National Archives Joins the YouTube Wave: Where Are Other Cultural Groups?

The National Archives has been in the news in recent days for releasing another raft of Nixon materials -- some 30,000 pages of documents and 154 hours of tapes were opened to the public on June 23. But they've been well-covered in the national press, and I'm not writing about them here.

Rather, as the National Archives celebrates its 75th Anniversary -- and the picture here illustrates the condition of some War Department records, held during the 1930s in a White House garage, before their creation -- I simply want to call your attention to a 21st Century development there. On June 19, the Archives formally launched its own YouTube channel. On it, the Archives plans to showcase some popular archived films, including those on the space race, World War II, America in the 1930s, and clips of "favorite things" in Presidential libraries.

Here's the YouTube link.

If you are at all into American history, the NA website itself is full of things to see -- documents, photos, records of all sorts.

It's hard to tell how many museums and performing arts groups have YouTube channels. The Indianapolis Museum of Art does, as do the Metropolitan Museum (link) and the Columbus Museum of Art (link). There must be others. But when I made random checks, I found plenty of others, including the Chicago Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, the Dallas Performing Arts Center, without them (some had posted clips, however).

If the National Archives and the Library of Congress, which also has its own YouTube channel, have moved in this direction, can arts organizations afford not to? Just asking.

UPDATE, 6/30, 11:30: The Indianapolis Museum of Art reminds me that it launched ArtBabble.org in April, as a destination for videos about art, with Art21, the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the New York Public Library as partners. A wonderful development, and nothing to ignore. Moreover, IMA says, it will be naming more partners later this year. I was focusing on YouTube, however, because of its mass appeal. Maybe arts groups, like IMA itself, need both channels.

Photo Credit: National Archives