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
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks on the United States. On September 11, 2001, four coordinated terrorist attacks were committed against the United States when two hijacked planes were flown into the North and South Towers at the World Trade Center, a third hit the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., … Continue reading Remembering 9/11
In 1941 the United States had begun to prepare for the possibility of war and consequently, millions of jobs were being created. However, racial discrimination kept African Americans and other minorities from obtaining these defense industry jobs. In response to pressure from A. Philip Randolph, who had been organizing a march on Washington, and other … Continue reading Montford Point Marines
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
Today's post was written by Allie Mackenzie Roberts. Roberts is an Audiovisual Preservation Specialist at the Richard Nixon Library. Richard Nixon successfully ran for the presidency in 1968 during a very tumultuous time in American history that included the Vietnam War and its protests, North Korea capturing a Naval vessel, the assassinations of Martin Luther … Continue reading “Listen, my friends”: Digitizing the 1968 Richard Nixon Campaign Speeches
The White House hosted its first - and only - fashion show on February 29, 1968. The fashion show and luncheon was presented by the First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson, and was titled "How to Discover America in Style." The audience included the wives of governors who were in Washington D.C. for the midwinter meeting … Continue reading Spotlight: 1968 White House Fashion Show
Hello my fellow Unwritten Recordians, I’m back with an update from the Still Picture Branch regarding progress on the Subject Finding Aid Project! As of my last post in June, we had one batch of descriptions live in the National Archives Catalog, with a second one on the way. As of today, the second AND … Continue reading Subject Finding Aid Project (Update)
Aquarius Plateau. J.K. Hillers at work (as photographer). Local Identifier: 57-PS-809, NAID: 517983. This image is cropped from the original. When you think of photographic negatives today, perhaps you imagine flexible, plastic-like film. However, some of the earliest negative images would be found on glass. Glass served as a viable support to capture the photographic … Continue reading Visual Cues and Clues: Cracking the Code of Glass Negatives
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
Some of the National Archives’ finest footage of the bombardment and sinking of World War I-era ships dates from after the war. In 1921, 1923, and 1931, the United States Navy, in cooperation with the Army Air Forces, bombarded American and German vessels with bombs ranging in size from 25 to 2000 pounds. These spectacles … Continue reading Sinking the Fleets of World War I
