October is designated as American Archives Month!

For October, 2025, I chose to dive deeper into utilizing archives as resources for my own education, and as this blog continues, opportunities to share history in a more engaging way. Keeping my focus on accuracy and the use of primary sources. My plan was to discover new resources, outside my "jump in the car and head over" bubble of 1-2 hour drives- as fantastic as they are!

As I write this post during the final week of American Archives Month, I'm dropping four of those fantastic discoveries.

These discoveries specifically tie into multiple aspects of this blog. Categories they connect to include: American Independence, People in History, Daily Life, Learning History, and American Indians. Let's be honest: every single one is "learning history" since they're actual resources!

RELATED POSTS: Click here to dive deeper into the creation of categories for this blog.

Necessary disclaimer: As a blogger, I use affiliate links sometimes! I may receive commission from purchases I share; it does not change your price but sometimes you might get a discount.

Fall color, October in Colonial Williamsburg

Discovery 1: Prints of the Marquis de Lafayette

If you have an interest in American independence, and the military men who helped achieve it, you'll either 1) be familiar with the Marquis de Lafayette or 2) want to be.

At the end of this section, you'll get a link to get more acquainted with the Marquis, who at the age of 19, travelled (snuck!) to America in support of our cause. I've gotten to know his story well, thanks to Colonial Williamsburg's actor historian, Mark Schneider, who studies and portrays him with both skill and passion.

Quick bullets:

• a French aristocrat whose king (Louis XVI) didn't approve to join the American cause; so he bought a ship named La Victoire and made his way here on the sly
• seasick every day, he immersed himself into learning English
• Congress made him a major general after he offered to pay his own way
• Washington saw the bravery, talent, passion, and ability of the Marquis and soon invited him into his military family- as well as gave him command of troops, leading up to and pivotal to our ultimate victory at Yorktown

So you see why I was incredibly excited to find this collection online. Being able to visualize this American hero, throughout his life, is pure gold.

Click here to view the collection online.

RELATED: Click here to read one of my comprehensive posts celebrating the Marquis, written in 2024 as the 200th anniversary of his grand tour was in full swing!

Mark Schneider portraying Major General Lafayette

Discovery 2: American Jewish Historical Society in New York City

On Yom Kippur, a day of introspection and reflection, I decided to listen to some podcasts sharing both the religious and cultural heritage of Jews in the United States.

It's a heritage I share and I decided it was time to dive deeper into the connected American history.

I found a podcast that introduced me to the American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS) which was established in 1892. And wow. Pulled directly from their homepage: "AJHS is the oldest ethnic, cultural archive in the United States."

Millions of (over thirty million in fact) documents and 50,000 books, artifacts, and more are held by AJHS. What does this mean? Resources are available for researchers, people interested in their family history, or anyone wanting to find connections to events like the American Revolutionary War can do so.

The organization has digitized materials as well as articles, and even a podcast.

Click here to view the American Jewish Historical Society's website and dive in.

RELATED: Below, you can listen to the podcast episode that reeled me- it's on one of my favorite's, Ben Franklin's World.

Discovery 3: Marquette University's Native American Collections

First: it's important to get some context. Understanding Marquette University is vital understanding the collections. Direct from their website:

"We’re a Catholic, Jesuit university in the heart of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that prepares our students with the knowledge, skills and sense of community they need to build meaningful careers, lead purposeful lives and transform the world around them."

When I was in California at the beginning of 2025, I was stumbling into the Spanish colonization of that part of our nation - just a bit. If you've visited the west coast, you may be familiar with the number of missions to be found.

Undoubtedly, religion was front and center when the Spanish began settling what is now our 31st state of California.

Discovering Marquette's extraordinary collection that includes photography, educational videos, and even recordings and transcriptions of native language was compelling. Oral history preserved; resources not limited to documents.

The relation and relevance to the Catholic religion in our early United States through aspects of these collections are just plain cool.

Click here to access this unique collection online.

RELATED: Want to take a detour into American Indian culture? Don't worry, it'll all open into new tabs so you won't lose your spot!

Start with this post introducing the category on the blog (including use of terminology) then head to this book review of Never Whistle At Night.

"Chocolate Mountain" view in California

Discovery 4: Delaware Public Archives' Facebook page

I love Facebook (unpopular opinion!). But there's a reason: I find and follow SO MUCH HISTORY. As I was on my quest for discovering online archives, I ran across a truly special page.

Click here to check out the Delaware Public Archives' Facebook page - and follow it to get their updates in your feed!

Yes, the page is a Delaware page, but in context, it's American history at it's finest. Showing architecture, military events, daily life, agriculture, industry- there's so much and it's not only relevant, it's incredibly well thought-out. Kudos to their writer-in-residence, Robin Brown.

Examples of content posted on the page:

• photographs and restoration updates of historic buildings
• events
• their "Delaware snapshot" - a photo from their collection sharing the historic detail putting it into context; one that caught my attention was a 1925 photo of Memorial Hall at the University of Delaware, erected and honoring 270 Delawareans killed in combat during World War I
• and one dear to my heart: "marker Monday" featuring historical markers throughout our 1st state!

RELATED: Click here to download the Explore Here app to find historical markers all over our United States!

3 calls to action.

1. Click the related posts and links in each section above to dive deeper.
2. Introduce primary-sourced history (and text) to the children in your life through educational boxes delivered to your / their door[s]!
3. Book a call - if you're visiting the Tidewater region of Virginia, I can create a curated itinerary to include archived materials and special collections you can view in person. (yes, I will help make that happen!)

Closing words from history.

Today's closing words: a request for Jefferson's works to keep in a Massachusetts library's "archives" - I wonder, did Jefferson oblige? And I wonder how he felt about them asking him after they've gotten John Adams' writings...(always after Adams!).

Click here to read the this letter on the source site: Founders' Archives, where you can read the notes and citations.

From Oliver Parsons and James Cooley

Granville (Mass.) 29th Jany 1823

Respected Sir,

The undersigned, a Committee of the Dickinson Library Company in Granville, County of Hampden & Commonwealth of Massachusetts, present to your Excellency our best respects, and beg leave to state that there is established in this Village a respectable Classical School, and by the liberality of a Gentleman in our vicinity, a Library has been formed; and we have also been the beneficiaries of several authors, and editors of periodical publications, among whom we mention, with just pride, Mr Adams, late President of the United States, who has recently honored us with a copy of his works—

Feeling, Sir, a desire to have among our archives some memento of the great and venerable men of our Country we have presumed to address your Excellency for a copy of your works or such other work as shall be agreeable to yourself thus to appropriate—

Humble and remote as we are, perhaps our solicitations1 may appear presumptious, but Sir, obscure as we are, the fame of Thomas Jefferson has reached us, and humble as we are, we have the arrogance to beleive ourselves capable in some measure to appreciate it—

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There is a huge practical disclaimer to the content on this blog, which is my way of sharing my excitement and basically journaling online.

1) I am not a historian nor an expert. I will let you know I’m relaying the information as I understand and interpret it. The employees of Colonial Williamsburg base their presentations, work, and responses on historical documents and mainly primary sources.

2) I will update for accuracy as history is constant learning. If you have a question about accuracy, please ask me! I will get the answer from the best source I can find.

3) Photo credit to me, Daphne Reznik, for all photos in this post, unless otherwise credited! All photos are personal photos taken in public access locations or with specific permission.