(1920s–30s),
by the Meyer Davis family, Hiram Percy Maxim, Adelaide Pearson, Thomas Archibald Stewart, and Elizabeth Woodman Wright
(Northeast Historic Film).
Play film
Animated Short Subjects by Ub Iwerks
(1930s),
five cartoons from the pioneering animator who created Flip the Frog and Willie Whopper
(UCLA Film & Television Archive).
Aroostook County
(1920),
early footage of the gabled-barn community of New Sweden and a regional agricultural fair in Maine
(Northeast Historic Film).
(1938–41),
home movies by Harry Carney, baritone saxophonist with Duke Ellington for 35 years, capturing a behind-the-scenes look at the Duke Ellington Orchestra at its creative peak
(National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution).
Cary Maple Sugar Company
(1927),
silent documentary on the harvest, manufacture and marketing of Vermont maple syrup and candy
(Northeast Historic Film).
The Chechahcos
(1924),
Gold Rush melodrama of two good-hearted prospectors who take in a young girl, apparently left motherless after a ship explosion
(University of Alaska Fairbanks).
Play film
Cologne: From the Diary of Ray and Esther
(1939),
portrait of a German American community made by the local doctor Raymond Dowidat and his wife Esther
(Minnesota Historical Society).
Play film
The Coward
(1915),
Thomas Ince's Civil War study starring Frank Keenan as the father who assumes his cowardly son's place in the ranks
(Museum of Modern Art).
Early Abstractions
(1946–1957),
groundbreaking series made by avant-garde pioneer Harry Smith using hand painting, batik, and optical printing
(Anthology Film Archives).
Edison Laboratory Collection
(1900–20),
footage of Edison's later years rescued from the inventor's laboratory in East Orange, N.J.
(Library of Congress).
The Emperor Jones
(1933),
Eugene O’Neill’s play about the rise and fall of Brutus Jones
(Library of Congress).
Fake Fruit Factory
(1986),
Chick Strand's documentary about women who make papier-mâché fruits in a small family-run factory in Mexico
(Pacific Film Archive).
Play film
(1934),
silent documentary showing the operations of a Maine tuberculosis sanatorium and the importance of "fresh air" activities in the therapeutic regimen
(Northeast Historic Film).
(1973),
fictional film by African American teenager Timothy McKinney and the Inner City Youth League about a Vietnam veteran avenging the murder of his father
(Minnesota Historical Society).
(1918),
surviving reels of Rex Ingram's comedy-drama depicting the adventures of the title character who breaks free from his "humdrum" life
(George Eastman Museum).
The Hushed Hour
(1919),
surviving reels of this moral tale of four adult children, all disappointments, who respect their father's dying wish to observe a "hushed hour" in introspection
(UCLA Film & Television Archive).
(1914),
a Southern aristocrat struggles to keep secret his marriage to a Northern woman, in one of the few of pre-World War I American features to survive in complete form
(UCLA Film & Television Archive).
(1936),
an American-produced Yiddish-language melodrama about a woman who shoots the man who compromises her
(National Center for Jewish Film).
Marian Anderson's Lincoln Memorial Concert
(1939),
newsreel documentation of the African American contralto's outdoor concert, broadcast to a radio audience of millions after she was denied permission to sing in Washington's Constitution Hall on account of her race
(UCLA Film & Television Archive).
Massine Collection
(1936–38),
three short silent films of dances by choreographer Leonide Massine documenting the influential Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo
(New York Public Library).
Mead Collection
(1936–1939),
fieldwork footage taken in Bali by the anthropologist, Margaret Mead, and her husband Gregory Bateson
(Library of Congress).
Miyatake Collection
(1934–1958),
footage of Japanese American communities before and after World War II by photographer Toyo Miyatake
(Japanese American National Museum).
Moana
(1926),
documentarian Robert Flaherty's legendary portrait of Samoan life
(Museum of Modern Art).
Monsieur Beaucaire, the Adventures of a Gentleman of France
(1967),
a seminal work by San Francisco filmmaker Scott Bartlett considered by many scholars to be the first experimental film to merge film and video technologies
(Pacific Film Archive).
Play film
(1942–45),
color films of life in the World War II Japanese American detention facility in Tule Lake, California, made by teacher Charles Palmerlee
(Japanese American National Museum).
Play film
Peggy Leads the Way
(1917),
feature starring Mary Miles Minter as the plucky Peggy, who returns home from finishing school to rescue her father's ailing store
(UCLA Film & Television Archive).
The Penalty
(1920),
silent feature starring Lon Chaney as an underworld mastermind seeking revenge on the man who amputated his legs
(George Eastman Museum).
People of the Tundra
(1941–59),
short by Colonel Marvin "Muktuk" Marston documenting the contribution of indigenous Alaskans to the World War II effort
(University of Alaska Fairbanks).
A Place in Time
(1976),
Charles Lane's tale of a young black street artist who makes his living as a sidewalk portraitist
(New York Public Library).
(1947),
avant-garde filmmaker Alexander Hammid's poetic documentary on the themes of parental guidance and teaching
(Museum of Modern Art).
Protovin Collection
(1980s),
acclaimed animation teacher Richard Protovin's Fan Film and Cityscapes Trilogy, three short "documentary animations" of Manhattan cityscapes co-directed by Franklin Backus
(New York Public Library).
Play film
Safety Is Our First Consideration
(1941),
regional competitions of mining safety teams, filmed by the White Oak Fuel Company
(West Virginia State Archives).
Safety Meet
(1940),
regional competitions of mining safety teams, filmed by the White Oak Fuel Company
(West Virginia State Archives).
Sasaki Collection
(1927–1969),
films of Japanese American communities in Los Angeles, Stockton, and Tacoma by Buddhist minister, Rev. Sensho Sasaki
(Japanese American National Museum).
Play film
The Scarlet Letter
(1913),
one-reel fragment thought to be the only surviving material from an American feature film using the early Kinemacolor process
(George Eastman Museum).
See Yourself in the Movies
(1937),
town portrait of Elkins, West Virginia, combining staged scenes with actuality footage of local businesses, churches and schools
(West Virginia State Archives).
(1920),
black homesteader's struggle for survival on the Midwestern plains by African American filmmaker Oscar Micheaux
(Museum of Modern Art).
Tatsuno Collection
(1938–60),
home movies, including Dave Tatsuno's documentation of the World War II detention camp near Topaz, Utah, honored by induction into the National Film Registry in 1996
(Japanese American National Museum).
Play film
Trip to Cleary Hills Mine
(1935),
overview of mining operations produced for investors in this famous Alaska gold mine
(University of Alaska Fairbanks).
Turn to the Right
(1922),
Rex Ingram's masterpiece of how an unjust accusation changes a Connecticut village
(George Eastman Museum).
(1932),
independently produced Hollywood feature, now in the public domain, starring Myrna Loy as a modern-day Becky Sharp
(UCLA Film & Television Archive).
A Vermont Romance
(1916),
Vermont Progressive Party's moral tale about an orphaned country girl forced to take factory work in town
(Northeast Historic Film).
A Western Girl
(1911),
Western directed by Gaston Mèliés in the United States
(George Eastman Museum).
Western Union Corporation Collection
(1927-1946),
11 shorts produced by the pioneering communications company to standardize staff training at field offices, explain emerging telegraph and facsimile technologies, and promote company programs
(National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution).
Play film
Why We Fight
(1942–45),
seven films commissioned by the U.S. War Department to explain the World War II effort to nine million Americans in uniform and to help overcome the isolationism still common in many parts of the country
(National Archives And Records Administration).
Play film
(1945-1948),
award-winning combat photographer Arthur Zegart's documentary footage of the liberation of the Ebensee concentration camp and the plight of Jewish refugees in post-war Europe
(National Center for Jewish Film).