Each Signal Corps photo in the collection has a six digit “SC” number such as “SC 238114.” This number can be used to find any photo in the NARA collection. There is no index for a specific time period or photographer’s name. The NARA collection is cataloged by a card index that lists the photos by location, subject, and unit. There is no index for them at NARA and therefore are useless for the purpose of finding photos in the official collection.
For example, many Signal Corps photos taken in Europe have an alpha numeric string such as “7A/6720 ETO HQ 45 31563.” These “ETO numbers” are locally assigned field numbers. Signal Corps photos can have several identifying numbers on them. So it is possible to find Signal Corps photos outside of the official record. The rest were given to other soldiers and units, or simply discarded. Each Signal Corps camera team selected its best photos and passed them forward to their headquarters. This is because many Signal Corps photos were never entered into the official files. However, there are other sources of Signal Corps photos, to include private persons, militaria dealers, and on-line auction houses.
The largest collection of Signal Corps photographs resides at the US National Archives. Since many US soldiers did not carry personal cameras, the Signal Corps photos are the primary, if not only, source of combat images of the US Army. During WWII, US Army combat camera photographers operating as part of the Signal Corps, documented Army operations in all theaters of operation.
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