The Vault

The March (1963, Restored)To mark the 50th anniversary of the The March for Jobs and Freedom, the National Archives’ Motion Picture Preservation Lab completed a full digital restoration of James Blue’s monumental 1963 film. The original negatives assembled by James Blue were scanned and three months were spent restoring defects in the image and enhancing the audio track.

For more information please visit the National Archives Media Matters Blog: Making the March and Protecting Your Past: The Preservation and Restoration of The March

Happy Birthday, LBJ! 

Here’s the first photograph ever taken of Lyndon Baines Johnson. He was born approximately six months earlier, on August 27, 1908, in central Texas. No word on the teddy bear’s photographic history, but at least we know it had nicely brushed fur the day this was taken. 

-from the LBJ Library

This photograph, part of Shadi Ghadirian’s “Qajar” series, shows a young woman posing with an object banned under the Iranian Revolution. It’s one work out of many which will be shown at an exhibit at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts that features the work of 12 women photographers from the Middle East. There’s a lot to learn here.

Image: © Shadi Ghadirian

Women use compact mirrors in packed crowd to catch sight of the queen in London, June 1966. Photograph by James P. Blair, National Geographic

This photo.

Finding the Girl in the Photograph:  Edith Lee-Payne at the March on Washington

On August 28, 1963, Edith Lee-Payne was celebrating her 12th birthday by attending the March on Washington with her mother. She did not notice the photographer snap her picture. It would be more than 40 years later that her sister saw the photograph in a calendar celebrating African American history.   In 2011 she shared her story of attending the march on August 28 and finding her photo in the National Archives more than 40 years later:  Prologue: Pieces of History » Finding the girl in the photograph

The National Archives marks the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom with a featured display of this iconic image from the march, a special program and film screenings of THE MARCH, James Blue’s 1964 film that documents this event.

Were you or someone you know at the March on Washington? What’s your story from the March?

“MEMBERS OF THE GOLDEN CIRCLE SENIOR CITIZENS CLUB OF FAIRMONT HOLDING QUILT THEY MADE. THE QUILT WAS RAFFLED OFF DURING THE FAIRMONT CENTENNIAL IN MAY, 1973, 05/1973” 

Comes from Environmental Protection Agency

Happy Senior Citizens Day!

President Ronald Regan proclaimed the day and said, “For all they have achieved throughout life and for all they continue to accomplish, we owe older citizens our thanks and a heartfelt salute. We can best demonstrate our gratitude and esteem by making sure that our communities are good places in which to mature and grow older — places in which older people can participate to the fullest and can find the encouragement, acceptance, assistance, and services they need to continue to lead lives of independence and dignity.”

Source: http://go.usa.gov/jz8C

  #DOCUMERICA Fan?  The exhibit  "Searching for the Seventies: The DOCUMERICA Photography Project" closes September 8.  Catch it now at the National Archives!

A photo spread from 1924 showed the adventures of Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Morden of Chicago hunting tigers in India and Nepal. Perhaps not as sensitively as it could have, a caption described “a free ride for a big cat: helpers of the Morden party bringing in one of the victims aboard an elephant.” Photo: The New York Times

The Truman Library recently accepted some new objects into their museum collection. The family of Luther Bass, a prisoner of war in the Philippines during World War II, donated this diary and roster kept by Bass while in captivity, first in the Philippines, and then in Japan. In 1973, the Library received a United States flag that the prisoners at that camp made from parachutes that dropped supplies into the camp after its liberation in August 1945.

The flag is currently on exhibit in the Presidential Years gallery of the Truman Library.