In honor of Fire Prevention month, we’ll have several posts about records relating to fire prevention. In our previous post I introduced the real Smokey Bear. In addition to that film the National Archives Motion Picture Branch also holds many public service announcements (PSAs) related to forest fire prevention. They were created by the Ad … Continue reading Getting the Message Out: Smokey Bear PSAs
In honor of Fire Prevention month, we’ll have several posts about records relating to fire prevention. The cartoon Smokey appeared in 1944 as part of a larger wildfire prevention program, but the story of the real Smokey Bear began in 1950 in New Mexico’s Capitan Mountains. Smokey was just a cub when he was rescued … Continue reading The REAL Smokey Bear
“Only You Can Prevent Wildfires” a wise bear once said. In 1944 Smokey Bear was introduced to the world by the US Forest Service in a campaign to help prevent wildfires throughout the United States. While he is known today by his “Only You” phrase, his slogan started as “Smokey Says – Care Will Prevent 9 out of 10 Forest Fires.”
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
The 2022 National History Day contests resulted in many fascinating projects covering topics ranging from labor and environmental debates to U.S.-China Ping Pong Diplomacy. Now it is time to begin looking ahead to 2023! The 2023 NHD contest theme is Frontiers in History: People, Places, Ideas and on page 35 of the 2023 NHD Theme … Continue reading The Film Frontier: Using Films and Videos in Your National History Day Project
For the past couple of months, I’ve been processing a collection related to the architecture, infrastructure, and construction of buildings in the Rocky Mountain Region of the U.S. Forest Service. While sifting through pictures of Toilet Structures and Visitor’s Centers has been surprisingly entertaining, I took particular interest in a photo that had no particular … Continue reading Smoke(y) Signals
The rumors would usually start at lunchtime. “Did you hear we’re watching a movie today?” The whispers and the excitement would grow during recess, and then came exclamations of joy and/or relief as we filed back into the classroom to find the projector set up. For the next twenty minutes (or longer with the inevitable … Continue reading Obsolete Instruction, or What to Do When Your St. Bernard Has a Hangover
This post was written in collaboration with Carla Simms The National Zoo in Washington D.C. is one of the capital’s most celebrated landmarks. The zoo was created by an act of congress in 1889, and officially made a bureau of the Smithsonian Institution the following year. Since its founding, the zoo has been a pioneer in … Continue reading Historic Maps and Photos of the National Zoo
In the motion picture lab, we work on thousands of reels of film a year: tens of thousands of feet of unedited footage of Vietnam, PSAs for the Census Bureau, dozens of early NASA films, and much, much more. Over the course of months, some of it can start to become a blur. Since we … Continue reading Favorite Film Finds of 2014
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
