I love watching the history channel, and become engrossed in the
footage shot from World War I and WWII of battles, or virtually any
subject relating to it. Vietnam, Korean War, the campaign in the
pacific, all of it fascinates me. I'm at a loss though to figure out
how anyone gets ahold of all that footage, and I get frustrated
knowing there is lots more out there I probably haven't seen.

My question is, where are archives of this type of footage held? 
Can civilians access that footage?
Are there any websites that provide access to those archives?

Thank you.

Dear buliwyf:

Thank you for your question. I love The History Channel as well, so
researching this question was a pleasure. Here's what I have fouund.

There are two resources that documentary makers go to for stock war
footage. They either sift through an archive such as the National
Archives and Records Administration, or they contact a stock footage
company. Both of these sources contain stock footage on many different
subjects.

To find more information on obtaining records from the NARA archive,
as well as for searching for records online, you can go to the Motion
Picture Films and Sound and Video Recordings department at NARA. Here
is their website:
http://www.archives.gov/research_room/media_formats/film_sound_video.html

The detailed directions for obtaining video records from NARA is
available below:
http://www.archives.gov/research_room/obtain_copies/film_sound_recordings_video.html

You may also do an online search for war footage using NARA's NAIL
search engine. Simply select "Moving Images" in the media type box.
http://www.nara.gov/cgi-bin/starfinder/27664/standard.txt

Other film and video archives may be available in history museums such
as the Imperial War Museum in England, or the United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum.

Imperial War Museum - Film and Video Archive Services
http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/film/filmservices.htm

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - Film and Video Collection
http://www.ushmm.org/research/collections/filmvideo/right.htm

The other option is dedicated stock footage companies. These mostly
cater to documentary makers and are rather pricy, but they may have
footage that will not be found else where. StockFootageOnline.com
maintains a list of companies providing footage for both World Wars.

World War I footage vendors:
http://www.stockfootageonline.com/category_search_results2.cfm?parent=109&parentvalue=33&cat=Wars%20&%20Conflicts&subcat=World%20War%201

World War II footage vendors:
http://www.stockfootageonline.com/category_search_results2.cfm?parent=109&parentvalue=34&cat=Wars%20&%20Conflicts&subcat=World%20War%2011

There are also a few places online that you can download war time
footage from, but they are far from complete. One of the biggest is
the "Internet Archive." They have films from the public domain
available for free download. There are a few news reels and war
footage mixed in with a lot of other public domain films.
http://www.archive.org/movies/list_C-E.html

Finally, Patch High School's World War II page has a few clips that
you can download for free.
http://www.odedodea.edu/k-12/D-Day/News_reels/News_reels_contents.html


Related Google Directory:

Stock Footage
http://directory.google.com/Top/Business/Business_Services/AudioVisual/Content/Stock_Footage/


Google Search Strategy:

"world war" film OR footage archive
://www.google.com/search?q=%22world+war%22+film+OR+footage+archive&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&start=20&sa=N


I hope this helps!

Best Regards,
blader-ga

Outstanding, thank you for a very complete list! Great job!