Herbert Hoover and his presidentship at the start of the Great Depression are often remember in black - and - white . fresh surfaced footage establish the President in clear-cut color , and it may be the oldest colour moving picture depicting the White House grounds .
AsThe Washington Postreports , seven colour film reels were come upon by Herbert Hoover Presidential Library & Museum archivist Lynn Smith two class ago . While sieve through the subroutine library ’s film armory one 24-hour interval , she run into a collection label “ Kodacolor ” that caught her attention . They depend like normal black - and - white film , but they had strange lines run across the frames she could n’t key .
The lines , as Smith later discovered , are there to help convert the picture to color when it ’s fertilize into a certain kind of projector . Without a path to play the footage , she procure a $ 5600 grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation to have it preserved , digitized , and copied .
belatedly last class she was able to see the reels for the first time . The footage , catch sometime between 1929 and 1933 , shows Herbert Hoover , his aide Larry Richey , and interior writing table Ray Lyman Wilbur jactitate around a medicinal drug ball in the White House railyard .
The footage was take in more than a decennium beforeHarry Trumangave the first presidential name and address on television . Radio was still a fairly new medium , withWarren Hardingbecoming the first president to use it to handle the people in 1922 .
The reels also feature scene of the White House gardens , the Washington Monument , the Lincoln Memorial , the White House dogs , and first peeress Lou Hoover . One clip exhibit the chairwoman on a sportfishing trip reeling in a barracuda in his pelage and railroad tie . Hoover Library director Thomas F. Schwartz toldThe Washington Post , “ Hoover was caught once without a draw , fishing , and he was broken because he mean the self-respect of the function required … some formalness , even when fishing . ”
[ h / tThe Washington Post ]
