Press/Journalists

Press Kit: Eyewitness: American Originals from the National Archives

State by State Listing of "Eyewitness" Accounts

Eyewitness accounts in the form of letters, diaries, photographs, and audio and film recordings, culled from the billions of documents in the holdings of the National Archives and its Presidential libraries, open new and unique windows onto well-known events.

ALABAMA

  • Testimony of John Lewis in Court Case resulting from 1965 March from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in support of voting rights.
  • Footage of 1966 TV interview of Jeremiah Denton, American POW in Vietnam. During the interview, he blinked his eyes in Morse code spelling out the word "torture." Denton served as US Senator from Alabama from 1981 through 1987, and still lives in Alabama.

GEORGIA

  • Testimony of John Lewis in the court case resulting from 1965 March from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in support of voting rights. John Lewis was elected to Congress in November 1986, and has served as U.S. Representative of Georgia's Fifth Congressional District since then.

ILLINOIS

  • Report on Trans-Continental Trip, November 3, 1919, by Lt. Col. D.D. Eisenhower (the convoy went from Illinois to California, largely on dirt roads).
  • The Hindenburg – while it exploded in NJ on May 6, 1937, the infamous audio of was done by newsman Herbert Morrison, who had been assigned to cover the flight by Chicago radio station WLS.

IOWA (Hoover Library)

  • Diary of President Hoover’s Secretary, Theodore Joslin, during the last days/hours of Hoover administration, 1933.

KANSAS

  • Report of John C. Frémont, The Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains by Brevet Col. J.D. Frémont, March 1, 1843 (expedition began west of Missouri and crossed present-day Kansas, Nebraska and Wyoming).
  • Rose Wilder’s typed manuscript of On the Way Home—from the journals of her mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder, during the trip from De Smet, Dakota Territory, to Mansfield, Missouri, 1894.

MARYLAND

  • Letter from John Boston, a fugitive slave from Maryland, to his wife, Elizabeth, January 12, 1862. The envelope is addressed, in a different handwriting, to "Mrs. Elizabeth Boston, Care Mrs. Prescia Owen, Owensville Post Office, Maryland.

MASSACHUSETTS (Boston)

  • Letter from George Washington, writing from Cambridge, to John Hancock re: bio-terrorism, December 4, 1775 (re: small pox).
  • Rose Kennedy Account, Weekend at Windsor Castle, April 1938: "Joe turned to me and said, "Rose, this is a hell of a long way from East Boston...’"

MICHIGAN

  • Letter from Harold Porter to his parents in Michigan, written from 116 Evacuation Hospital, stationed at Dachau; May 7, 1945. Porter grew up in Michigan.

MISSOURI

  • Report of John C. Frémont, The Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains by Brevet Col. J.D. Frémont, March 1, 1843 (expedition began west of Missouri and crossed present-day Kansas, Nebraska and Wyoming).
  • Rose Wilder’s typed manuscript of On the Way Home—from the journals of her mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder, during the trip from Dakota Territory, to Mansfield, Missouri, 1894.

NEBRASKA

  • Report of John C. Frémont, The Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains by Brevet Col. J.D. Frémont, March 1, 1843 (expedition began west of Missouri and crossed present-day Kansas, Nebraska and Wyoming).
  • Rose Wilder’s typed manuscript of On the Way Home—from the journals of her mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder, during the trip from De Smet, Dakota Territory, to Mansfield, Missouri, 1894

NEW JERSEY

  • The Hindenburg exploded in Lakehurst, New Jersey on May 6, 1937. Audio Station: Radio report of the explosion by Newsman Herbert Morrison

NEW YORK (Albany/Rochester)

  • Testimony of witnesses in Susan B. Anthony’s pre-trial hearing following her "illegal voting" in the election of 1872.

SOUTH DAKOTA

  • Rose Wilder’s typed manuscript of On the Way Home—from the journals of her mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder, during the trip from De Smet, Dakota Territory, to Mansfield, Missouri, 1894.

VIRGINIA

  • Admiral Selfridge’s account of the Sinking of the USS Cumberland by the Iron Clad Merrimac off the coast of Newport News, Virginia, March 8th, 1862.

WASHINGTON, DC

  • Eyewitness testimony of Dr. Robert King Stone, President Lincoln’s doctor, to his treatment of President Lincoln the night of the assassination, April 15, 1865. The trial took place from May 10-June 30th, 1865, on the 3rd floor of the Old Arsenal Penitentiary, which is now Washington DC’s Fort McNair.

WYOMING

  • Report of John C. Frémont, The Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains by Brevet Col. J.D. Frémont, March 1, 1843 (expedition began west of Missouri and crossed present-day Kansas, Nebraska and Wyoming).


Go to Related Press Release



Top