The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in the United States is home to an extensive collection of government records related to unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), commonly known as UFOs. This includes Project Blue Book files, documentation on famous cases like the Roswell incident, as well as policy documents, correspondence, press clippings, photos, videos, and more dating back to the late 1940s.
Digitization Efforts
In recent years, NARA has undertaken major efforts to digitize these historical UFO records to make them more accessible to the public. As of September 2023, thousands of documents have been scanned and made available online through the National Archives Catalog. Now, anyone can view these files from their home computer rather than traveling to the National Archives facility in College Park, Maryland.
This initiative supports broader UAP transparency efforts by the United States government. It comes on the heels of the establishment of a UAP investigation office within the Department of Defense in 2022 and increased Congressional interest in the topic. The public can now access raw historical documents to conduct their own research on UFOs.
Project Blue Book Records
Among the most sought-after UFO records at NARA are the Project Blue Book files. Project Blue Book was an Air Force program in operation from 1952 to 1969 tasked with investigating and analyzing UFO reports. The project compiled over 12,000 case files of UFO sightings reported to the Air Force over this time period.
The Blue Book case files contain investigator reports, interviews with witnesses, analysis by project scientists, newspaper clippings, photographs, and administrative documents. While Project Blue Book concluded that there was no evidence UFOs posed a national security threat or represented technological advances unknown to modern science, 701 cases – about 6 percent – remain unexplained. These unsolved cases continue to fuel speculation that some UFOs have extraterrestrial origins.
When Project Blue Book ended in 1969, the records were transferred to NARA for preservation. For many years they were only available on microfilm at the National Archives building. Now the files are being scanned so ufologists and curiosity seekers alike can view them online. The collection offers rich primary source material for understanding public mania over flying saucers in the postwar era as well government efforts to quantify the phenomenon.
The Roswell Incident
NARA also holds Air Force records related to the supposed UFO crash at a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico in July 1947. The Roswell incident is among the most famous alleged UFO events in history and helped spawn conspiracy theories about government cover-ups of alien technology.
In 1994, in response to a Congressman’s inquiry, the General Accounting Office initiated an audit to locate all records related to the Roswell crash. Their search turned up several records at the National Archives, including photos of balloon crash test sites from Project Mogul and documents from the 509th Bomb Group stationed at the Roswell Army Airfield in 1947.
While these records do not conclusively prove or disprove an extraterrestrial crash, they shed light on the official government response and early Air Force attempts to conceal Project Mogul, a top secret program to monitor Soviet nuclear weapons tests with high-altitude balloons. These efforts likely contributed to decades of public mistrust and belief in a major cover-up around Roswell.
Additional Collections
Beyond Blue Book and Roswell, the National Archives has extensive files on other aspects of military policy and public interest in UFOs spanning decades. One collection contains records from the Air Technical Intelligence Center, which was tasked with technical intelligence and analysis of foreign aircraft, missiles, nuclear programs, and other technologies. They compiled reports on multiple UFO cases in the late 1940s and early 1950s in an effort to discern if they represented advanced Soviet aircraft.
The National Archives also holds records of Congressional inquiries into UFOs, public correspondence sent to branches of government, Freedom of Information Act requests, and files dealing with press and media issues. Records date from as early as 1950 through the 2000s. An abundance of newspaper clippings, magazine articles, photographs, and eyewitness sketches offer insight into public mania over UFO sightings during intense news coverage in the 40s, 50s, and 60s.
Taken together, these collections do not provide definitive proof of extraterrestrial visitation. However, they do shed light on the societal impact of the UFO phenomenon and evolving government response. The recent digitization efforts by NARA increase transparency and allow ordinary citizens to draw their own conclusions from these fascinating historical records. The National Archives offers perhaps the most comprehensive look into official documentation of UFOs available anywhere in the world.
