To celebrate the 221st anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase on April 30, let’s use the catalog to see related records! On April 30, 1803, 828,000 square miles of land were purchased by the United States from the then-owner of its territory, France, for $15 million, which today would be about $342 million. Napoleon Bonaparte famously … Continue reading Celebrating the 221st Anniversary of The Louisiana Purchase with Special Media
Navy photographer, PH1 Greg McCreash, downloads a Kodak DCS 420 digital camera into the Electronic Imaging Center (EIC) while deployed to Zagreb, Croatia in support of Operation Joint Endeavor. Local Identifier: 330-CFD-DD-SD-99-03481.jpeg, NAID: 6503275. With the move to a digital world, photography follows suit. Born-digital photography is becoming increasingly popular and prevalent. The term “born-digital” … Continue reading Visual Cues and Clues: Born-Digital Photographs and their Metadata
In honor of Grand Canyon National Park celebrating it's 100th Anniversary on February 26th, The Unwritten Records presents select records from our holdings. Cover of Master Plan for Grand Canyon National Park, 1938 Photo No. 106-WA-227. Grand Canyon, 1872. Photograph by William Bell. Photo No. 57-PS-431A, Grand Canyon looking east from Foot of Torowap, Photograph … Continue reading Spotlight: Grand Canyon
On January 26, 1915, President Woodrow Wilson signed a law that established Rocky Mountain National Park. That legislation laid out the coordinates of the park, and set aside the land for the "benefit and enjoyment of the people of the United States." In recognition of the centennial anniversary, the National Archives' Special Media Division has gathered … Continue reading Happy Birthday, Rocky Mountain National Park
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!
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
As April 15 approaches, Americans across the country are filled with dread as they file their taxes and watch money disappear from their pockets. If history provides any relief, we are not the first to feel the burden. In 1789, Ben Franklin famously wrote, “In this world nothing can said to be certain, except death … Continue reading How Computers Changed the Tax Game
The photographs featured this week come from digital photographic series (born-digital and scans) that are now available or will be available in our online catalog. They are series 434-LB, 406-NSB and 311-MAD. The photos used for 311-MAD are accretions to an already existing digital series and these additions will appear in the online catalog soon. Local Identifier: 434-LB-2-XBD9706-02410tif.jpg, … Continue reading Images of the Week: New Digital Images
With only a couple of weeks until the start of the NFL season, the theme this week is football. The images below are part of the small series, "Photographs of Washington Redskins Football Games" (79-RED), which were taken by photographer Abbie Rowe. These photos are also available in our online catalog. Local Identifier: 79-RED-32 "Photograph … Continue reading Images of the Week: Abbie Rowe’s Photographs of the Washington Redskins
The theme this week is oil and I’m not talking about cooking oil, but crude. Here's several images from our holdings that might be of interest. Local Identifier: 330-CFD-DN-ST-90-04678 "Exxon tugboats escort the commercial tanker Exxon Valdez. A massive oil spill occurred when the vessel ran aground while transiting the waters of Prince William Sound … Continue reading Images of the Week: Oil
