Archival Magic | Legends
An estimate of the original colors from chemical residues on the stone. / Drini, Wikimedia In 1978, utility workers in Mexico City clanked their equipment...
Archival Magic | Instruments
Lizzo plays an archival flute in the Main Reading Room at the Library of Congress. / LOC The story about the War of 1812 that you probably remember from your...
Archival Magic | Life
Mabel Harvey tags out Virginia Smoot at a junior high baseball game in DC in May 1925. / LOC I pick a seat on the right side of the Amtrak train whenever I'm...
Archival Magic | Heat
This 1948 picture from legendary photographer Toni Frissell depicts the estimated mental state for much of America this summer. / LOC The head lifeguard at...
Archival Magic | Hand Talk
Deaf children in Cincinnati, Ohio, sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" in sign language in 1918. / LOC The older gentleman nodded at me from the pool deck as I...
Archival Magic | Night Sky
This 2018 lunar eclipse was photographed from Texas. / NASA, Robert Markowitz My reward for fitful sleeping arrived in a red robe. The moon's dimmed rusty...
Archival Magic | Unexpected
A line from one of Edna St. Vincent Millay's sonnets. / Dustin Renwick DC remains an exceptional city for so many reasons – let me know when you come visit –...
Archival Magic | Railroads
The Union Pacific Railroad crossed the 100th Meridian in Nebraska in 1866. / LOC Growing up, I loved listening to the whistles of trains blowing in on the...
Archival Magic | Threads
Unidentified soldier sewing, circa 1915. / LOC That calm I wrote about last month has gone the way of snowflakes in DC. I've been working these past weeks to...
Archival Magic | Calm
A snowy start in DC. / Dustin Renwick The opening weeks of 2022 hummed with a calm that I could not recall from last year. Same pandemic. Same furniture in...
Archival Magic | Thief
Two boys steal apples from a New York City fruit barrel in 1910. / LOC The refrigerator at my childhood home has for many years mimicked a fallen tree in...
Archival Magic | Delicious
This grocery list from the 1800s feels familiar, right? / with permission from Deborah W. Drank all the milk and needed more for baking? Same. The grocery...
Archival Magic | Cities
The unburned area of San Fransisco after the 1906 earthquake as seen from a "captive airship," a system of kites and piano wire that suspended a camera 2,200...
Archival Magic | Exhibition
by way of cherries, white gloves, and patience Eight prints of photos find their home back in the Midwest nearly 90 years after the original pictures were...
Archival Magic | Landscapes
by way of Route 66, copyrights, and Bob The comet NEOWISE glides along the northern California coast in July 2020 above King Range National Conservation...
Archival Magic | Summer
by way of morning, noon, and night Gone now, this drive-in theater scene was captured by John Margolies in 1980 near Pinellas Park, Florida. / LOC Recent...
Archival Magic | Juneteenth
by way of joy, humility, and one more step Bill and Ellen Thomas were formerly enslaved in Hondo, Texas – pictured here in 1937. / LOC Jubilant noise greeted...
Archival Magic | X
by way of cowbells, crystals, and nail polish Stained-glass window? Bronze lattice? Cicada wing at 10x zoom? / Dustin Renwick An insect that aligns itself so...
BONUS Archival Magic | Sourdough
As I've said before: don't judge archives by age. This comic from last week was too perfect to miss. / Hilary Price Mid-month extra! Some of my stories...
Archival Magic | Color
by way of rainbows, cave art, and the CDC This transmission electron microscopic image shows a sample of the first U.S. case of COVID-19. Like other federal...