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
With the move to a digital world, photography follows suit. Born-digital photography is becoming increasingly popular and prevalent. The term “born-digital” is just as it sounds. It means the files themselves were created and exist only in digital form, taken by a digital camera. There are no original copies of the photographs in analog–or physical–form. … Continue reading Visual Cues and Clues: Born-Digital Photographs and their Metadata
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
Two weeks ago NARA and the Unwritten Record introduced you to the new BIA – Photographs Finding Aid. This dynamic new finding aid links to over 18,000 digitized photographs from Record Group 75, Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1793 – 1999, taken over many decades and covering a wide variety of topics and … Continue reading The Bureau of Indian Affairs – Photographs Finding Aid: A Closer Look
There’s just something about old maps – some ineffable quality that draws the attention and makes one stop and bend closer to see what is there……and what’s not there. Has the landscape changed? Are towns missing or are towns shown that no longer exist? Is it engraved or is it a manuscript map? Are there … Continue reading Travelling Back in Time to the New York City of 1767-1768 via the Ratzen Map
2020 marks the long-awaited completion of the U.S. Army Signal Corps Historical Films digitization project. Boasting nearly 800 reels of film, Record Group 111 (Records of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer), Series H (Historical Films) has been digitized in its entirety and will be available in the National Archives catalog and National Archives … Continue reading Now Playing: Historical Films of the U.S. Army Signal Corps
This post was written by guest blogger Tanya Goldman. Goldman is a PhD Candidate in Cinema Studies at New York University. The ease with which most of us stream movies and television makes it hard to envision the labor of media distribution. Before home video and streaming, transporting films as physical objects demanded careful logistical … Continue reading How the U.S. Army Served its Movie-Mad GIs during World War II
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
‘Tis the season for holiday films on repeat. Have you grown tired of the leg lamp? Soured on that aloof beagle? Wearied of the mean one with termites in his smile? Are you, gentle reader, bored of Bedford Falls? Fear not, for the National Archives has holiday films that entertain and inform beyond the wildest … Continue reading A Holiday Playlist, To: You, From: The Unwritten Record
Co-Authored by Beth Fortson and Corbin Apkin. You wake up in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve and realize that you have forgotten to get a gift for your sister’s brand new “He’s Totally The One” boyfriend. You get a text from your old college roommate two days before your New Years Party … Continue reading Spotlight: Last Minute Holiday Gifts!
