On the morning of October 19th, 1781, British troops along with their allies marched out of Yorktown, Virginia with flags furled to surrender to combined American and French forces. The siege and surrender at Yorktown proved to be the decisive blow to British hopes of regaining control of the American colonies. To celebrate the anniversary … Continue reading Victory at Yorktown
Today’s post is by Laurie Austin. Laurie is an audiovisual archivist at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library. In honor of Home Movie Day 2020, Laurie is sharing the story of how President Truman came to turn his camera on the White House photographers, with delightful results. President Harry S. Truman had a fascinating relationship … Continue reading Harry S. Truman and the “One More Club”: The President Makes a Movie
As we close out Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 through October 15), we continue to recognize the achievements made by Hispanics. Those achievements include Rita Moreno, the first Hispanic actress to win an Oscar for her role in West Side Story; their participation in military wars, such as World War I and II; Justice Sonya Sotomayor … Continue reading Hispanic Heritage Month – Recognizing and Celebrating Hispanic Culture
Sometimes when receiving permanent photographic records from federal agencies, we find surprises within the boxes. These can include photographic related items and non-photographic artifacts. For this post, I am highlighting just some of these items, but certainly not all found within our Still Picture Branch holdings. One of our favorite non-photographic items are J. Edgar … Continue reading Still Picture Branch Artifacts
Many recognize Rosie the Riveter’s “We Can Do It!” or Uncle Sam’s “I Want You” posters from World War II. Just as the posters created a rousing call to the public at the time of their creation, they also serve as hallmarks of the Second World War. The Still Picture Branch at the National Archives … Continue reading We Can Do It!: World War II Posters at the Still Picture Branch
While we frequently share interesting early maps from the Cartographic Branch holdings, today we wanted to focus on some of Cartographic's more recent maps. The RG 263 CIA Published Maps (also called the CIA Numbered Maps or Numerical Series) is made up of over 22,000 declassified maps. These maps date primarily from the 1940s to … Continue reading RG 263 CIA Published Maps: A Digitization Project In Progress
Pulitzer Prize winning photo journalist John H. White is well-known for his photographs of life in the city of Chicago, IL, particularly African American life, during the early 1970s. At the time, White was with the Chicago Daily News working for the federal government, photographing for the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) DOCUMERICA project. DOCUMERICA was … Continue reading Spotlight Photographer – John H. White
In the Still Picture Branch, we aim to cultivate a habitat that promotes access to the unique images in our custody. Today, I’m highlighting series 22-DP: Photographs from the National Digital Library, ca. 1998 – 2011, a collection of born-digital images and digital reproductions of analog photographs, brought to us by the U.S. Fish and … Continue reading Into the Wild
Why We Fight stands among the most ambitious and successful film projects ever undertaken by the United States government. Over the course of seven films, released from 1942 to 1945, director Frank Capra and his team argued forcefully for American service-people and civilians to unite in the massive labor of defeating the Axis Powers and … Continue reading Why We Fight: Prelude to War, America’s Crash History Lesson
Though the United States Coast Guard officially took on that name in 1915, its origin dates back over 230 years ago. In August 1790, what became known as the United States Revenue Cutter Service was established under the Treasury Department to assist with customs enforcement. The Revenue Cutter Service merged with the U.S. Life-Saving Service … Continue reading Lantern Slides of the Revenue Cutter Service, 1900-1915
