Category Archives: News

Isn’t the web distributed now?  No really, let me illustrate– ever IM your friend that is near you “Hey, wanna see a cool video?  check out this URL”?  Then they download the same video you just downloaded from the original … Continue reading →

You want it, you got it!  Happy 200th Mr. Charles Dickens. 1,345 books               a few movies: Oliver Twist Scrooge A Christmas Carol     96 audio items  

Rick Prelinger will be presenting his latest version of Lost Landscapes of San Francisco at the Internet Archive. Lost Landscapes of San Francisco 6 (2011) is the latest in a series of historical urban explorations, made from home movies, industrial … Continue reading →

San Francisco, CA – On January 18, 2012, Internet Archive joined the thousands of internet websites that went dark in protest of the proposed SOPA and PIPA legislation. 12 Hours Dark: Internet Archive vs. Censorship Hackers & Founders organized a … Continue reading →

How to operate your brain This piece, featuring Timothy Leary, is from a series of video shorts produced by Retinalogic in the nineties. It seems more like the sixties than the nineties (perhaps that was the intention?), and it’s long … Continue reading →

In the Suburbs (1957) A look at suburbia sponsored by Redbook: Here is a priceless view of the socio-economic conditions which led to what we now have to live with. — recommended by David Cox http://www.archive.org/details/IntheSub1957 Eiffel Tower You probably … Continue reading →

Scrooge (1935) Ah, who conveys the holiday spirit better than Scrooge? This is the original English version, some fifteen minutes longer than the version edited for Americans with short attention span. http://www.archive.org/details/Scrooge1935 — recommended by Leslie Graham Little Master’s English-Telegu … Continue reading →

The animal kingdom, arranged according to its organization, serving as a foundation for the natural history of animals : and an introduction to comparative anatomy (1834) Once upon a time, a time before learned scientists talked about string theory and … Continue reading →

One of the many things I enjoy about being an artist in residence at the Internet Archive is the access to myriad resources. For a recent piece, I downloaded all one hundred and fifty-four of Shakespeare’s sonnets. I then selected … Continue reading →

Compute Magazine The first issue of Compute Magazine from 1979 provides an interesting perspective on the birth of the personal computer industry. For example, there’s an ad for an eight-inch floppy drive for $1,295 ($3,800 adjusted for inflation). http://www.archive.org/stream/1979-Fall-compute-magazine/Compute_Issue_001_1979_Fall#page/n0/mode/2up — … Continue reading →

Here’s Long Now cofounder Stewart Brand’s summary of Wednesday night’s talk. Universal access to all knowledge, [Internet Archive founder] Kahle declared, will be one of humanity’s greatest achievements. We are already well on the way. “We’re building the Library of … Continue reading →

Man-Eaters of Kumaon I was shooting with Eddie Knowles in Malani when I first heard of the tiger which later received the official recognition as the “Chapawat man-eater.” That’s how Jim Corbett began his 1944 book, Man-Eaters Of Kumaon. On … Continue reading →

Cluck Ol’ Hen Another is this first or possibly second known recording of the classic fiddle tune Cluck Ol’ Hen from Fiddlin’ Powers. Simple and repetitive, but is has a bounce that I don’t hear in any other versions since. … Continue reading →

San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge; a technical description in ordinary language (1936) Here’s a fascinating book describing the building of the entire San Francisco (California) Bay Bridge, which opened seventy-five years ago. It’s full of fabulous illustrations. http://www.archive.org/details/sanfranciscooakl00mens — recommended … Continue reading →

Alice in Wonderland Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland is one of those works that’s become an integral part of popular culture, including an Oscar winning film. It’s worth going back to this 1894 edition to appreciate that a great story … Continue reading →

The Girl in the Flammable Skirt: Stories, Aimee Bender Here’s how the publisher described Bender’s 1998 debut collection of short stories: Aimee Bender’s stories portray a world twisted on its axis, a place of unconvention that resembles nothing so much … Continue reading →

Lincolniana One of the interesting collections we are digitizing is the Lincoln Financial Collection, the largest privately owned collection of Lincolniana (yes, that’s a real word) in the United States. The collection includes many books Abraham Lincoln owned, including The … Continue reading →