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Materials created and maintained by James "Jim" Preston for his 1981 assignment to document life aboard the USS America (CV-66) during an extended deployment in the Indian Ocean.
James "Jim" L. Preston is an accomplished public affairs specialist with more than 20-years of experience as a photojournalist, photo editor, designer, and director. His career began as a U.S. Navy photojournalist working with the Blue Angels and All Hands Magazine. He began his civilian career in newspapers as a photographer at The Denver Post, becoming the Director of Photography after five years. He also worked as a photographer and photo editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer, Photo Director at the Houston Post, Assistant Managing Editor of Photography at The Sun in Baltimore, and Director of Photography at The Cape Cod Times. Preston served as the Deputy Director/Senior Photo Editor for the White House Photo Department for the final three years of President Obama's administration, assisting in the daily editing of the visual historical record of the President. He finished his professional career as the Supervising Photographer for the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Preston met the 14th Chief of the U.S. Navy Office of Information, Admiral Bruce Newell Jr., and suggested an assignment documenting the life aboard an aircraft carrier during a long deployment. With the goal to share this story with friends and families back home, the Admiral granted Preston permission to join USS America (CV-66) on April 4, 1981.
NASM.2024.0022
Department of the Navy
1981
2022
James L. Preston, Gift, 2024, NASM.2024.0022.
15.54 Gigabytes
National Air and Space Museum Archives
This collection consists of photographic material created by James L. "Jim" Preston during his 1981 assignment to document life aboard the USS America (CV-66) during an extended deployment in the Indian Ocean. The collection includes 81 rolls of black and white still picture film, each with an attached contact sheet, as well as 1 roll of color still picture film. The collection also contains 59 black and white print enlargements, measuring 8 by 10 inches each, some of which contain crop markings. The collection also contains scans made from the black and white negatives by the donor of approximately 371 different images and 22 image files containing quotes given by US Navy personnel that accompany the photos. The collection also includes a PDF copy of the original "Life at Sea" story that appeared in All Hands magazine; a PDF copy of the blog written by Preston for the National Air and Space Museum's (NASM) website in 2022 entitled, "Life at Sea: The Thirty-Hour Day"; a PDF copy of a NASM Flickr gallery created by Preston to accompany the blog post; and the 339 digital image files used the Flickr gallery which are a subset of the scans listed above.
Original order.
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
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"Life at Sea" Photographic Collection [Preston], NASM.2024.0022, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
Aeronautics
Aircraft carriers
Sea stories
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Gigabytes