1961 United States

About this footage

Skiers in red and blue jackets come down the snowy slopes of Aspen, and Colorado fills more of this 1961 collection than any other state. Between runs, the camera turns to snow-capped peaks and evergreen forest, and to cars climbing a winding mountain pass. A few cows graze beside a wooden barn. In Michigan, water skiers follow motorboats across lakes around Grand Rapids, one woman in a life jacket. Travel reels add the Zabriskie Point sign in Death Valley, men in sarongs digging a traditional fire pit in Hawaii, and classic cars rolling past the Washington Monument.

Most of the rest is family life. In Camden, New Jersey, children wait for a birthday cake to be cut in the kitchen, a bride and groom stand at their wedding, and kids file out of a schoolhouse. A boy and girl in Hagerstown, Maryland show off Easter eggs and a chocolate bunny, while adults in formal clothes gather in a wood-paneled basement. Twin babies lie in a yellow bassinet in Gary, Indiana. Families go out to a Burbank zoo with a swimming seal and a coati, ride a miniature train in South Carolina, and walk through a gladiolus show in Missouri. Two scenes of wreckage stand out: a derailed train on the California coast and a Minnesota junkyard full of wrecked train cars and automobiles.

Useful for stories on Rocky Mountain ski towns, summer on Midwestern lakes, or American family celebrations in the early 1960s.