Thursday Photo Caption Contest–February 2

"Catalogers at the National Archives prepare for the transition to electronic records management."

We had a hard time choosing a caption for last week’s photograph. How can you choose between captions that poke gentle fun at fortune cookies, “rags to riches” stories, and the IRS?

We turned to a guest judge who knows paper records really, really well. Paul Palermo is the Director of Records Center Operations at the National Archives at Boston, MA, which provides storage for thousands of temporary Federal records.

Not all of the records created by the Federal Government are kept forever in the  National Archives. The majority of Federal records—about 95%—are considered “temporary” and are kept for set periods of time.  Paul and his team manage the lifecycle of these records. They store them, track them, pull them and  send them back to the creating agency if they are needed, and put returned records back on the shelf.  They also destroy nonpermanant records at the end of their lifecycle or make sure that other records go to the National Archives as permanent records. (You can read more about temporary records here).

Congratulations to Deirdre! Paul tore himself away from a busy job (see the paragraph above!) to choose your caption as the winner of last’s contest.  Check your email for a code to use for a 15% discount at our eStore.

Like our guest judge, the ladies above worked in Massachusetts. Unfortunately, if they time traveled to the present day, most likely they would be out of a job, since they worked for the American Writing Paper Company. This photograph by Lewis Hines shows them sorting rags.

Today’s photograph shows a man at work! Give us your wittiest caption in the comments below!

Your caption here!

Where this page came from

This page was imported from National Archives, Pieces of History. Published on the National Archives' Pieces of History blog and, as a work of the United States government, in the public domain; pictures credited elsewhere are left out.

Nobody has written it yet — it is the source material at a new address, which is why search engines are asked to skip it and why no one earns from it. It is up for grabs: take it on, and it is yours to rewrite and to earn from.