The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) provides access to many government records on Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) and Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs) through the National Archives Catalog and NARA’s website. Additionally, NARA has been actively digitizing historical records from its holdings over the past few months, in support of the Department of Defense. Digitized records are being made available in the Catalog on a rolling basis as the work is completed.
Please explore the links below to find out more about UFO records in NARA’s holdings. All links to Catalog items are downloadable and can be republished with attribution to the National Archives and Records Administration. This Special Topics page will be updated as additional records are digitized and made available online.
Blog posts and articles
- Project BLUE BOOK – Unidentified Flying Objects (Updated 2020)
- National Archives News: Public Interest in UFOs Persists 50 Years After Project Blue Book Termination (2019)
- Featured Document Display: 50 Years Ago: Government Stops Investigating UFOs (2019)
- Pieces of History: Saucers Over Washington: the History of Project Blue Book (2019)
- Pieces of History: INVASION! (of privacy) (2018)
- Pieces of History: UFOs: Natural Explanations (2018)
- Pieces of History: UFOs: Man-Made, Made Up, and Unknown (2018)
- National Archives News: Do Records Show Proof of UFOs? (2018)
- The Unwritten Record: The Roswell Reports: What crashed in the desert? (2014)
- The Unwritten Record: Avrocar: The U.S. Military’s Flying Saucer (2014)
- The NDC Blog: What on Earth Is It? (2014)
- Pieces of History: Flying Saucers, Popular Mechanics, and the National Archives (2013)
- The Unwritten Record: Project Blue Book: Home Movies in UFO Reports (2013)
- The Unwritten Record: Project Blue Book: Spotting UFOs in the Film Record (2013)
- [VIDEO]: UFO Project Blue Book at National Archives Museum
From the National Archives Catalog
- Project Blue Book Artifacts, 1952–69
- Sanitized Version of Project Blue Book Case Files on Sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects, 1947–69
- Information Releases Relating to Unidentified Flying Object, 1986 (FAA—Japan Airlines Flight 1628)
- Project Blue Book Photographs (Partial Series Digitized and available)
Selected Motion Picture Films
- Maj. Gen. John A. Samford’s statement on «Flying Saucers,» Pentagon, Washington, DC
- Universal Newsreel Volume 22, Release 276
- Universal Newsreel Volume 25, Release 586
- Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) Sighting
- UFO Interview concerning Project Blue Book
- Disc Flight Development, Avrocar I Progress Report
- DFD Avrocar I Progress Report
- Avrocar Continuation Test Program and Terrain Test Program
- USAF UFO sightings, California
Records from the Ford Administration(PDF)
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The original documents are located in Box D9, folder “Ford Press Releases—UFO, 1966” of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
***Header image: Detail of the record: «Scientific Study of UFOs—Second photo of alleged UFO.» This item was produced or created in ca. 1969. The creator compiled or maintained the parent series, Black and White and Color Photographs of U.S. Air Force Activities, Facilities, and Personnel, Domestic and Foreign, between 1954–1980. Original caption on the back of the photo reads, «Photo by the witness.» This photo was used by the Condon Committee, which later published the Condon Report. NAID 295136808
This information is made available, in part, as a result of the Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, which directed NARA to support the Department of Defense’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO). For more information, visit www.aaro.mil.
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