Today we spotlight the historic launch of Apollo 11 on July 16, 1969, with two items from the National Archives and Record Administration’s (NARA) motion picture holdings of Record Group 255, Records of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Series (NASA). Washington Headquarters - Apollo 11 Pool Footage: Part 1 of 2 (National Archives Identifier: … Continue reading Spotlight: Apollo 11 Launch Footage-July 16, 1969
This week, sixty years ago, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This act, signed into law on July 2, is the nation’s benchmark civil rights legislation and remains one of America's most significant legislative achievements. It prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The act … Continue reading Spotlight: Passage of The Civil Rights Act of 1964
D-Day and the Combat CameramanThis week marks the 80th Anniversary of the D-Day Operation. Starting on June 6, 1944, about 175,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, supported by 5,000 naval craft and more than 11,500 aircraft. By June 30, over 850,000 men, 148,000 vehicles, and 570,000 tons of supplies had landed … Continue reading How To Locate D-Day Footage in NARA’s Moving Image Holdings
Today’s post was written by Caitlin Hucik and James Konicek. Still taken from US The first World Exposition sanctioned by the Bureau International des Expositions was named the Great Exhibition and held in 1851 London, England. Since then, over 30 sanctioned expos have been held every 5 to 10 years. In 1968, San Antonio hosted … Continue reading HemisFair ’68, When The World’s Fair Came to Texas
Please Note: Primary source documents used in this post may contain harmful language. See NARA’s Statement on Potentially Harmful Language. The First Motion Picture Unit When America entered the war in Europe in 1941, the country's greatest challenge was finding enough manpower to wage a two-front war. The country needed to quickly increase the number … Continue reading Wings for This Man: Celebrating the Tuskegee Airmen
At first glance, Martin Scorsese, the Osage Nation, and Henry Ford have nothing in common. Scorsese is an award-winning American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. The Osage Nation is a thriving American Indian tribe whose ancestral land includes much of Oklahoma, and Ford is an industrialist who changed the manufacturing landscape. But despite assumptions, … Continue reading Spotlight: Killers of the Flower Moon and the Ford Film Collection
Participants of the March on Washington, D.C. Local ID: 306-SSM-4C-35-4 August 28, 2023, is the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, also known as the March on Washington. More than 200,000 people took part in the demonstration held on the National Mall to advocate for Black Americans' civil and economic … Continue reading 60th Anniversary of the March on Washington
February 16, 2023 is the 100th anniversary of the opening of King Tutankhamun’s burial chamber. The tomb was discovered in November 1922 by English archaeologist Howard Carter and his team, who had been searching for it for five years. The tomb, located in Thebes, Egypt, was found virtually intact after 3,000 years. On February 16, … Continue reading Spotlight: The Discovery of King Tutankhamun
Still image from "How to Drive the Mailster Safely" (28.96). With the holiday season upon us, we rely on the U.S. Postal Service to send Christmas cards and deliver last-minute gifts. We’re familiar with the sight of a small mail truck traveling the streets of suburbia, but how did we get there? Let’s travel back … Continue reading How to Drive the Mailster: A Time-Traveling Lesson in Postal Technology
Still from US ARMY ARTISTS, 111-LC-55581 ABOUT THE FILM Working in the Special Media Division at the National Archives, we are used to seeing images of war captured by moving images and still photos. However, the US military also uses more traditional forms of artwork to document their operations and daily lives. All military branches … Continue reading The Art of War
