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2. The UK’s UFO Desk

This color sketch of a spaceship was a part of the UK  Ministry of Defence’s UFO files held by the UK National Archives. The UFO Desk received reports via a hotline and dedicated email address. These were closed in 2009 and the records transferred to the National Archives. Learn more about the history and the goings on of the UFO Desk from the National Archives podcast. You can also read a “highlights guide” from the files from this department which were released to the public.

Colour sketch of a 'spaceship' creating crop circles

A few other UFO-adjacent images can be found in the Library of Congress, the State Archives of North Carolina, and the US National Archives.

Space Age Lodge sign, Gila Bend, Arizona (LOC)

Letters about UFO (folder 3), page 1 [Original caption: Space Habitat Interior]

PhC68_1_435_1

Or you can see some very identified flying objects at the San Diego Air and Space Museum Archives, Florida Memory and NASA on the Commons.

Atlas Collection Image

Space shuttle liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center: Merritt Island, Florida

Jerrie Cobb Poses beside Mercury Capsule

We’ve also got stories about Irish folktales, epic kayaking, caravaning over Christmas, Washington DC oddities and history, decorated war pigeons, community-based photo id-ing, meeting some photographers, prisoners-turned-artists, tattooing in the 1930s, turkish street photography, aviatrices, books in motion, a cool bell, surprise celebrities, and, of course, cat pictures. All part of Flickr Commons’ sixteenth birthday.