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.

WWII Propaganda Posters – Art to Inspire 🖼️

Victory gardens, rationing, safety at sea – during WWII the U.S. government plastered messages on posters nationwide. The Still Picture Branch holds 44-PA: World War II Posters (1942–45), including work by famed cartoonist Will Eisner. See dozens of these historic posters (from patriotic to poignant) in our Catalog: NAID 513498.

Image: “‘Of Course I Can!’ I’m patriotic as can be – And ration points won’t worry me!”. Home-front posters like this encouraged Americans to can food and save resources. ALT: Color WWII poster of a woman juggling jars of produce under text “Of Course I Can!” (NAID 515098).

Image: “Don’t be a dope – Handle equipment right!”. Cartoonist Will Eisner created Joe Dope, a bumbling GI who taught troops what not to do. (In this poster, Joe’s negligence sends a jeep’s wheels flying!) ALT: WWII safety poster by Will Eisner showing a jeep crash due to loose bolts, captioned “Don’t be a dope – Handle equipment right!” (NAID 514727).

From stirring recruitment appeals to humorous instructional comics, these WWII posters reflect the era’s spirit. Browse over 1,300 WWII posters in NARA’s holdings – an eye-catching window into the 1940s war effort.

Beacons of the Coast – Lighthouse Photographs (1855–1933) 🌊🏮

Guiding ships for generations, America’s lighthouses have their own stories. NARA’s 26-LG series holds hundreds of historic lighthouse photographs, 185 (Images of the Week: Lighthouses 1855-1933 – The Unwritten Record).

🏀 The 2025 NCAA Basketball Tournament tips off soon as 68 teams compete for the championship. As the brackets take shape, the National Archives has a slam dunk of its own—historical basketball records!

Huddle up and get your game plan ready to view our Basketball special topics page for patents, posters, team photos, and Presidential pick-up games. There are enough records in our Catalog that you might have to plan for overtime.

Learn more: https://www.archives.gov/news/topics/basketball

📸: Patent drawing for a basketball goal, January 13, 1925. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/262492081

Thanks to an incredible response from our community, driven by recent outreach efforts, we saw a record-breaking increase in National Archives Catalog transcriptions!

In January 2025, our volunteers transcribed over 250,000 pages, a 7x increase from the usual monthly average! 📜📈 Why is this so important? Many government records—letters, memos, reports—are handwritten. Without transcription, they’re difficult to search or read. Thanks to these volunteers, historical records are now more accessible than ever.

From Revolutionary War pensions to Civil War nurse logs, WWII oral histories, and even UFO-related documents, these transcriptions help unlock knowledge for researchers, students, and the public. Want to be part of history? Become a Citizen Archivist today! It’s free, easy, and makes a real impact. Sign up here: archives.gov/citizen-archivist

Let’s keep this momentum going! Tag a friend who loves history and may want to join the effort.