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.