Another Example

Here's example of a military RG...

Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, RG 330
1918-1985, 5556 reels
This RG is divided into eight moving image series, of which four contain film titles.

1. Motion Picture Films and Video Recordings on Four Decades of U.S. Military Activities Around the World , ca. 1950-1990, [330-DVIC] (561934); 461 titles. This series consists of edited and unedited documentary footage selected from Department of Defense, Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force collections previously housed at the Defense Visual Information Center. The footage includes historical events, training exercises, and military combat in Vietnam, Grenada, Somalia, and Lebanon as well as other military events around the world. Also included are scenes of military aircraft, experimental aircraft, weapons systems, vehicles, naval ships, and research and development activities. Peacetime activities include coverage of humanitarian efforts. The series title is incorrect; the films cover the time period WWI through the mid-1980s.
• World War I Land and Sea Combat Footage, 1916-1918 — President Wilson, General Pershing, French Marshal Foch, and General Joffre; devastation on the Western Front; trench warfare; peasants; submarine hunting; cavalry; tanks; the grave marker for the first American soldiers who died on French soil, 1919.
• Byrd Antarctic Expedition — first flight over the South Pole; members of the Byrd party dig out and reassemble the Ford Tri-motor airplane named Floyd Bennett; feeding porpoises; loading gear into plane; the plane takes off; flying over a frozen wasteland; interior shots of Byrd seated in the plane, ca. 1929.
• USS Macon (ZRS-5) Historical Footage — NFDA, 1933.
• U.S. Navy’s Outstanding Combat Photography of World War II — mostly attacks by Japanese aircraft on U.S. carriers; mishaps during carrier landings, 1945.
• Naval Ordnance Report: Naval Mines — a training film discusses the history and functions of common naval mines, 1954.
• Introduction to TALOS — Navy training film about the tactical capabilities, operation, and nomenclature of the TALOS missile system, 1958.
• Project Bullseye — training film describes the key components of the Bullseye direction finding capability used by Navy aircraft; the Wollenweber antenna system; the four phases of Bullseye’s operation, 1966.
• The First Infantry Division in Vietnam — chronicles the major Vietnam battle actions of the Division known as the Big Red One; civic action projects, 1971.
• To Help Man Fly: Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) 25th Anniversary, 1951-1976 — NFDA, 1976.

2. Moving Images Relating to John F. Kennedy’s Inauguration, 1960, [330-X] (1135970); approximately 30 titles. This series includes films of the inaugural, parade, and ceremonies for President Kennedy, 1961. NFDA.

3. Motion Picture Films, ca. 1961-1964, [330] (61239); seven titles.
• Berlin Duty — NFDA, ca. 1962.

4. Motion Picture Films Relating to Vietnam, 1965-1976, [330-A] (61247); 565 titles. This series consists of weekly film reports of the various activities of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. NFDA.

Remeber that there are over 5545 other films to investigate within this RG.
'Til next time.
Phil
http://www.pwstewart.com/

An Example...

OK, I guess its time to take a look at an example of what I've been talking about.

Records of the Bureau of the Census, RG 29
1937-1980, 147 reels
Moving Images Relating to the Taking of the Census, 1937-1980, [29] (7005); 32 titles. This series consists of films that relate to the taking of the census, the training of enumerators for the 1940 Census, censuses of 1950, and related issues like migration, employment condition, vital statistics, and age and sex distribution. Included are PSAs by sports celebrities and entertainers.
• 1940 Census — explains the purposes and value of the census; census history; the responsibility of enumerators; dramatizes a census takers experience with a woman reluctant to answer his questions; editors, punch card machine operators, and statisticians work at compiling reports; Director Austin speaks on enumerator’s abilities, 1940.
• Roll Call U.S.A. — 1960 census takers at work; in rural homes; training classes; visiting an air base, a merchant ship, college dormitories, a hospital, the Chicago slums, and a Greyhound Bus Terminal; census workers prepare enumeration district maps, reproduce maps on Xerox machines, operate electronic calculating machines, and microfilm records; George Stone and Dr. Philip Hauser discuss Census operations, 1960.
• Franco Harris — a PSA by the football great for the 1980 Census, 1980.

There is some great stock footage here. Remember, there are 29 more films within this RG for you to explore and I hope you will take the time to log on to ARC and check them out.
More next time.
Phil
www.pwstewart.com

ARC and Stuff

Hi again-

I trust you had a wonderful holidays.

Before I go much farther, I guess I should clarify my intent. One of the purposes of this blog is to generate interest in what I consider an untapped resource of film footage that is owned by the American people. The problem is that most Americans don't seem to know it exists. Therefore, this blog is designed to provide information and assist writers, researchers, historians, film and video makers, content producers, genealogists, and many others in locating the historically rich, celluloid-based, moving images preserved in the motion picture film holdings of the U.S. National Archives. To do this I plan to provide a synopsis of each RG held in the National Archives that contains films and annotate a few example titles. My hope is that this will be enough information for those interested to dig more deeply either on line via ARC or in person at Archives II.

Now, a few words about ARC. The Archival Research Catalog is NARA’s latest computer based research tool to provide access to the content and physical descriptions of all their archival holdings. The stated goal is to have 95 percent of all records input into ARC by 2016. As this book goes to press, over 63 percent have been cataloged. Obviously, ARC is still far from complete. In fact, the current NARA mantra appears to be, “just because it’s not in ARC doesn’t mean that it’s not in our holdings.” As such, some of the information presented in this book is subject to change without notice. Unfortunately, ARC is not the most user friendly computer database program in the world to use. It drives more than one professional researcher I know crazy when they try to use its search functions. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll want to use ARC to review the latest catalog updates and to fully explore the RGs and their individual series listed in the following pages. The ARC main web page is located at: www.archives.gov/research/arc and has much more detailed information for your review.

'Till next time.
Phil
http://www.pwstewart.com/