Fiddles and Fistfights

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Congress in the Archives will feature monthly staff posts on our blog. Today’s post comes from Center archivist Kris Wilhelm.

It was a dark and stormy night off the coast of New Jersey on April 3, 1933. The captain of the Navy’s dirigible, USS Akron, had altered course several times to avoid ominous weather. By 12:30 am, the Akron was being buffeted by violent updrafts and downdrafts that tore away control cables and forced her into surf that ripped off her lower fin. Without adequate means to navigate the enormous vessel, she was doomed. Only 3 of the airship’s 77 officers and men survived the crash.

The loss of the USS Akron prompted Congress to create the Joint Committee to Investigate Dirigible Disasters. The 10-member panel studied the causes of this and other wrecks as well as the utility and viability of dirigibles for military purposes. Although the dearth of survivors among the Akron’s crew made it difficult for the committee to assess contradictory eyewitness accounts; nevertheless, the records of the disaster tell a chilling tale of the tragic end to a mighty airship.

Surreal Detail of the Week: Senator Hamilton Kean (R-NJ) was a member of the Joint Committee to Investigate Dirigible Disasters. His grandson, Tom Kean, co-chaired the 9/11 Commission with Lee Hamilton.

Photograph of the USS Akron “Nose section being attached to nearly completed framework,” 1933, Records of the Joint Committees of Congress

Photograph of the USS Akron “Ready to walk USS Akron out of Goodyear-Zeppelin dock,” 1933, Records of the Joint Committees of Congress

Photograph of the USS Akron “Crew bunks,” 1933, Records of the Joint Committees of Congress

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awesome wagon!

(Source: sweethomestyle, via pumpkinpave)

todaysdocument:

via NARAtions » Tag It Tuesday! Native American Heritage Month

All this month, the National Archives joined with the Library of Congress, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Gallery of Art, the National Park Service, the Smithsonian Institution and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to pay tribute to the traditions of Native Americans during Native American Heritage Month.  The National Archives has hundreds of digitized records relating to Native Americans in our online catalog.  In honor of Native American Heritage Month, we hope you’ll help us tag these interesting records!

Our catalog includes digitized records from Record Group 75, Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).  The BIA, in conjunction with tribal governments, Native American organizations,  other federal agencies, state and local governments, and other interested groups, was responsible for the development and implementation of economic, social, educational, and other programs for the benefit and advancement of Indian and Alaska native peoples.  Also included in our online holdings, are records from Record Group 435, Records of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board (IACB).  The IACB  serves as a clearinghouse for development of Native American (American Indian and Alaska Native) arts and crafts.

Interested in BIA records?  Start tagging here!

If arts and crafts are more your style, tag those images here!

todaysdocument:

November 16, 1972 - Memorandum Terminating the Tuskegee Syphilis Study

An infamous chapter in medical ethics, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study was begun in 1929 as a cooperative study involving the Public Health Service and state and local health departments in six Southern states. It evolved into a study of possible differences in the effects of the disease on Caucasians and African Americans. During the study a number of African American participants in Tuskegee, Alabama, with syphilis were left untreated but were observed, studied and compared to a control group which did not have the disease. The study continued until the 1970s when its existence was exposed to the public, resulting in Department of Health Education and Welfare and Congressional hearings on the ethics of medical experiments on human subjects.