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/
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
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
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
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
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/
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/
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Information Layout
As we delve into the different RGs and Series that contain motion pictures in the NARA, I will try to provide you with the following information...
- The official RG title followed by its corresponding RG number.
- The content date of the films (representing the time period of the film’s subject and not necessarily the dates they were created).
- The approximate number of reels of film within the RG.
- The official Series Title and the number of film titles within the series.
- Representative examples (arranged chronologically) of individual film titles within the Series, along with a short description and the year of release. Please note that the originating agency, the contracted production company, or the NARA staff, created these titles. The actual number of listed titles varies, but generally ten percent (up to a maximum of ten titles per series) are listed. The accompanying film descriptions are mostly summary in nature, sometimes a bit cryptic, and were derived from one or more sources. Occasionally, you’ll see the notation NFDA and n.d. These are abbreviations for “No Further Data Available” and “no date,” and are used whenever a description or production date couldn’t be determined.
'Till next time.
Phil
www.pwstewart.com
- The official RG title followed by its corresponding RG number.
- The content date of the films (representing the time period of the film’s subject and not necessarily the dates they were created).
- The approximate number of reels of film within the RG.
- The official Series Title and the number of film titles within the series.
- Representative examples (arranged chronologically) of individual film titles within the Series, along with a short description and the year of release. Please note that the originating agency, the contracted production company, or the NARA staff, created these titles. The actual number of listed titles varies, but generally ten percent (up to a maximum of ten titles per series) are listed. The accompanying film descriptions are mostly summary in nature, sometimes a bit cryptic, and were derived from one or more sources. Occasionally, you’ll see the notation NFDA and n.d. These are abbreviations for “No Further Data Available” and “no date,” and are used whenever a description or production date couldn’t be determined.
'Till next time.
Phil
www.pwstewart.com
Thursday, December 4, 2008
What is a NARA record group?
Now, this may be a bit boring, but it's important when trying to figure out where films are located within America's film vault...the NARA.
A record group (RG), the basic unit of archival control, is a body of organizationally related records designated by a number and the name of the federal agency, bureau, or activity that created or received them. For example, the Records of the United States Secret Service is numbered RG 87, the Records of the Maritime Administration are contained in RG 357, and Records of the U.S. Army Military District of Washington are within RG 551. Based on my last count, there are over 500 RGs (some numbers were skipped) within the NARA that contain historic documents like papers, reports, maps, photographs, illustrations, sound recordings, and sometimes motion pictures. These RGs are usually divided into a number of Series, depending on the type of documents or the topic. One RG I found had 85 different series! Sometimes one of these contain films.
Now this is a very simplistic explanation...but hopefully it gives you enough information to follow this discussion in future blogs.
Phil
www.pwstewart.com
A record group (RG), the basic unit of archival control, is a body of organizationally related records designated by a number and the name of the federal agency, bureau, or activity that created or received them. For example, the Records of the United States Secret Service is numbered RG 87, the Records of the Maritime Administration are contained in RG 357, and Records of the U.S. Army Military District of Washington are within RG 551. Based on my last count, there are over 500 RGs (some numbers were skipped) within the NARA that contain historic documents like papers, reports, maps, photographs, illustrations, sound recordings, and sometimes motion pictures. These RGs are usually divided into a number of Series, depending on the type of documents or the topic. One RG I found had 85 different series! Sometimes one of these contain films.
Now this is a very simplistic explanation...but hopefully it gives you enough information to follow this discussion in future blogs.
Phil
www.pwstewart.com
Monday, December 1, 2008
Types of Films in the NARA
To continue the train of thought of the last post, the motion pictures in the NARA are predominately documentary type films; but educational, informational, instructional, theatrical and newsreel categories make up portions of the collection too. The film titles in the holdings number well into the tens-of-thousands, covering hundreds of subjects.
Most of the films held in the National Archives were made, acquired, or donated to Uncle Sam without restrictions. Therefore, they are copyright and royalty free. However, there are a fair number of films that do have copyright or use restrictions, particularly within the Donated Materials Group (DMG) collections. It is in your best interest to check with the Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Research Room staff with any questions on this issue.
Until next time,
Phil
http://www.pwstewart.com
Most of the films held in the National Archives were made, acquired, or donated to Uncle Sam without restrictions. Therefore, they are copyright and royalty free. However, there are a fair number of films that do have copyright or use restrictions, particularly within the Donated Materials Group (DMG) collections. It is in your best interest to check with the Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Research Room staff with any questions on this issue.
Until next time,
Phil
http://www.pwstewart.com
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Welcome
Welcome to the Historic Footage Project blog.
An alternate title for this blog would be: A Guide to the Motion Pictures Held Within the U.S. National Archives. This blog is designed to assist writers, researchers, historians, film and video makers, content producers, genealogists, and any others who may be interested, in locating the historically rich, celluloid-based, moving images preserved in the motion picture film holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). These historic films are considered official records of the United States Government and are part of one of the world’s largest motion picture archives, with a treasure trove of over 360,000 reels. Approximately 95 percent of the films described in this guide are in the safekeeping of the Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Branch of the Special Media Archives Services Division, located at Archives II in College Park, Maryland. The rest are housed in the National Archive’s Presidential Libraries located around the country. These motion pictures are predominately documentary type films; but educational, informational, instructional, and newsreel categories also make up portions of the collection. There are a few theatrical titles too.
During the coming weeks, months (and hopefully) years, I hope to share with you what I've discovered over the last 20 or so years sleuthing around NARA for historical documentary films. I intend to relate some NARA history and how they got into the motion picture collection business, provide some specific examples of films and where they are buried within the film vault, and answer your questions to the best of my ability.
Please feel free to visit my website, www.pwstewart.com.
Til next time.
Phil
An alternate title for this blog would be: A Guide to the Motion Pictures Held Within the U.S. National Archives. This blog is designed to assist writers, researchers, historians, film and video makers, content producers, genealogists, and any others who may be interested, in locating the historically rich, celluloid-based, moving images preserved in the motion picture film holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). These historic films are considered official records of the United States Government and are part of one of the world’s largest motion picture archives, with a treasure trove of over 360,000 reels. Approximately 95 percent of the films described in this guide are in the safekeeping of the Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Branch of the Special Media Archives Services Division, located at Archives II in College Park, Maryland. The rest are housed in the National Archive’s Presidential Libraries located around the country. These motion pictures are predominately documentary type films; but educational, informational, instructional, and newsreel categories also make up portions of the collection. There are a few theatrical titles too.
During the coming weeks, months (and hopefully) years, I hope to share with you what I've discovered over the last 20 or so years sleuthing around NARA for historical documentary films. I intend to relate some NARA history and how they got into the motion picture collection business, provide some specific examples of films and where they are buried within the film vault, and answer your questions to the best of my ability.
Please feel free to visit my website, www.pwstewart.com.
Til next time.
Phil
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