World Wars I and II Record Digitization

Since 2013, thanks to a generous anonymous donor, the National Archives Foundation has funded a large-scale digitization and outreach project for the Archives’ extensive holdings of photographs and film reels from World Wars I and II. Equally important to making the records digitally available, the Archives seeks to increase public access to and creative reuse of these historical American records.

  • 100,000+ photographs have been added to the National Archives’ online catalog
  • 356 reels of film, totaling more than 67 hours of content, have been uploaded to YouTube
  • 800 citizen participants transcribed films and tagged the silent films with finding aids

In addition to the resources highlighted below, all digitized photographs can be found on the National Archives’ online catalog and the films on YouTube.

Highlights from the World War I collection
Highlights from the World War II collection