Visiting the National Archives Nearby

Did you know that there is a National Archive near Hillwood Academic Day School? Most people think that there are only national archives in Washington, D.C., but that is not true. In fact, if you are in a car, there is an archive only 20 or 30 minutes away in San Bruno.

At the archive, you can do a lot of digging. You can find your roots or learn about San Francisco's history, such as the earthquakes and fires. But you will have to make an appointment and go with an adult or your teacher. You have to ask to see anything and the archivists, who are like librarians, will bring you one thing at a time. These things are usually in boxes or big folders, and they are old. You have to be careful with them, and they are not the type of documents that you might expect. They are usually letters and personal things that people owned. There are also a lot of old newspapers.

Anybody can go to the archive, and there were a lot of people there.