Our Innovation Hub Has Officially Sent Over 500,000 Pages To The National Archives Catalog! The 500,000th

Our Innovation Hub has officially sent over 500,000 pages to the National Archives catalog! The 500,000th page is a form that Antonio Dardell filled out to apply for an increase in his Civil War veteran’s pension.

Antonio Dardell is one of the small number of Chinese American soldiers who fought in the American Civil War.

Dardell had been adopted as a young boy by an American whaling ship captain, and brought to Connecticut. He enlisted in the 27th Connecticut Infantry Regiment at age 19. After the war he worked as a tinsmith, and in 1880 he became a naturalized citizen, showing his honorable discharge certificate in lieu of a Declaration of Intent.

This pension file was scanned as part of a two-week project by two citizen scanners who were interested in digitizing records relating to Asian American history. In addition to Antonio Dardell’s pension, the citizen scanners also worked on his Compiled Military Service Record (CMSR), and the CMSRs and pensions of other Chinese American soldiers.

Thank you to everyone who has volunteered their time in the Innovation Hub working to scan documents that are now part of our online Catalog (https://catalog.archives.gov). You are making history more accessible! Learn more about the Innovation Hub: https://www.archives.gov/innovation-hub