Spotlight: Propaganda

Due to recent physical changes in the Still Pictures Research Room, space became available for staff to showcase reproductions of some of our holdings. This inaugural display was created by Aaron Arthur and Michael Bloomfield to present examples of Propaganda held by the Branch. “Modern propaganda is a consistent, enduring effort to create or shape … Continue reading Spotlight: Propaganda

Summer Road Trip 2019: Memphis and New Orleans

On to.... Memphis! After much fun visiting “Pinckney Castle” in Charleston, South Carolina, it's time we hit the road again! Along with everyone else, apparently. But really, what road trip is complete without some sort of traffic fiasco? It's all part of the cross country touring experience, as you can see in the image 30-N-5523! … Continue reading Summer Road Trip 2019: Memphis and New Orleans

Spotlight: Last Minute Holiday Gifts!

Co-Authored by Beth Fortson and Corbin Apkin. You wake up in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve and realize that you have forgotten to get a gift for your sister's brand new "He's Totally The One" boyfriend. You get a text from your old college roommate two days before your New Years Party … Continue reading Spotlight: Last Minute Holiday Gifts!

Spotlight: Flag Day

The flag of the United States of America was adopted 240 years ago on June 14, 1777. Throughout our nation's history our flag has taken on many forms, growing with the country it so proudly represents. It has also taken on many affectionate monikers - the American Flag; the Stars and Stripes; Old Glory; the … Continue reading Spotlight: Flag Day

Spotlight: Celebrating Black History Month

Photos for this blog post were selected and scanned with the assistance of Kaitlyn Crain Enriquez. The United States celebrates Black History Month in February. First established as Negro History Week by African-American historian Carter G. Woodson in 1926, Black History Month was formally designated by president Gerald Ford in 1976: "Freedom and the recognition of individual rights are … Continue reading Spotlight: Celebrating Black History Month

Introducing The Unwritten Record!

Today we’re debuting our new name! From now on, the blog of the National Archives’ Special Media Services Division will be known as The Unwritten Record. We’ll feature the same great content—film, photographs, videos, sound recordings, and other non-textual records from the National Archives’ holdings-- just with a new and improved name! Media Matters was fine, … Continue reading Introducing The Unwritten Record!

The Secret of Smokey’s Success

In honor of Fire Prevention month, we’ll have several posts about records relating to fire prevention. In our previous posts I introduced the real Smokey Bear and shared some public service announcements encouraging forest fire prevention. Today I’ll let you in on a little secret; Smokey has a Public Law (P.L. 82-359) protecting him. Congress … Continue reading The Secret of Smokey’s Success

Images of the Week: USIA Paper Shows

This week I’m posting several examples of posters from the series Paper Show Exhibition Poster Sets, ca. 1974 – ca. 1994 (306-PSP). These posters were created by the United States Information Agency for exhibits they referred to as "Paper Shows", which were pieced together using multiple posters to create a multi-panel display. The entire series … Continue reading Images of the Week: USIA Paper Shows

Images of the Week: World War II Posters

It's been a while since our last Still Picture blog post, so to make up for it we are going to try and post one or several interesting images from our holdings at the end of each week. For this week, I'm posting images from two series, "Scuttlebum Posters" (344-SBP) and "Original Artwork for World … Continue reading Images of the Week: World War II Posters

Digitization Activities

My first couple of blogs focused on born-digital and scanned images created by Federal agencies and accessioned to the Still Picture unit, but I’m now shifting gears and highlighting some of our in-house digitization activities. The main series I’m going to talk about can trace its roots back to 1974 when we received the first … Continue reading Digitization Activities