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Early Motion Pictures
1897 - 1920

Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division, Library of Congress

Search five motion picture collections, Browse the subject index, or choose from the list below
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word variants (e.g. plurals) exact matches

(The multiformat Variety Stage collection is not included in this search.)

The Collections:

The Spanish-American War
in Motion Pictures

Produced from 1898 to 1901

Inside an American Factory
Image of factory
Films of the Westinghouse Works, 1904 		The Last Days of a President
Image of World's Fair
Films of McKinley and the Pan-American Exposition, 1901
The Life of a City
Image of people in New York
Early Films of New York, 1898-1906 		Before and After the
Great Earthquake and Fire
Image of earthquake destruction
Early Films of San Francisco, 1897-1916


The American Variety Stage Collection
Variety Stage Thumbnail
also features 61 motion pictures depicting various
vaudeville acts from the turn of the century.

Inventing Entertainment:
The Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies


These motion pictures represent the first chapter in the history of the medium. Most are actuality films with a running time of two or three minutes, although a handful exceed ten minutes.
The mission of the Library of Congress is to make its resources available and useful to Congress and the American people and to sustain and preserve a universal collection of knowledge and creativity for future generations. The goal of the Library's National Digital Library Program is to offer broad public access to a wide range of historical and cultural documents as a contribution to education and lifelong learning.

The Library of Congress presents these documents as part of the record of the past. These primary historical documents reflect the attitudes, perspectives, and beliefs of different times. The Library of Congress does not endorse the views expressed in these collections, which may contain materials offensive to some readers.

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am Oct-19-98