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UNITED STATES NAVAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SCIENCE LABORATORIES*
HELEN R. CLIFFORD**
Summary. — This paper is the narration to a sound slide film introducing the Navy's new laboratory at Anacostia, D. C. (construction completed December, 1943). It gives a brief history of military photography leading to the Navy's need for its own laboratory for secret and confidential projects, discusses military organization, gives a tour of the laboratory, presenting especially the work of divisions concerned with motion picture production, still photography, aerial photography, graphic arts and photolithography, and sketches the services which the laboratory performs for all ships and stations.
American wars were the first wars in history to be recorded by photography. Although a few daguerreotypes were made of the leaders in the Mexican War, it was by the photographs of William Brady that the Civil War was promptly reported to the civilian population. By the time of the SpanishAmerican War the infant motion picture process was used to report the activities of Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders. Aerial reconnaissance from planes was essayed during World War I. Thus it was that photography became associated with aviation, even though the Navy had not yet officially recognized its importance. The first photographers ratings were not issued until 1920; prior to that time Naval photographers had been variously rated as ship's cooks, pharmacist's mates, gunners and aviation printers.
In the period between World War I and World War II, both the quality and the quantity o/ photography grew by leaps and bounds. By its commercial use, for both entertainment and journalism, it became one of the most important media of modern communication. During this period Naval photographers were experimenting with aerial geodetic mapping for the Hydrographic Office, vertical and oblique photography for the Departments of Commerce, Interior, and Agriculture, and aerial reports on fleet firing and aircraft bombing.
* Presented Apr. 18, 1944, at the Technical Conference in New York. ** Lieutenant (j.g.), W-V(S), USNR, U. S. Naval Air Station, Anacostia, D. C.
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