In August, an e-mail came to motion picture archivist Carol Swain’s inbox asking about a World War II training film called Security on the March. Richard Herde contacted the Motion Picture unit looking for information about a film his 100-year-old uncle, Corporal Lloyd Heller, had helped make while serving as a tanker in the United … Continue reading World War II Veteran Lloyd Heller Shares Details About Production of 1943 Tank Training Film
In 1923, in the wake of World War I, Congress established the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC). This independent agency assumed control of commemorative activities begun by the Battle Monuments Board of the War Department. Together with the Office of the Quartermaster General and the Commission of Fine Arts, the ABMC established and maintains overseas commemorative … Continue reading A Worthy Resting Place: American Military Cemeteries Overseas
In the past year, staff in the motion picture preservation lab handled nearly three million feet of film. Films might come to us for inspection and repair, photochemical duplication, or digitization. To follow up last year's list, we've identified a handful of films that were digitized in 2015 and found their way to our list of favorites. This year's list … Continue reading Favorite Film Finds of 2015
Robert Mitchum To the People of the United States, 1943 (Local Identifier: 90.13) More than a decade before he terrorized children as creepy preacher Harry Powell in Night of the Hunter (1955), and two years prior to his Oscar-nominated role as Lieutenant Walker in The Story of G.I. Joe (1945), Robert Mitchum played a grounded … Continue reading Before They Were Famous: Actors Who Appeared in Government Films
On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later another bomb was detonated over Nagasaki. Whether the United States needed to use the bomb to ensure a Japanese surrender is a point that is debated to this day. It is not controversial to acknowledge that the actual results of … Continue reading Witness to Destruction: Photographs and Sound Recordings Documenting the Hiroshima Bombing
Dogs have a long history serving alongside humans in military campaigns. The earliest recorded use of war dogs is from around 600 BC, and dogs have acted as scouts, sentries, and fighters in conflicts around the globe. Some dogs, such as Sergeant Stubby in World War I and Chips in World War II, have even … Continue reading From War Dogs to Remote Controlled Monkeys: Animals in the Military
Last week, Heidi transferred several reels of film documenting "overseas activity" in the summer of 1941. Nestled among shots of city streets and training exercises were playful scenes depicting a facial hair contest at Fort Stotsenburg in the Philippines. If a beard contest doesn't scream "put me on the Internet" I don't know what does, so … Continue reading The Great Beard Contest of 1941
Seventy years ago, on December 16, 1944, Allied Forces in Europe were taken by surprise when the Germans launched an attack in the Ardennes region, pushing into France, Luxembourg, and Belgium. The offensive came six months after D-Day and the successful invasion of Normandy, on a misty day when the skies did not permit the use of … Continue reading The Enemy Strikes: The Battle of the Bulge, 1944
This post was written by Criss Kovac. Criss is the supervisor of the National Archives Motion Picture Preservation Lab. Home movies aren’t usually thought of as a rarity – especially these days as we happily capture our kids, friends, families, and pets on our smartphones-- but home movies taken during war on the front lines are … Continue reading Home Movies from the War Front: The First Fighters in New Guinea
This post was written by Criss Kovac. Criss is the supervisor of the National Archives Motion Picture Preservation Lab. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the premiere of Fury Wednesday night and seeing the film (on film even!) reinforced what I know about World War II from the reels I see in NARA’s holdings … Continue reading From the Front Lines to the Homefront: The Importance of War Films Then and Now
