Images of the Week: NASA Digital Images

This week I'm highlighting new digital images transferred from NASA that will soon be available in our research room and eventually uploaded into OPA. The four series, 255-AMP, ASTP, STS, and GRC, cover digital surrogates created from the original still film from the Apollo missions, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, and the Shuttle missions. In addition, … Continue reading Images of the Week: NASA Digital Images

Restoring The True Glory

This post was written by Criss Kovac and Harry Snodgrass. Criss is the supervisor of the National Archives Motion Picture Preservation Lab. Harry recently joined the Motion Picture Lab and is working on a project to preserve and digitize World War I and World War II films and photographs. When the U.S. Office of War … Continue reading Restoring The True Glory

Diary of a Sergeant

Harold Russell is an anomaly in film history. When Russell was cast in the classic film, The Best Years of Our Lives, he had practically no acting experience.  Despite being the only person to win two Academy Awards for the same performance, Russell had no desire to be an actor. Moreover, Russell’s rise to stardom came in … Continue reading Diary of a Sergeant

This Week in Universal News: Fall Fashion Preview, 1967

This week in Universal News, the 1967 Fall fashion preview, featuring an outfit for the fashionable highway robber and "wearable" butterfly decals that are "up-to-the-minute but not gimmicky." http://youtu.be/Grz5MJKDNhs?t=4m6s From the release sheet: FASHIONS London designers show Fall Fashions. Included: capes, high collars, highway-robber outfits, complete with mask and two flint-guns. More practical: black tunics … Continue reading This Week in Universal News: Fall Fashion Preview, 1967

This Week in Universal News: Spraying DDT to Prevent Polio, 1946

In 1955, after years of research and testing, the polio vaccine created by Jonas Salk was declared safe and effective. The devastating virus is nearly eradicated in the United States today. In 1946, however, two years before Jonas Salk first began his research, the city of San Antonio, Texas tried to prevent the spread of … Continue reading This Week in Universal News: Spraying DDT to Prevent Polio, 1946

With Strings Attached: Rice, Murder, and Awkward Communist Puppets

Let’s suppose you have a child, and that child loves puppet shows. You might decide to introduce your child to The Muppets Take Manhattan or the Thunderbirds television series. Or, you could introduce them to something much darker: a 1952 United States Information Agency (USIA) production titled Tomas and the Huks. Marionettes were fairly popular … Continue reading With Strings Attached: Rice, Murder, and Awkward Communist Puppets

This Week in Universal News: Elmer Trudgen’s One-Man Band, 1937.

This week, we have a performance from Elmer Trudgen, who created a one-man band with an impressive eleven different instruments. And yet Trudgen was not content to stop at that achievement--according to a 1939 newspaper article, he added a banjo to bring the grand total to fourteen instruments. http://youtu.be/Z6eDRCdg9bc From the Release Sheet: Elmer’s A … Continue reading This Week in Universal News: Elmer Trudgen’s One-Man Band, 1937.

Images of the Week: Basketball and Hockey

The photographs featured this week are just a tiny sampling of the basketball and hockey related photos in our holdings. The overwhelming majority of our NBA, NHL and NCAA images have possible copyright restrictions, which limits online access. Local Identifier: 306-PSF-86-2445, “Dr. James Naismith (Wearing Suit), a Springfield College instructor and basketball’s inventor. He is … Continue reading Images of the Week: Basketball and Hockey

“Bottle cap livin’, bottle cap dead”: A Day in the Death of Donny B.

When I first encountered A Day in the Death of Donny B. (1969), it seemed like the perfect counterpoint to the hilarious and beautiful Curious Alice (1971). Unlike Curious Alice, which misfires so completely that it makes drugs look like they might be fun, Donny B. is a scary documentary-style portrait of a heroin addict … Continue reading “Bottle cap livin’, bottle cap dead”: A Day in the Death of Donny B.

This Week in Universal News: The 64th Running of the Kentucky Derby, 1938

Did you enjoy a mint julep over the weekend in honor of the Kentucky Derby? This week, we look back to the sixty-fourth running of the Kentucky Derby, held on May 7th, 1938. The winner was long-shot Lawrin, the only Kansas-bred horse ever to win the race. Lawrin was buried beside his sire, Inisco, in his … Continue reading This Week in Universal News: The 64th Running of the Kentucky Derby, 1938