After the Allied victory was declared against Nazi Germany on May 8, 1945 (a date known to history as V-E Day), US military officials presented troops with Two Down, One to Go (Local Identifier: 111-EF-1), a film that serves as both Q+A session and pep talk to prepare them to shift their attention to Japan. https://youtu.be/do1-nBjYjdY … Continue reading Two Down, One to Go: Preparing Soldiers for More War
One hundred years ago, in the midst of the First World War, the RMS Lusitania left New York for Liverpool, England with nearly 2000 passengers and crew members aboard. In the film below, passengers arrive in a flurry of a cabs and board the ship. Less than a week later, most of them were dead, … Continue reading Impending Disaster: Footage of the Lusitania’s Departure from New York
This post was written by Mark Meader. Mark is an Archives Specialist with the Motion Picture, Sound and Video branch. He participated in historical reenactments for over forty years, including over twenty years as a Union private in Civil War reenactments. There is a scene in Frank Capra’s film “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town” where Longfellow Deeds … Continue reading Happy Birthday, Ulysses S. Grant!
In 1973 the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) transferred to the National Archives approximately 31,000 negatives and corresponding prints created by the Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA) and its successor, the Mutual Security Agency (MSA), to document economic recovery in Western Europe after World War II under the Marshall Plan. After processing, this accession became … Continue reading Photographs Relating to the Marshall Plan and Post-WWII Economic Recovery in France
Yesterday, in honor of the 150th anniversary of the event, Mark Meader told us how the Civil War came to an end at Appomattox Court House. Today, we have a series of maps that show the movements of troops in the area. Maps of the Appomattox area of operations of the Army of the Potomac … Continue reading Mapping Appomattox
This post was written by Mark Meader. Mark is an Archives Specialist with the Motion Picture, Sound and Video branch. He participated in historical reenactments for over forty years, including over twenty years as a Union private in Civil War reenactments. People often think of history as just names, dates, places where “something” happened a long time … Continue reading The Civil War Ends at Appomattox Court House
In an effort to provide information on recently declassified motion pictures and sound recordings the Motion Picture, Sound and Video Branch will publish a quarterly list of newly declassified records. This quarter's list consists of one film, MB-1 Documentary showing testing of the Genie missile. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m06SdXAbJ7c Local Identifier: 342-USAF-29521/National Archives Identifier: 68126 From January … Continue reading Declassified Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings – 2nd Quarter
This month the National Archives Museum in Washington, DC opened a brand new exhibit, Spirited Republic: Alcohol in American History. The exhibit contains many records from NARA’s holdings, including films digitized right here in our Motion Picture Preservation Lab! Spirited Republic highlights how the United States government’s policies towards alcohol have changed over time, including the period from … Continue reading A Spirited Republic in Motion: Prohibition is Repealed!
This post was written by Criss Kovac. Criss is the supervisor of the National Archives Motion Picture Preservation Lab. The Restoration Nine From Little Rock (Local Identifier: 306.5160) was commissioned by George Stevens, Jr., head of the United States Information Agency (USIA), and directed by Charles Guggenheim. The film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary … Continue reading Restoring Nine from Little Rock
Guest blogger Jan Hodges became interested in World War I combat art as a result of her involvement as a volunteer in a holdings maintenance project for American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) documents at the National Archives at College Park. This article is part five of the series about World War I Art and Artists. The … Continue reading World War I Combat Artists – George Harding
