Are there surviving archives or replicas of the 1969 lottery drawing and the original capsule procedure?
Executive summary
Yes — multiple surviving records, contemporary media (film/photos) and government-published tables document the December 1, 1969 draft lottery; the Selective Service retains official pages and newspapers, TV footage and press photographs from the event remain accessible (e.g., Selective Service summary and CBS News coverage) [1] [2]. Contemporary criticisms and later statistical reconstructions document the capsule procedure (366 blue plastic capsules poured into a tumbler and drawn by hand) and the controversy over mixing and randomness [1] [2] [3].
1. Archived official record: Selective Service’s account and tables
The Selective Service System’s history page preserves an authoritative description of the 1969 drawing: 366 blue plastic capsules were placed in a large glass container, drawn by hand, opened and posted in order; the agency also documents the APN (highest number called) and subsequent draft activity, providing an official archival summary you can cite or link to [1].
2. Broadcast footage and press photos survive and are cataloged
Major broadcasters carried the drawing live and press photographers captured the ceremony; CBS’s retrospective and Getty Images’ photo archive both confirm live TV/radio coverage and numerous stills showing Congressman Alexander Pirnie drawing the first capsule and Gen. Lewis Hershey presiding — indicating film and still archives exist at news organizations and stock photo services [2] [4].
3. Contemporary newspaper reporting preserves a near‑real‑time transcript
The New York Times ran a full report the day after the drawing describing the sequence, names, and immediate implications for roughly 850,000 men; this contemporaneous print record functions as another surviving primary source for the event and its procedure [5].
4. Results, data tables and public reconstructions are widely available
Researchers and enthusiasts have preserved the numeric results: online reproductions of the lottery tables (Wikisource user pages, sites collecting draft results and statistical reconstructions) reproduce the day-by-day lottery numbers, and data projects have used those tables to analyze bias in the draw [6] [7] [3].
5. The capsule procedure itself is documented — and controversial
Multiple sources describe the physical method: 366 capsules placed in a tumbler or large glass container and drawn by hand; statisticians quickly criticized the process as insufficiently randomized because late‑year birthdays clustered toward low draft numbers, and later analyses quantified month-by-month skewing (December had 26 of 31 days among early calls in one analysis) [1] [2] [3].
6. Where to look for originals, footage and replicas (practical pointers)
Available sources point to these repositories: Selective Service System history pages and archives for official documentation [1]; network archives and news organizations — CBS archives in particular — for broadcast footage and contemporary TV reports [2]; photo agencies such as Getty for press pictures [4]; and newspaper archives (New York Times) and historical sites that reproduce the official tables and data feeds [5] [7].
7. What the sources do not say (limits and unanswered questions)
The provided reporting documents the procedure and preserved outputs (tables, photos, TV coverage) but does not specify the current physical custody of the original 366 capsules (for example, whether the actual plastic capsules or the exact tumbler are stored in a public archive or museum) — available sources do not mention the present location or existence of the original capsules themselves [2] [1].
8. Competing perspectives and implicit agendas in the record
Government and media accounts framed the lottery as a neutral procedural fix to prior draft methods; statisticians and later analysts argued the draw was not truly random and disadvantaged late‑year births — that dispute is consistent across Selective Service descriptions, contemporary reporting and later statistical studies. Note the Selective Service’s account records the method but does not foreground the statistical critique; independent analysts and statisticians emphasize the methodological flaw and its real-life consequences [1] [3] [2].
Conclusion: documentary evidence of the 1969 drawing survives in multiple forms — official Selective Service summaries and tables, press photos and TV footage, newspaper reports, and later statistical reconstructions — and those sources together record the capsule procedure and the post‑draw controversy. If you want direct access, begin with the Selective Service history page, network news archives (CBS), Getty Images for photographs and the digitized newspaper archives and data repositories that publish the exact tables and analyses cited above [1] [2] [4] [5] [7] [3].