The following guide describes various methods that can be used when searching the National Archives Catalog for photographs. While photographs can be found in regional facilities and presidential libraries, for the purpose of this post, the methods focus on searching the Catalog for photographs specifically held by the Still Picture Branch. Keyword Searching Generally most … Continue reading Searching the National Archives Catalog for Still Photographs
This blog was composed by Todd Crumley and Aaron Arthur This series of color transparencies documents the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, the U.S. Army’s first African-American paratrooper unit, and their participation in Operation Firefly. Firefly was initiated in response to the threat of potential wildfires caused by Japanese balloon bombs arriving on the west coast beginning in … Continue reading The Triple Nickles and Operation Firefly
In honor of our colleagues across the country that are dealing with rough instances of winter weather, we'd like to draw your attention to some fun images from our collection of Photographs Related to Byrd Antarctic Expedition II , 1933 - 1935. (Local Identifier XSC-G, NAID 139058663). These images were accumulated and maintained by Stevenson … Continue reading It’s Cold Outside: Photos from the Second Byrd Antarctic Expedition
"A picture is worth a thousand words...." Or so the saying goes. In reality, a photograph only documents a second in time, and as time goes on, it is easy to forget why a particular moment was so important to capture. However, well-captioned photographs can tell us stories; they can give us information about the … Continue reading “A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words”
With over 16 million Americans serving in World War II, it’s no surprise that there were members of the same family in the same theaters. While digitizing from the U.S. Coast Guard Series “Activities, Facilities and Personalities” for ingest into the catalog, we found that there were several photographs documenting familial relationships between servicemen during … Continue reading Family Ties: Family Members in Service During World War II
...but someone has to do it! The hard working Coast Guard mascot dogs worked across seaman’s duties during World War II. From assisting in sickbay to providing docking support, these dogs were an essential part of the crew! As the Still Picture Branch prepares the digitized images from the U.S. Coast Guard Series “Activities, Facilities … Continue reading It’s a Dog’s Job…
You may have heard of World War II Coast Guard hero, Sinbad the sailor dog. Sinbad (c.1937 – 1951) is famous for being the mascot of the USCGC Campbell, and was classified as a non-commissioned officer – “Chief Dog”. “Sinbad is a fighting dog from a fighting ship. Sinbad is the mascot of the … Continue reading The Further Adventures of Sinbad
In this fourth and final post of How to Research WWII photographs, we will provide an example of how researchers can search for and identify images related to a specific US Marine Corps unit. As is true with the WWII Army, Army Air Forces, and Navy photographs, prior to beginning your search in Still Pictures, … Continue reading How to Research: Photographs Relating to WWII Marine Corps Units
When it comes to research in the Still Picture Branch, our staff would agree that World War II photographs are by far some of our most requested records. Given their popularity, our How to Research posts are intended to be a quick reference guide, with some tips and examples of how to effectively search through our … Continue reading How to Research: Photographs Relating to World War II Navy Ships
Previously the Still Pictures Branch introduced the initial blog in a four part series on various methods of researching World War II unit records. The first part of the series discussed methods of researching photographs of U.S. Army units during the war. This installment of the series will cover helpful techniques in U.S. Air Force … Continue reading How to Research: Photographs Relating to WWII Air Force Units
