrons over fire pits.

Mathew Brady’s photographs are freely accessible in NARA’s Catalog. See faces of named soldiers, panoramic ruins of Richmond, or the eerie stillness of Antietam right after the fight. It’s a 160-year-old visual archive that still speaks volumes about honor, sacrifice, and the birth of photojournalism.