On June 7, 2022, the House Committee on Financial Services, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, and all House Subcommittee Chairs, sent requests to the nation’s top banks, property and casualty insurance companies, and life insurance companies inquiring about their historical …
HAI Launches Research and Analysis Consultancy HAI | Legal
ROCKVILLE, MD – April 19, 2023 Standalone business assists law firms and in-house counsel with critical factual research and support for complex legal matters. HAI, a leading professional services firm offering research, discovery, and experience services has rebranded its long-standing …
Notes from the Field: Mapping History with Sanborn Maps
Sanborn Map of the Theater District in New York City, 1911. Click for larger image. Photo courtesy Library of Congress Geography and Map Division. For a historian, a good map can be a gold mine of valuable information. Beyond road …
Is Google Making You Fat? Tips for Conducting “Lean and Mean” Online Historical Research
The amount of online content continues to grow exponentially, making the Internet an indispensable tool in historical research. Clay Johnson, online database expert and author of the cleverly written book, The Information Diet, contends that with so much readily available …
Time and Space: Interpreting History Through GIS Mapping
GIS mapping is a powerful way to make history come to life. Combining geographic information system (GIS) data with historical information, may serve to: Visually illustrating change over time in this way is especially helpful when trying to convey complex …
Notes from the Field: The Art of Crafting a FOIA Request
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is yet more proof of the adage “no good deed goes unpunished.” Though intended to facilitate greater transparency in government, as those who have submitted a FOIA request can attest, the process can be …
WWII and Korean War Industrial Mobilization: History Programs and Related Records
This is a modified version of a presentation I did for the 2014 Society for History in the Federal Government conference in April. This version focuses on the legal usefulness, in environmental cases, of the official agency histories and records …
Preventing Data Loss: Steps Toward Long-Term Digital Preservation
Will you be able to access your important digital documents twenty years from now? Data from NASA’s Viking missions to Mars in the 1970s was nearly lost to history. It was stored on magnetic tape that began to dry out …
Documenting Shock and Awe: Researching Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom
This post is featured on the History Associates timeline. It is ironic that our most recent military history is at risk of being lost. Changes in decades-old recordkeeping have created gaps in the historical record of 21st century military conflicts. …
Targeting Historical Federal Contracts: Research Strategies That Work
The federal government does much of its business through contracts. These documents define the relationship between the government and its contractors. Sometimes, years later, disputes arise involving the work performed under these agreements. Knowing the terms and context of these …
Investigating the Recent Historical Past: Using the Internet Archive Wayback Machine for Litigation Research
By Justin Broubalow, Research Historian Our legal clients often ask us to investigate events in the recent historical past. Roughly spanning the last twenty or so years, this encompasses a period when the fact record was likely born-digital—that is, it …
The Great American Outdoors Act: What Is It, Why Do We Need It, and What Are The Next Steps?
By Scott Vierick, Historian In Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, the NPS is responsible for maintaining most of the historic buildings pictured, as well as the vegetation, hiking trails, and artifacts on Maryland Heights in the background. Source: Library of …