This post was written by Criss Austin. Criss is the supervisor of the Motion Picture Preservation Lab. I think it’s safe to say that we all agree the last 21 months have been long and trying. During much of this time, NARA staff were working on projects at home which helped to serve our researchers' … Continue reading Back to Work with Puppets: The Wonderful Night of Hercules Brown
Have you ever seen a dam or road or some other massive public works project and wondered who could be responsible for such a massive project? Chances are it was the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). George Washington appointed the first army engineers on June 16th, 1775 and the Corps of Engineers was … Continue reading The Problem Solvers
Still taken from 111-WF-25, The Hidden Army Sometimes films in our holdings stand out for their entertainment value in addition to their historical value, The Hidden Army is one such film. When I came across it looking for another item, it stood out because of the unique way it covers a common topic in propaganda … Continue reading Hitler’s Downfall, The Hidden Army
This post is by Alexandra Geitz, Supervisory Archivist of the Moving Image and Sound Branch. In honor of the 100th Anniversary of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, this post will highlight just a few of the moving image and sound records in our holdings that depict the site over the … Continue reading 100th Anniversary of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moving Image Records
Veterans Day is observed every November 11th in the United States. It marks the end of fighting in World War I, the war that was supposed to end all wars, and honors our nation’s military veterans. Here at the Unwritten Record, we share a lot of records related to military history and those who have … Continue reading Veterans Day Military History Link Roundup
Today, we take for granted that moving images are used to educate. Generations of school children grew up with teachers turning down the lights, rolling in a film projector or television and flipping a switch or pressing a button to start the show. It might be surprising to learn that there was a time when … Continue reading “Edited by Laura Thornburgh,” Pioneer of Motion Picture Education
Please Note: Primary source documents used in this post may contain harmful language. See NARA's Statement on Potentially Harmful Language. Last week, the 369th Infantry Regiment, more famously known as the Harlem Hellfighters, was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. The honor comes more than a century after their service in Europe during WWI. The regiment … Continue reading The Harlem Hellfighters Return Home
On May 18th, 1933, Congress chartered the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), beginning one of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first projects of his “New Deal” social welfare programs. Its goals were to “To improve the navigability and to provide for the flood control of the Tennessee River; to provide for reforestation and the proper use of marginal … Continue reading Working for the TVA
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) recently partnered with the University of Maryland’s Cinema and Media Studies Program to present Films of State: Moving Images Made by Governments, a virtual conference running from April 7 to 9, 2021, highlighting current scholarship on the topic of government films and filmmaking. This inaugural conference featured international … Continue reading Films of State Conference Recordings Now Available
This post is by Daniel Dancis, a Textual Records Archivist and blogger at The Text Message. When is a photograph more than just a photograph? Of the millions of digitized images in the National Archives Catalog it is always a thrill to find something new in an old picture. Even more, discovering a connection between two or … Continue reading Double Take II: Finding Posters within Photos
