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In a year of many difficult budget decisions, we are grateful to the DC Council for keeping funding for the new DC State Archives building at UDC in the capital budget, and including additional funds to improve Naylor Court. These projects preserve important DC and federal history!

To everyone who wrote a one line email, testified, or just bothered your councilmember at Safeway, this is your victory. The new archive will open later than we hoped, but the funding for the current building will make DC's most valuable historic resource available like never before—and soon. 🗃️

Celebrating a win for DC this morning!

We are very grateful to @chmnmendelson.bsky.social and the entire DC Council for FULLY FUNDING the new State Archives building at UDC and providing additional funds for repairs to make Naylor Court more available to the public until the new building is complete.

When we do calls to action for the DC Archives, we get requests for letter templates. But every staffer and CM I've talked to hates form letters. They will note the topline and move on, never reading any customizations you make. A single line with the core of your thoughts is always better.

Mayor Bowser’s defunding of a new DC Archives ignores the proverb “Until the lion has his own historian, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.” thedcline.org/2025/06/20/j...

Now that’s a metaphor

"...DC needs a new, modern archives that captures, preserves and shares its powerful story, told through its government, local leaders and ordinary citizens. It needs a place where researchers and residents can go to learn about their city and themselves..." thedcline.org/2025/06/20/j...

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The text of our testimony from the budget oversight hearings is now up on our website. The budget process goes until August, so there is still plenty of time for you to submit your thoughts to DC Council and the Mayor! www.dcarchivesfoundation.org/learn

Upset about the proposed cancellation of the DC Archives but live in Montana or have a day job? You can still help! 🗃️ Send a single word email to Mayor Bowser's chief of staff. Don't overthink it. Just say you want it completed as planned. Be nice. Curse. Whatever. 👀 [email protected] 👀

Student housing should not be pitted against the city's historic resources in a year that 1/2 a billion dollars is going to a stadium.

We've added a statement to our website and added ways to help save the DC State Archives building project: www.dcarchivesfoundation.org/statement-ab...

"The mayor's budget director, Jenny Reed, told reporters on Tuesday that no school, library or recreation center project was delayed or cut in funding." Instead, they cut the DC State Archives building that would support history and culture production in the District. www.axios.com/local/washin...

More D.C. budget tidbits: @mayorbowser.bsky.social is proposing a big change for what was supposed to be a new D.C. Archives facility located at the UDC campus in Van Ness. She instead wants that site used for student housing, and the archives housed in the existing Charles Sumner School.

The Mayor of Washington, DC wants to cancel its badly needed state archives after ten years and millions of dollars of work. Why? Seemingly to subsidize the billionaire-backed stadium she has been working on with Donald Trump. Send a note to [email protected] if you want to help. 🗃️

DC history folk and allies, please read 🧵👇 and be prepared to advocate AGAINST the mayor's proposal to undo the work of those who have been planning so long for a new home for the DC Archives.

Mayor Bowser’s proposed 2026 budget completely eliminates the new DC State Archives building at UDC. This last minute, irresponsible decision, which was made in secret without any input from experts or the community, erases a decade of grueling work.

If you think you have genealogical records in the DC Archives, the good news is that it has become much easier to do in the last two years. Here's how to start:

Think of all the wonderful ways the DC Archives can support UDC in these goals once its new building on campus is complete!

The DC Archives are your city's history! Researching your family's DC genealogy? Want regular construction updates about the new state-of-the-art state archives building? Want to help support digital access to the DC Archives? Join our e-mail list today! www.dcarchivesfoundation.org