#CameraDay: Signal Corps Cameramen 1917-1918
“American and French Photographic Staff” ca. 1917 Series: Photographs of American Military Activities, ca. 1918 - ca. 1981. Record Group 111: Records of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer, 1860 - 1985
It’s #CameraDay! This photo, from the Signal Corps series, shows a combined unit of American and French cameramen during World War I. The man on the left is a motion picture cameraman for the U.S. Marine Corps, and the man in front is a still photographer and U.S. Marine.
For the past two years, the National Archives Motion Picture Preservation Lab has been digitizing a series of Army Signal Corps films as part of a larger project to commemorate the centennial of World War I. Meanwhile, technicians from the Still Pictures Branch and the Digitization Division have scanned tens of thousands of Signal Corps photographs from World War I. Along the way, they forwarded photos of the cameramen to Motion Picture Lab staff, knowing that we love to see records of the people who shot the motion picture films we work with every day.
These photos, along with the rest of the series American Unofficial Collection of World War I Photographs, 1917-1918, are available in the National Archives online catalog.
Signal Corps photographers shoot film with a motion picture camera. (111-SC-4386)
Learn more about the history of the Signal Corps during World War I at: Shooting World War I: The History of the Army Signal Corps Cameramen, 1917-1918 | The Unwritten Record
Uncover more World War I Centennial Resources at the National Archives
