NARA Staff Favorites: Online Records

We’ve loved reading your suggestions and comments about sharing NARA’s holdings on Flickr, and it’s been interesting to see which images people are marking as favorites. All of this got us wondering about which records NARA insiders are particularly fond of, so we asked a few of our experienced colleagues for their picks. First up…

Tim Rives – Deputy Director of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library

“In Case of Failure Note”

in-case-of-failure

This is my favorite single item in the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum for what it tells us about Ike and archives.

  • Character. It’s evidence that General Eisenhower was willing to take the blame for the failure of the largest amphibious invasion in history.
  • Human Frailty. Ike’s all-too-human fallibility is revealed in his admitted misdating of the Note. Even generals get rattled. [The correct date was June 5, not July 5.]
  • The need for archives. Ike scrawled the Note on highly-acidic pulp paper. Without the intervention of archivists, this treasure would have crumbled to dust years ago.

Record Citation:
“In Case of Failure” Message Drafted by General Dwight Eisenhower in Case the D-Day Invasion Failed, 06/05/1944
ARC Identifier 186470
Textual Records from Eisenhower, Dwight D. (Dwight David), 1890-1969
Dwight D. Eisenhower Library, Abilene, Kansas
Item from Collection DDE-EPRE: Eisenhower, Dwight D: Papers, Pre-Presidential, 1916 – 1952

4 thoughts on “NARA Staff Favorites: Online Records

  1. Hi Jason,
    It really is an incredible record, isn’t it? We think Mr. Rives’ pick was a perfect way to start off our new series of NARA Favorites posts. And thanks for your feedback on the ARC link- it’s been updated to jump directly to the digital copy.

    Thanks!
    Kristen

  2. Jason,

    We agree that it would make sense to have the blog linked from the archives.gov home page. We’ve been working on it!

    Thanks for the suggestion!

    Jill (Admin)

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