Records of the U.S. Information Agency. 1900 - 2003. Hold File Photographs Relating to American Political, Cultural, and Economic Activities, Prominent U.S. and Foreign Personalities, and World Events

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Records of the U.S. Information Agency. 1900 - 2003. Hold File Photographs Relating to American Political, Cultural, and Economic Activities, Prominent U.S. and Foreign Personalities, and World Events

1950-1963

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/5498280

This series consists of photographs assigned Hold File status by the U.S. Information Agency (USIA) and its predecessor picture editors, who deemed the images significant enough to be retained for extended periods but not quite valuable enough for the more systematic Master File physical and intellectual processing. Gathered from a wide range of federal government and commercial sources, the "Hold File" photographs cover subject areas such as art, education, entertainment, sports, aviation, elections, and agriculture, as well as notable individuals, including political and cultural luminaries around the world. President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Vice President Richard M. Nixon, as well as First Lady Mamie Eisenhower and the Vice President's wife, Pat Nixon, are featured extensively as the families traveled and met heads of state across the globe. Locations they are shown visiting include countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The series also covers President Eisenhower on his eleven-country "Goodwill Tour" of 1959 that spanned three continents. In line with the President's "goodwill" credo that in order to strengthen the ties that bind nations of the free world "there is no substitute for personal contact," Eisenhower is shown meeting heads of state, touring points of interest, and being honored at elaborate receptions. American cultural figures appear prominently throughout the series. Among the many well-known personalities are civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., singer Marian Anderson, musician Louis Armstrong, architect I. M. Pei, disc jockey Willis Conover, and baseball star Jackie Robinson. Such figures appear in a variety of portrait sitting and activity contexts. Included among the personalities images, for example, is a 1958 view of Martin Luther King, Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, as they entered the Montgomery, Alabama courthouse, where Martin announced his intention to serve out a sentence, in lieu of paying a ten dollar fine, for failing to obey the orders of a policeman. A crowd is shown behind King, Jr., cheering him on. Among artists represented in this series, the American folk artist Grandma Moses is shown displaying her paintings. Other examples of folk art photographed include Finnish wool spinning and weaving, Alaska Native masks created for dancers, Navajo sand paintings, and wooden blocks, hand-carved for print making. Also covered in this series are American television programs from the early years of the industry, such as the game show, "Name That Tune," and the children's show, "Magic Clock," complete with examples of studio sets, cameras, production equipment, and audiences. Motion picture film sets photographed in this series include one for "Goodbye My Lady," with actor Sidney Poitier shown between filming takes along with other cast members. This series also includes glimpses from the filming of a Walt Disney movie, "Trip to the Moon," with views of the multiple cameras used to create the movie's "Circarama" effect. In addition, this series contains images from the theater and ballet world that are drawn from a wide range of productions, including American productions of "Carmen," "Swan Lake," and "The Golden Fleece," as well as the Japanese production, "Azuma Kabuki Dancers and Musicians." The orchestra, musician, and music festival category in this series covers varied entertainment forms. Among the more unusual performances highlighted is one featuring a Scottish pipe band accompanying a sword dancer.

17 linear feet, 1 linear inch, consisting of approximately 9,500 images

eng, Latn

National Archives at College Park

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 6466035

National Archives at College Park

Related Entities

There are 14 Entities related to this resource.

Robinson, Jackie, 1919-1972

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gc2x0w (person)

Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. When the Dodgers signed Robinson, they heralded the end of racial segregation in professional baseball that had relegated black players to the Negro leagues since the 1880s. R...

Eisenhower, Dwight D. (Dwight David), 1890-1969

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6k17x25 (person)

Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) was leader of the Allied forces in Europe in World War II, commander of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), and the thirty-fourth president of the United States, from January 20, 1953, to January 20, 1961. Eisenhower was born on October 14, 1890, in Denison, Texas, the third son of David Jacob Eisenhower, a railroad worker, and Ida Elizabeth Stover. In 1891, the family moved to Abilene, Kansas, where David accepted a job at a local creamery run by ...

Anderson, Marian, 1897-1993

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64k16hh (person)

Marian Anderson was born on February 27, 1897 (although throughout much of her life she gave her birth date as February 17, 1902) in south Philadelphia. Her father, John Berkley Anderson, sold ice and coal and her mother Annie Delilah Rucker Anderson was a former schoolmistress. She was the oldest of three sisters. She began singing when she was six, in the church choir, and by eight had become a regular substitute, filling in for absent sopranos, tenors and even bass. She was presented in one c...

Nixon, Richard M. (Richard Milhous), 1913-1994

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65c0t4w (person)

Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, Nixon previously served as the 36th vice president from 1953 to 1961, having risen to national prominence as a representative and senator from California. After five years in the White House that saw the conclusion to the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, détente with the Soviet Union and China, and the establishment of the Environm...

Conover, Willis, 1920-1996

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6zt3mh3 (person)

Willis Clark Conover, Jr. was born on December 18, 1920 in Buffalo, New York. His father, Willis C. Conover, Sr., was an officer in the U.S. Army, and the family relocated frequently. Willis Conover Jr. later reported that he had attended 25 different schools before graduating high school. As a teenager, he struck up correspondence with science fiction and horror writer H.P. Lovecraft, exchanging letters for several months before Lovecraft's death. During that time, Conover also co-edited the Sc...

Armstrong, Louis, 1901-1971

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6cd1qpd (person)

Louis Armstrong, a jazz musician and entertainer, was born on August 4, 1901 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He claimed to have been born on July 4, 1900, which is the date given on his World War I draft card. However, recent research gives good documentation to the August 4, 1901 date, including his baptismal certificate. Some sources also cite 1898 as his birth date. He died on July 6, 1971. Armstrong was born and raised in New Orleans. Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an inventive trumpet a...

Eisenhower, Mamie Doud, 1896-1979

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6zx29dp (person)

Married at the age of 19, Mamie Geneva Doud Eisenhower was the wife of the 34th President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and a very popular First Lady of the United States from 1953 to 1961. Mamie Eisenhower’s bangs and sparkling blue eyes were as much trademarks of an administration as the President’s famous grin. Her outgoing manner, her feminine love of pretty clothes and jewelry, and her obvious pride in husband and home made her a very popular First Lady. Born in Boone, Iowa, Mamie Geneva Dou...

Nixon, Pat, 1912-1993

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60h4852 (person)

As the wife of the President Richard Nixon, Thelma Catherine “Pat” Ryan Nixon was First Lady of the United States from 1969 to 1974. She was an avid supporter of charitable causes and volunteerism. Born Thelma Catherine Ryan on March 16, 1912 in Ely, Nevada, “Pat” Nixon acquired her nickname within hours. Her father, William Ryan, called her his “St. Patrick’s babe in the morn” when he came home from the mines before dawn. Soon the family moved to California and settled on a small truck fa...

King, Coretta Scott, 1927-2006

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sk28kh (person)

Coretta Scott King (b. April 27, 1927, Marion, AL–d. Jan. 30, 2006, Rosarito Beach, Mexico) was the wife of Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. She attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and earned a degree from the New England Conservatory of Music studying under Marie Sundelius. She met King in Boston and they were married in 1953. They had four children: Yolanda (1955), Martin III (1957), Dexter (1961), and Bernice (1963).The King family lived in Montgomery, Alabama. Mrs. ...

King, M. Luther (Martin Luther), 1899-1965

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69c8hmq (person)

Pei, I. M., 1917-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6br92g1 (person)

Architect. From the description of Reminiscences of Ieoh Ming Pei : oral history, 1978. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 122619681 From the description of Papers of I. M. Pei. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 71132705 ...

King, Coretta Scott, 1927-2006

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sk28kh (person)

Coretta Scott King (b. April 27, 1927, Marion, AL–d. Jan. 30, 2006, Rosarito Beach, Mexico) was the wife of Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. She attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and earned a degree from the New England Conservatory of Music studying under Marie Sundelius. She met King in Boston and they were married in 1953. They had four children: Yolanda (1955), Martin III (1957), Dexter (1961), and Bernice (1963).The King family lived in Montgomery, Alabama. Mrs. ...

Moses, Grandma, 1860-1961

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6k17t92 (person)

Grandma Moses (born Anna Mary Robertson Moses, September 7, 1860, Greenwich, NY–d. December 13, 1961, Hoosick Falls, NY) left home at age 12 to find work with wealthy families nearby. She married Thomas Salmon Moses, another helper on a farm, and they moved to Staunton, Virginia and then to a farm in Eagle Bridge, NY. While in Eagle Bridge, she was called Grandma Moses. Beginning in 1932, Grandma Moses made embroidered pictures of yarn and quilted objects; she started painting at age 76 when dev...

Eisenhower family

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w629694b (person)