This 1940s color film by National Geographic about Columbia was used by the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs to teach people about other cultures in the Western Hemisphere. It was also part of the WWII propaganda effort, designed to draw the nations of the Americas closer together against the threat of the Axis. It was contributed to by the National Geographic Society. The film opens at the port in Barranquilla, with multiple sizes of vessels. Bags of coffee beans wait on the dock to be loaded onto a coffee riverboat. A Yale forklift carries a large stack (:47-1:45). A bird’s eye view of the city comes in at busy street level (1:46-2:25). A man and child riding a burro are passed by cars (2:26-2:40). Seaplanes land at the Scadta Aeropuerto. This was a Colombo-German Air Transport Company (SCADTA), the second airline in the world and the first airline in the Americas . It operated from 1919 to 1939. (In 2004, the Synergy company of the Colombian-Brazilian entrepreneur Germán Efromovich acquired Avianca , and changed its name to Aerovias de la Continente Americano , but retained the acronym Avianca.) The company continues to operate until today. including a Pan Am Clipper (2:41-3:45). This is a Martin M-130 flying boat designed and built in 1935 by the Glenn L. Martin Company in Baltimore, Maryland, for Pan American Airways. Three were built: the China Clipper, the Philippine Clipper and the Hawaii Clipper. A Bolivar plane is shown (4:03). A paddlewheel steamboat docks, loads passengers, and moves up the Magdalena River, paddlewheel turning and steam coming out of the stacks (4:04-5:00). The interior’s highlands, plateaus, and rivers are panned by the camera (5:01-5:23). An old church is shown in Pamplona (5:24-5:32). The eastern range of the Andes is shown (5:45). The Palacio de Narino, the President’s home and workplace in Bogota, is shown, as are other buildings (5:53-6:30). The Orinoco River is one of the longest in South America and winds through the jungle (6:31-6:57). A marketplace is shown from above (7:00-7:20). A walled city of Cartagena is shown (7:21-7:42). A frigatebird flies over, and pelicans are shown flying in slow motion (7:43-8:49). The Cartagena Clock Tower is shown (8:50-9:06). A man files on a tortoise shell to create an elaborate carving (9:07-9:35). The tall walls of Cartagena are panned by the camera and visitors walk along the top of the ruins before being shown how high it sits looking over the sea (9:36-10:10). Clouds move through the sky and a sunset is shown shimmering over the water as the waves move smoothly to shore (10:11-10:33). We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example: "01:00:12:00 -- President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference."
This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit
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