America - still a young country by world standards - began as an experiment in self-government. This collection includes stories of America's people as they follow a path of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
Soon after the Pearl Harbor attacks, official inquiries began. How could this have happened? Was America so completely unprepared for a Ja...
This image depicts a souvenir from the Japanese surrender ceremony which took place on September 2, 1945.The Naval Historical Center provides a captio...
This is a facsimile image of the signature page for Japan’s surrender. The document was signed during a formal surrender ceremony on board...
This image depicts the first page of the surrender document which formally ended the War in the Pacific during World War II. It was signed by...
Jeannette Rankin was a lifelong activist for peace. A member of Congress - representing Montana in the House of Representatives before most Amer...
After his wife died, Thomas Jefferson was devastated. His daughter Martha, who was ten at the time, said that her father fainted when her mother...
This image depicts the second page of a letter which Thomas Jefferson wrote to a friend about two months after his wife died. In it he reports t...
In 1774, Thomas Jefferson was a delegate to the Virginia Convention. Representing Albemarle County, Jefferson drafted this set of instructions f...
Thomas Jefferson was very upset about John Marshall's opinion in Marbury v Madison. Year after the 1803 opinion was written, Jefferson wrote abo...
Thomas Jefferson delivered his first inaugural address on the 4th of March, 1801. This is a page from his handwritten manuscript. The Library o...
Thomas Jefferson left specific instructions for his grave site. He wanted an obelisk, as shown in this drawing which he made, with the following...
Jefferson's instructions for Lewis and Clark, June 20, 1803.
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