Joseph Papin at the Army Pictorial Center

Joseph Papin was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Signal Corps of the U.S. Army in 1955. He served as the Motion Picture Animation Director making training films for the Defense Department from 1955 to 1957 at the Army Pictorial Center (APC) in Long Island City, Queens NY. He continued to do some work for the APC as a civilian after 1957. The Army Pictorial Center is now the site of the Museum of Moving Image.

Joseph Papin, right side of the photo above

“At the start of World War II, the United States Army bought Paramount’s motion picture studio at 35th Avenue and 35th Street in Astoria, Long Island City, Queens, New York, taking over in February 1942. The studio became the Signal Corps Photographic Center, later Army Pictorial Center, home to filmmakers and still photographers who covered the war and who produced countless training films.” http://www.armypictorialcenter.com

Joseph Papin, Daily News, June 8, 1975

The following text was copied directly from: http://www.armypictorialcenter.com/what was apc scpc.htm

“SCPC/APC [Signal Corps Photographic Center/Army Pictorial Center] had all the facilities of a complete movie studio. The main stage was the largest sound stage on the east coast, making it possible to prepare large sets or to construct multiple smaller sets for fast production. There were also smaller stages. Facilities included offices for writers and producers, a sound mixing room, screening rooms, animation and special effects departments, laboratory, library, and all the other elements needed to produce films. It was a one-stop shop for film production.

“The film and photographic library, the Army Motion Picture Depository, stored and distributed films produced by and for the Army. The library served as a single, central source for Army film. It held raw footage and combat film from around the world and, ultimately, from across three decades.”

Museum of the Moving Image; information at http://www.armypictorialcenter.com/APC.htm

We contacted a Senior Technical Information Specialist at the US Army and Heritage Education Center in Pennsylvania in the fall of 2019 in an attempt to find a copy of the film, Traditions and Achievements of the U.S. Army. He passed my request to their Audio/Visual Collections Curator who found a copy of the film as a DVD. The painting below is an example of the work that that was put together for that film – scenes of various battles throughout U.S. history with the aim of teaching American history to people in the military. Joseph Papin painted himself and his friends into the scene; I believe that he is the person kneeling and binding up his leg wraps against the cold with George Washington.