BIG!Big Records, Big Events and Big Ideas in American History: Celebrating 75 Years of the National Archives
Published by GILES in association with the Foundation for the National Archives, Washington, D.C.
Release Date — March 2009 (UK and USA)
Dimensions — 96 pages, including 4 gatefolds, 305 x 254 mm (10 x 12 in.), portrait
Illustrations — 104 colour illustrations
Hardback price — UK£16.95/US$29.95
ISBN — 1-904832-62-8
ISBN — 978-1-904832-62-1
Book Details (pdf) — BIG-AI-LR.pdf
Trade Orders — Please visit our Trade Orders section
Sales Points
Publication accompanies a major exhibition opening at the National Archives in March 2009 to celebrate its 75th anniversary
Features some of the largest (both in size and historical significance) records from the National Archives Collection
Includes a 13 foot square map of the Gettysburg battlefield and details of President Taft’s reinforced bed
About the Book
Published to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the National Archives, Washington, D.C. in 2009, this new volume features big records, big events, and big ideas from the National Archives collection. Starting with the 13-foot scroll of the Articles of Confederation—the first constitution of the United States—the full-scale records reveal some of the formative moments in American history.
Among the items reproduced, some with fold-out pages, are a section from the enormous 13-foot square map of the Gettysburg battlefield, drawn a few years after the critical Civil War battle; a design drawing for the Lincoln Memorial, dedicated in 1922; the helmet worn by General Clarence Huebner, commander of the U.S. Army 1st Infantry Division (known as the “Big Red One”) which formed the first wave of the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944; and a 19-page telegram, called “the long telegram”, sent by George Kennan, a U.S. diplomat in Moscow in 1946, which set the direction for US/Soviet relations over the next 50 years. The variety of documents and objects is huge, ranging from orders relating to the fitting out of a ship with reinforced beds and extra large baths to carry William H. Taft – at 320lbs, the heaviest President in U.S. history – to prints of the mammoth glass-plate negatives by photographer Carleton Watkins of Yosemite National Park, dating from the 1860s.
