Even before the DVIC accession brought How to Succeed with Brunettes to light, I had a special place in my heart for quirky government film productions. When I first saw a beat-up, faded print of Curious Alice, it was clear that whatever anti-drug sentiment the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) was trying to convey, … Continue reading The Curious Case of Curious Alice
What's the difference between these objects? A reel of 16mm film.An object of similar size and shape that is actually a 1″ video. If you’re one of the people who can immediately identify the objects in the images seen here, the answer to this question is easy. But with the way the language has evolved … Continue reading Film Preservation 101: What’s the Difference Between a Film and a Video?
In addition to The Pleasure of Your Company, the Women’s Army Corps’ (WAC) Military Etiquette and Grooming series (1970) featured two more films, each more incredible than the last. Look Like a Winner opens with a male narrator intoning: “Yes, you’ve come a long way…no question about it. You have more to say these days about … Continue reading Don’t Walk Like a Man: Be the Best WAC that You Can Be
The Navy film How to Succeed with Brunettes teaches male officers how to behave like gentlemen, but what were the military’s expectations for the many female recruits? Once again, staff in NARA’s Motion Picture Preservation Lab and Special Media’s Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Branch were able to find the answer in the large accession … Continue reading The Women’s Army Corps Requests “The Pleasure of Your Company”
How to Succeed with Brunettes (1967) and Return of Count Spirochete (1973): The Motion Picture Preservation Lab’s Favorite Titles from the DVIC Accession Sure, the National Archives holds films a lot of really important historical films. Beautifully made educational films about government programs during the Great Depression? Yeah, we’ve got that. Millions of feet of … Continue reading Don’t Shut Your Date in the Door: Military Dating Dos and Don’ts
Mission Preservation! Technical Assessment of the Films of the Defense Visual Information Center in the Motion Picture Preservation Lab In 2006, the National Archives accessioned over 2700 titles from the Defense Visual Information Center (DVIC). By the time the 51 pallets (coming to 40 tons!) of motion picture and video records arrived at Archives II … Continue reading What Would You Do If 40 Tons of Records Arrived on Your Doorstep?
Archives Specialist Marcia Kolko reports that descriptions for nine small series of video recordings from Record Group 370, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have recently been uploaded to the National Archives Catalog The series document a range of NOAA surveys and projects, including documentation of an emergency response drill in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, images of … Continue reading New Video Series from NOAA Now in the National Archives Catalog
There are many sound systems that have been used for motion picture films over the years. Some of the earliest relied on sound recorded to a disc or cylinder that had to be played back in sync with the film. Even after optical soundtracks became the industry standard, there were multiple optical systems available. … Continue reading The Challenge of the Push-Pull Track
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
I’ve gotten to know President Harry Truman pretty well over the past year. I’m familiar with his opinions, mannerisms, and vocal cadence. In some ways, he reminds me of my grandfather. How did I become so well-acquainted with our 33rd president? I’ve never met him and I’m no presidential historian, but I do work in … Continue reading Getting to Know Harry Truman
