Published on the occasion of a major new exhibition to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the National Archives, Washington, D.C. in 2009, this new volume features the big records, big events, and big ideas from American history. 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 nationhood.Among the items reproduced, some with fold-out pages, are a section of the enormous map of the Gettysburg battlefield, drawn a few years after the critical Civil War battle; a design drawing for the Lincoln Memorial; and, the 19-page telegram sent by U.S. Diplomat George Kennan from his post in Moscow in 1946 which set the direction for US/Soviet relations for the next half century. Also featured is the order for the enormous custom-made bathtub for America's heaviest President; and prints of the mammoth glass-plate negatives by photographer Carleton Watkins of Yosemite National Park taken in the 1860s.