In honor of Veterans Day and in conjunction with the opening of the National Archives’ newest exhibit, “Remembering Vietnam,” we’re highlighting some of NARA’s Vietnam era film footage. You can read more about the exhibit here and here. If you would like to conduct research relating to the Vietnam War, NARA has created a portal accessible here. … Continue reading Remembering the Vietnam War this Veterans Day
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
On June 4, 1942, the Japanese Imperial Navy attacked United States forces on the island of Midway. With four Japanese aircraft carriers sunk by the conclusion of the conflict, the battle was the first major victory for the US in the Pacific. But victory did not come without cost. More than 300 Americans lost their … Continue reading The Battle of Midway and Torpedo Squadron 8: A Memorial to a Fallen Unit
For the past two years, the National Archives Motion Picture Preservation Lab has been digitizing a series of Army Signal Corps films as part of a larger project to commemorate the centennial of World War I. Meanwhile, technicians from the Still Pictures Branch and the Digitization Division have scanned tens of thousands of Signal Corps … Continue reading Shooting World War I: The History of the Army Signal Corps Cameramen, 1917-1918
The first presidential statement observing women’s history was issued by President Jimmy Carter in 1980, who declared March 2-8 as National Women’s History Week. Carter’s official acknowledgment of Women’s History Week was monumental given that it grew out of one local celebration in Santa Rosa, California. The following year, Public Law No. 97-28 was passed, which … Continue reading Spotlight: Women Doing Awesome Things
A Little-Known Expedition If you know anything about Admiral Richard E. Byrd, you probably know that he was the first to fly over the North and South Poles, and that he led several expeditions in Antarctica. However, you probably don’t know the story of his first Arctic expedition. In fact, most accounts muddy the details … Continue reading The Aviator, the Explorer, and the Radio Man: The 1925 MacMillan Arctic Expedition
What would you do if you were a popular general in the United States Army, a tireless advocate for military aviation, and instead of getting a promotion to Chief of the Air Service, you were demoted and sent halfway across the country? If it was 1925 and your name was Billy Mitchell, you might just have a giant barbecue, complete with a … Continue reading Billy Mitchell’s Boozy Barbecue Send-Off, 1925
This week in 1966, Boeing introduced the world to the 747, the first jumbo jet. Today, production of the 747 is winding down, but when it first debuted with commercial airlines in 1970, the double-decker represented both scale of economy and the lap of luxury for those fortunate enough to travel in first class. Even … Continue reading This Week in Universal News: Introducing the Boeing 747, 1966
Last fall, we told you about films from Project Blue Book, the United States Air Force investigation into unidentified flying objects. In addition to records related to the search for UFOs, the National Archives and Records Administration also holds records concerning Identified Flying Objects. One of the most remarkable of these is the Avrocar. The Avrocar … Continue reading Avrocar: The U.S. Military’s Flying Saucer
