This week in Universal News, the New Year is celebrated in the United States and Cuba. 1933 would be the year that Prohibition was repealed, although the festivities evident in this story certainly do not seem lacking. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbDXtoOXjSI&feature=youtu.be From the release sheet: BIG CITIES CELEBRATE AS 1932 PASSES OUT; GAILY WELCOME 1933 Unprecedented whoppee and … Continue reading This Week In Universal News: New Year’s Eve, 1932
Before the advent of televised network news programs and the 24 hour news cycle on cable and the internet, newsreels were one of the main sources people had for news. One of five major newsreel companies, Universal Studios produced and released newsreels which were shown in movie theaters, twice a week, from 1929 until 1967. Each release usually … Continue reading A Moving Image “Newspaper”: Universal Newsreels at the National Archives
The theme this week is Photographs of Photographers. Local Identifier: 111-B-1074, "Mathew B. Brady" Local Identifier: 174-G-22-4, "Lewis W. Hine" Local Identifier: 80-G-324556, "Capt. Edward J. Steichen, USNR, (retired), photographic expert, on island platform, studies his surroundings for one of his outstanding photographs of life aboard an aircraft carrier. Capt. Steichen held rank of Comdr. … Continue reading Images of the Week: Photographs of Photographers
This week, we’re excited to provide a sneak peek of a new series on our Media Matters blog. Starting in January, we’ll launch “This Week in Universal News”. Every Monday, archives technician Jim Konicek will feature a story from the National Archives’ Universal Newsreel Collection released that week in history. Today’s post features the iconic … Continue reading Ice Skating at Rockefeller Center, 1937
The theme this week is Aviation. Local Identifier: 18-WP-48625, Photograph of the Wright Brothers' Camp in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, 1903 Local Identifier: 165-WW-7B-6, "Wright Brothers' 1904 Aeroplane ("Kitty Hawk") in first flight, December 17, 1903 at Kitty Hawk, N.C. Orville Wright at controls. Wilbur Wright standing at right. (first flight was 12 seconds)" Local … Continue reading Images of the Week: Aviation
This post was written by guest blogger Carrie Goeringer. On December 23, 1944, weather on the island of Corsica was bleak and dreary, as it had been for most of the winter. Many of the children who lived on the island had never known a real Christmas because of the ongoing Second World War. So, the … Continue reading Corsican Kids Christmas Party With the 57th Bomb Wing 1944
A couple of weeks ago, we wrote about the 110th anniversary of The Great Train Robbery, a film that pioneered editing techniques that are so commonplace as to be invisible to viewers today and is acknowledged as the first example of modern film fiction narrative. But this wasn’t the only important innovation taking place in December … Continue reading I Saw Kitty Hawk: Film, Memory, and Archives
“Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth . . . . Put out my hand and touched the Face of God.” You may be familiar with these lines—the first and last of John Gillespie Magee, Jr.’s 1941 sonnet “High Flight”. Many of us likely recognize them from President Ronald Reagan’s speech on the … Continue reading Celebrating Aviation with Magee’s “High Flight”
This week I'm highlighting a new series of photographs received from NASA's National Space Science Data Center. The series, "Photographs Relating to Space Exploration, 1961-1998" (National Archives Identifier 7541247), features images taken by space probes, space observatories, earth observation satellites and manned space flight missions. The series description will soon be available through OPA. Local … Continue reading Images of the Week: Space Exploration
It’s not very often that we celebrate the 110th anniversary of a film. When The Great Train Robbery debuted in December of 1903, Henry Ford had recently sold his first car, the Boston Americans had just won the first modern World Series, and Theodore Roosevelt was president of the United States. Filmmaking was in its … Continue reading The Great Train Robbery
