The National Archives turns the big 8-0 on June 19. You may have thought the Archives was older considering our country is almost 250 years old, but it wasn’t until 1934 that President Franklin Roosevelt signed the National Archives Act (48 Stat. 1122) creating the National Archives as an independent agency. What, you might ask, … Continue reading Happy Birthday National Archives!
In an effort to provide information on recently declassified motion pictures and sound recordings the Motion Picture, Sound and Video Branch will publish a quarterly list of newly declassified records. This quarter's list consists of films from a series of Army records (Local Identifier 319-IDF/National Archives Identifier 7851390). They are intelligence reports that were obtained … Continue reading Declassified Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings – 2nd Quarter
In an effort to provide information on recently declassified motion pictures and sound recordings the Motion Picture, Sound and Video Branch will publish a quarterly list of newly declassified records. Operation MANTRAC (Manual Angle Tracking Capability) (Local Identifier 342-USAF-33788/ARC Identifier 68704), is an example of one declassified film. Using some really great animation and a … Continue reading Declassified Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings – 1st Quarter
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
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
In an effort to provide information on recently declassified motion pictures and sound recordings the Motion Picture, Sound and Video Branch will publish a quarterly list of newly declassified records. As of September 30, 2013 the following records have been declassified. Motion Pictures: Local Identifier Title No moving images were declassified during this quarter. … Continue reading Declassified Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings – 4th Quarter
Have you ever wondered how moving images and sound recordings get declassified? The process isn’t as simple as you might think. Because our records are media based - film, video or audio - the review process takes a few extra steps. Agencies transfer classified moving images and sound recordings to NARA according to Records Control … Continue reading From Top Secret Vault to Open Stacks: Declassification of Moving Images
Recently I was working on some film and video records from the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS) and came across an interesting news program. Television Journal was a program produced by AFRTS that reported and broadcast armed forces news to U.S. military installations around the world. This particular broadcast includes stories on Army … Continue reading Military to Civilian Life
In an effort to provide information on recently declassified motion pictures and sound recordings the Motion Picture, Sound and Video Branch will publish a quarterly list of newly declassified records. As of June 30, 2013 the following record has been declassified. Motion Pictures: Air Force Local Identifier Title 342-FR-1246 Commando Hunt V … Continue reading Declassified Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings – 3rd Quarter
