An earlier post discussed the collapse of the French attempt to initiate a film festival at Cannes in 1939, due to the outbreak of World War II. Getting that festival off the ground was an early priority of the French government once the war ended in Europe in May 1945 and planning for resumption of … Continue reading The Show Must Go On. Take 2 At Cannes, 1946.
In January 1942, shortly after the United States was thrust into World War II by the December 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent December 11 declaration of war by Germany, officials in the Department of State considered the issue of the U.S. attitude toward the Geneva Protocol for the Prohibition of … Continue reading Tell Us What You Really Think Mr. Secretary [Poison Gas Warfare], 1942
This fall I am going to be presenting a paper on the Navy’s development of the Hunter-Killer Submarine (SSK) and how they evolved the World War II submarine into more familiar submarines of today. In researching that paper, I was digging in Record Group 38: Records of the Chief of Naval Operations in Entry P … Continue reading What Could Possibly Go Wrong… Searching for new roles for Submarines at the Dawn of the Cold War
On November 30, 1908, Secretary of State Elihu Root and Japanese ambassador to the United States Baron Kogoro Takahira, in a process initiated by Takahira on October 26, exchanged diplomatic notes discussing the policies of the U.S. and Japan in the Far East – what has since been known as the Root-Takahira Agreement. The arrangement … Continue reading Advice from the President, 1908
Cannes. Glitz. Glamor. Film stars. Today, the Cannes film festival – formal title Festival de Cannes - is considered the epitome of the international motion picture world. The festival had an uncertain beginning. The first official French notification to the U.S. government of the planned festival arrived in the Department of State in the … Continue reading Calling “Cut” on the First Take at Cannes, 1939
In late 1943/early 1944, Humphrey Bogart and his wife Mayo Methot went on an 2-1/2 month entertainment tour of military bases in North Africa and Italy for the USO. Their party also included actor Don Cummings and accordionist Ralph Hark. In addition to giving shows, Bogart and his wife visited hospitals and undertook other morale-boosting … Continue reading Private First Class Bogart
There is no document in the National Archives entitled the “Red House Report.” There is, however, a SHAEF intelligence report that mentions a late 1944 meeting that took place at the Hotel Rotes Haus [Red House] in Strasbourg, France, that has become known colloquially as the “Red House Report.” On November 7, 1944, the SHAEF … Continue reading SHAEF Intelligence Report EW-Pa 128 (AKA the “Red House Report”): Real Plan or Red Herring?
Today's post was written by Ruth Chan, Archivist at the National Archives at San Francisco. 1872 Patent for Francis C. Browns Improvement in Artificial Dentures. (NAID 177389417) The mid-19th century became known as the “era of false teeth for the masses.” Why? This was thanks to Charles Goodyear’s invention on vulcanized rubber - which was … Continue reading The Era of False Teeth for the Masses
Today's blog was written by Ruth Chan, Archivist and Subject Matter Expert for Asian American and Pacific Islander Related Records. A heartfelt thanks to Zoe Lee-DiVito, Caroline Perez, and Rebecca Fong, dedicated interns and volunteers at the National Archives in San Francisco, for their invaluable assistance in digitizing the Abo case. In the final stages … Continue reading Restoring U.S. Citizenship: Tadayasu Abo et al. v Tom Clark et al., Northern District of California (San Francisco), Civil no. 25294
Today’s post is by Rachael Salyer, Subject Matter Expert for Modern Military Records at the National Archives in College Park, MD. German officers sign unconditional surrender in Reims, France, May 7, 1945. NAID 195337 (detail), FDR-PHOCO- Franklin D. Roosevelt Library Public Domain Photographs In the early morning of May 7, 1945, representatives from the four … Continue reading Unconditional Surrender: Commemorating 80 Years Since the End of World War II in the European Theater of Operations
