US ARCHIVE – Archive in Virginia serves as storehouse of US audiovisual treasures
Get real time updates directly on you device, subscribe now.
Surrounded by farms and nestled amid the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Culpeper is a small town in the US state of Virginia that would go completely unnoticed if not for being home to a center that houses the world’s largest collection of moving images and sound recordings.
Known as the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, that unit of Washington DC’s Library of Congress is a unique space where around 100 employees work round-the-clock to digitally preserve and archive millions of recordings ranging from films and radio and television programs to songs and even sound effects.
The campus is located in a former Federal Reserve bunker that was built during the Cold War to house some $6 billion in US currency, which was to be used to replenish the cash supply east of the Mississippi River in the event of an economy-destroying nuclear attack.