Here Are Some Very Nice GIFs from the National Archives 

By Kelly Faircloth  |  October 20, 2016 | 7:10pm
In Depth

Feels like we could all use a little boost in our warm fuzzy feelings about the United States federal government and civics generally these days, right? Right. Well, here comes the National Archives and Records Administration with a marvelous collection of entertaining GIFs.

The New York Times recently chatted with Darren Cole, the agency’s digital engagement specialist, about the growing collection of GIFs from the National Archives’ holdings, which you can browse for yourself at Giphy. This squirrel, for instance, has racked up 3 million views since it was posted. He is a very good squirrel.

Cole explained he came from a collection of newsreels from the 40s and 50s, which “would usually have a sort of ‘news of the weird’ segment. This one showed a woman who had a collection of trained squirrels, including one she trained to hold a flag.”

But the National Archives has so much more to offer! For instance, a truly impressive collection of young women dancing, pulling faces, and flirting rather alarmingly.

You could click through to YouTube in an attempt to understand why the Forest Service made a video featuring dummies in 1978, or you could simply acknowledge this as a tiny terror and move on with your day.

Just a useful, all-purpose GIF.

You might, perhaps, find yourself relating to this one lately.

I’ll leave you with this terrifying image that you are going to get so much use out of:

 
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