When President Obama was inaugurated (the first time), Twitter wasn’t quite three years old. Facebook had only been open to the general public for two and a half years, and Tumblr had just celebrated its second birthday.
In a self-described effort to become “the most open and accessible administration in history,” the @whitehouse started to use these platforms to talk directly to their constituents. And Tumblr got to be a big part of that. Over the last eight years, the Obama administration launched more than 20 different Tumblrs for different departments, agencies, and outreach programs. Here are some heavy hitters:
Official Government Tumblrs
The White House (@whitehouse)
Most notably, The White House’s official Tumblr, which launched on April 25, 2013. For almost 4 years, it has been their informational hub for current political events and activations. In keeping with the Tumblr tone, their very first post promised that “yes, of course there will be GIFs.” And yes, there were. We could not have been more excited or proud.
NASA launched nearly two years later. They’ve spent 59 years exploring the universe and dropped the most amazing information and visuals right to your dashboard. They also knew how to use GIFs. It’s not rocket science.
The U.S. Department of State (@statedept)
The DOS was actually one of the first official government Tumblrs, quietly launching in April of 2011. With a more serious tone, they kept their followers up to date with the world of foreign policy. And yes, they even had GIFs for that. We cannot stress just how good this administration was with GIFs, Tumblr. Much better than Taft’s.
Letters to President Obama (@letterstopresidentobama)
Typed and handwritten letters to POTUS scanned, uploaded, and answered by the President himself. There are thank yous to and from President Obama, there are people disclosing their fear for the future and hope for their community, there are tears in your eyes within the first five minutes of visiting this Tumblr.
The Department of Interior (@americasgreatoutdoors)
Maybe not the most well-known department, but the DOI has the most beautiful photos of any official government blog on Tumblr. This will remain true unless Joe Biden releases a Tumblr full of selfies within the next three days.
There was also the US Fish and Wildlife Service-Pacific Region (@usfwspacific), the National Archives (@usnatarchives) , the IRS (@internalrevenueservice), the Peace Corps (@peacecorps), and so, so much more.
Top Posts from the Community
This scientific trinity received over half a million notes. Say hello to these buddies:
And these uh, unverified photos of President Obama making the new $100 bill in MS Paint garnered over 650k likes, reblogs, and replies.
You want to click through to see the rest.
This one is particularly timely. With over 300,000 notes, user @cognitivedissonance thanked Obama for ACA. Without it, they would not have been able to receive treatment for bronchitis.
Mic (@micdotcom) posted a GIF set of a girl who sort of represented all of our feelings about President Obama not being able to run for a third term.
One more time, while we still can: Thanks, Obama.
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