The Federal Government’s Latest Project: Squirrel GIFs
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Version 0 of 1. The National Archives and Records Administration is the guardian of some of the nation’s most precious documents, like the parchment Declaration of Independence displayed under glass in its main building in Washington. But in recent weeks, its real breakout star has been a patriotic squirrel from a 1953 newsreel, which has been viewed more than three million times since it was posted online as part of a collection of GIFs made from the archives’ holdings. That cache, available at the website Giphy, includes some well-known curiosities, like an animated version of the 1970 Oval Office handshake between Elvis Presley and Richard Nixon. But we asked Darren Cole, the digital engagement specialist who created the GIFs, about the back stories to some of the quirkier items in the 164-item (and growing) collection. “Part of our mission is promoting access and use of our collections,” Mr. Cole said. “I love seeing these GIFs get used.” His comments below have been edited and condensed. We don’t have any cats in our GIF collection yet, but we do have some dogs, a bear, a mosquito and at least two squirrels. This patriotic squirrel came from our collection of 1940s and 1950s newsreels. They would usually have a sort of “news of the weird” segment. This one showed a woman who had a collection of trained squirrels, including one she trained to hold a flag. This is from a F.D.A. movie about the turkey industry, I think from the 1930s. Every Thanksgiving we go looking for materials to share, and one year I found this cheesy re-enactment. It shows these puzzled Pilgrims shooting at turkeys, who don’t seem to be scared at all. This is from a documentary called “The John Glenn Story.” It shows one of the flight computers at NASA. It’s such a great little snapshot. You can use it for anything. This comes from a cocktail construction chart, which was in the records of the Forest Service. It was made in 1974 by some engineer, probably as an office prank, but it was officially accessioned, so now it’s part of the records of the Forest Service. It’s a super-popular image now, but it started as an inside joke. We have all these great vintage patent drawings, some of which are really whimsical. Animating this one of a velocipede, with so many moving parts, was a real labor of love. It took me the better part of a week, and there was a lot of profanity involved. We have a great collection of World War II propaganda posters. Some of them have really corny slogans. My wife is into home canning, so this spoke to me on a personal level. I also just love the colors. This comes from a library public service announcement called The Day the Books Went Blank, which warned about the importance of library funding and the dangers of illiteracy. As of last week it was our most popular GIF, with 4.7 million views. |