WORLD WAR Ⅱ is one of the most documented conflicts in history. Millions of photographs and miles of motion-picture film stock provide a rich visual record of its brutal violence and celebrate its martial purpose. Color photography, though not new, had only just become widely available when the war began in 1939. Color images of the war are not hard to come by, but they are considerably rarer than black-and-white images. As the lived experience of World War Ⅱ fades-because of the passing of those who participated in it and of those who observed it from the home front-the use of original color imagery provides a sense of immediacy for younger generations, for whom the war is often a vague and distant event from the last century. As part of the National Air and Space Museum's ongoing renovation, which includes creating new exhibits in our flagship location on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. (see "The Wright Brothers & the Invention of the Aerial Age," p. 28), Museum interns and volunteers are scanning World War Ⅱ color photographs that will be used in a comprehensive display about Americans at war in the air. Large, high-resolution images of both undiscovered and well-known moments of the conflict will give visitors the opportunity to experience the war in a new light.
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