Steady Does It: American Sentiments Personified by Uncle Sam 1942-1952
Uncle Sam. The personification of the United States Government. The paternalistic captain at the helm of the Republic, through tempests and torrents. A steadying constant since his inception during the...
View ArticleSafety First! The Ad Council Drives Caution Home, 1944-1954
CW: Graphic Imagery “Take it easy driving — the life you might save might be mine.” – James Dean, 1955 As citizens of the United States, we entrust our common defense and safety to the great...
View ArticleTales From The Nitrate Negatives
Cellulose Nitrate film was first invented in 1887, patented in 1889, and hit the public market in 1902. With it came a paradigm shift in the realm of publicly accessible cinematography. Nitrate film...
View ArticleThe Greatest Show of Love: Seat Belt Safety before Vince and Larry 1961-1973
Prologue The influence of the Crash Test Dummies Vince and Larry is hard to overstate. Twenty-five years after they rode off into the sunset, Vince and Larry still are celebrated for how many lives...
View ArticleTales From The Nitrate Negatives: Pyromaniacs in the Pews?!
90 years ago this year, Champaign-Urbana was allegedly on the brink of collapse from the threat of communist arsonists roaming Central Illinois. Churches were burned to the ground, schools were armed...
View ArticleTales From the Nitrate Negatives: Home Sweet (Presidential) Home
For this week’s Tales from the Nitrate Negatives, we wanted to try something a bit different from usual. Instead of focusing on a single historical event documented through nitrates, we’re tracing the...
View ArticleTales From the Nitrate Negatives: The Taking of The Miami One Two Three
For this week’s Tales from the Nitrate Negatives, please humor us for a bit as we engage in a bit of train-based role play: Imagine with for a second that it’s the early spring, 1947 and you’re...
View ArticleHidden Truths in the Archives – UFOs
Amidst the recent UFO and balloon sightings across the United States, many are turning their eyes to the sky in the quest for the unknown. The search for unidentified flying objects and their meaning...
View ArticleRaiders of the Lost Archives – Archival Context and a Map to an Undiscovered...
Finding information in the archives can sometimes feel like an expedition through time – a scavenger hunt in countless records to find the holy grail document that you’re looking for, sifting through...
View ArticleJohn Philip Sousa’s Newly Uncovered Letters
John Philip Sousa’s Newly Uncovered Letters By Scott Schwartz Recently the Sousa Archives acquired the Frances Carter and Marjorie Moore Sousa Research Files documenting John Philip Sousa’s...
View Article