When you are curious about family history, many of us know to turn to the National Archives for access to genealogy related records, such as census, citizenship, and naturalization records.
But you might not expect to find yourself when searching the National Archives Catalog!
We recently heard from Dale Jackson, who served as a U.S. Air Force crew chief on KC-135 at Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington. Jackson was the original artist of this particular piece of nose art, which appears in the National Archives Catalog:
L: Nose art on a US Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker, 2/22/1998, National Archives Identifier 6513273 R: A U.S. Air Force KC-135 nose art. Image courtesy of Dale Jackson.
As Jackson says, “it is exciting to see this old piece listed there as I am the original artist of this particular piece of nose art. I was a USAF crew chief on KC-135 aircraft at the time at Fairchild AFB, WA. In fact I had painted on other jets in 1998 as well.”
Other examples have helped bridge connections from defining moments in history. When NARA marked the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy on social media, social media posts included an image in the Catalog from the President George W. Bush’s visit to Ground Zero on September 14, 2001.
The son of a 9/11 fireman saw the photo on the National Archives Instagram account and asked:
“Hello, I just came across this picture that you posted and the firefighter in the middle is my dad. Is there any way you can send me the original photo?”
We’re two weeks into our virtual Presidential Libraries Road Trip and today we’ve reached California. What records will you find to tag and transcribe at the Richard Nixon Library?
111 Citizen Archivists have enhanced 1,989 pages with tags and transcriptions. How many pages will you tag and transcribe in our last six days?
