Video Library

Video Archive: Historic Newsreels   Gathering and presenting video clips for the benefit of the historic and cultural preservation community.  Our aim is to present clips that demonstrate building restoration techniques; historic tours, walking tours and heritage travel; spotlight endangered historic places, structures and objects; and other video related to historic and cultural resource preservation.

Instructions: To view the videos, double click the body of the video (ie. the "play" button).  To view the video in full screen in a new window, double click on the video after it has begun playing or choose the "full screen" option from the video menu.  To stop or pause the video, click the "pause" button in the bottom left hand corner of the video.  

Please Note: These video clips, unless noted, are not produced by PreservationDirectory.com and are being collected/presented for the benefit of the historic preservation community.  For more information, click on the accompanying link for each video clip (in most cases it will take you to YouTube). 



Historic Newsreels

Title: Anti-Vietnam War Demonstrators Storm Pentagon, 10/24/67 Description: Mass protest against Vietnam war in Washington DC, on mall, across Potomac river to Pentagon, MPs with bayonets emerge from Pentagon, tear gas used, next day camp fires burn on the 2nd day of sitting-in. Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDiFkckszCw
Title: Lyndon Johnson's first State of the Union Address; Berlin Wall; Barrel Jumping, 1964 Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCcS5RHi7FU
Title: Amelia Earhardt; Russians set distance record flying over North Pole; record heat wave - humorous (partial newsreel), 8/16/62  Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up-vz8gYyDQ
Title: Chimp Into Space, 11/30/61 Description: Enos chimp prepared for space flight, rocket blastoff, capsule recovered, chimp examined in hospital (partial newsreel). Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwTiRu7T9es
Title: Invasion Scare, Castro Masses Troops, 10/31/60 Description: Castro in Cuba calls out 200,000 militia at same time Marines landing at Guantanamo; in Moscow Khrushchev meets journalists, receives gift of Cuban flag. Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV2ynAngMiA
Title: 49th Star! Alaska Statehood & New Flag, 1/5/59 Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaVZhgp4tHM
Title: Atomic Test Series Begins, Nevada, 05/30/57 Description: Atom Fallout. New Tests Begin As Safety Debate Rages1) atomic test series begins over Nevada, blast at night in early dawn 2) Norwegian sailing ship arrives in NY, refloated after sunk by Nazis(partial newsreel) Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q3aBeMxbk0
Title: Ike Returns! Thousands Hail Him at Capital, 11/14/55 Description: President Eisenhower returns from 7-week hospital stay in Denver, speaks at Washington airport; also parade held in Gettysburg, crowd sings happy birthday to Mamie; new B-52 goes into service (partial newsreel) Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgN0f4CI2_E
Title: The United Nations Picks NY for Permanent Site, 12/16/46 Description: UN and Big 4 Adjourn. The United Nations has picked N.Y. site for permanent 18 acres site (partial newsreel). Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl3l9ZRx9wU
Title: Air Army Invades Nazi Germany; Patton's 3rd Army, 4/5/45 Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUxBOiDpD9c
Title: 'Scrap Rubber Needed' says FDR, 6/15/42 Description: "Washington, DC: President Roosevelt appeals to nation, urging citizens to save and turn in all scrap rubber to Government for use in vital war industries." sound of FDR speech. (partial newsreel) Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fn9Z90MPeQ
Title: Hindenburg Explodes, 05/10/37 Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V5KXgFLia4
Title: 21 Nazi Chiefs Guilty, Nuremberg Trials, 10/08/46 Description: Nuremberg trials, 21 Nazis to learn fate at end of 10-month trial (partial newsreel) Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcudlm6tPa0
Title: Mussolini Executed, 4/30/45 Description: "Il Duce Obit 1945 - Benito Mussolini orates before his Black Shirt Legions and confers with his arch conspirator, Hitler. Reverses strike and Hitler rescues him from the Allies. Currently, he returns to Milan only to be tried and killed in the same inglorious way that he had meted out punishment to his political foes." (partial newsreel) Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFSsRTDACCo
Title: Japanese Surrender, 8/23/45 Description: First Pictures of Japanese Surrender; Japanese Mercy Ship Captured; De Gaulle Arrives in Washington, DC; U.S. Turns From War To Peace; Pin-Up Derby Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c2UDu84WeU
Title: Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt meet in Yalta, 2/15/45 Description: This Universal Newsreel from February 15, 1945 covers the Yalta Conference - a meeting between the 'Big Three': Prime Minister Churchill, Joseph Stalin and President Roosevelt at Yalta, on the Crimean Peninsula. Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybnzMnFEWJY
Title: Tacoma Narrows Newsreel Description: Newsreel footage from the Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collpase. She was already known to move up in down in the wind, but in 1940, she began to oscillate due to resonance and would eventually collapse Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxTZ446tbzE
Title: What is Communism, Part I Description: Herbert A. Philbrick hosts this amazing anti-Communist propaganda film from the 1950s. Philbrick was a salesman who was recruited by the FBI to infiltrate the Communist Party and report back to J. Edgar Hoover. After the FBI pulled him out in the late '40s so he could testify in a Smith Act trial (the verdicts of many of which were later deemed unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court), Philbrick wrote a book about his experiences hunting Communists. Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wccIqjrGGMk

Interested in sharing your historic preservation-related video clip with our community?  Please contact us via our "contact us" form, and provide details about your clip and a link to it (ie. on YouTube or other online video sharing services) and we will be happy to review it. 

We are always looking to share clips that demonstrate building restoration techniques, display historic places and historic walking tours, provide insight into historic events, and other historic and cultural resource-related clips.