Category Archives: Video Archive

Home of the Brave

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Gentlemen and ladies, please remove your hats for the singing of our national anthem.

We sing it at the beginning of sporting events, during worship services, at memorials for veterans, and in grade school music class. The first verse of this song gets all the fame, oftentimes springing from the throats of our most talented singers who are chosen to step up to a mic and belt the tune. The rest of us stand and face the flag while mumbling the familiar words, bursting in applause as soon as the singer draws out “hooooome of the braaaaaaaave.”

The Star-Spangled Banner, words penned by Francis Scott Key, has become synonymous with patriotism. The poem was written in 1814 and was put to the tune of a British drinking song by John Stafford Smith. By President Herbert Hoover’s signature, it became officially recognized as the United State’s national anthem on March 3, 1931. In 2009, nationalism has certainly changed if not dwindled in the U.S.A., but, for many of us, The Star-Spangled Banner will always hold a special spot in our hearts, if only for it signaling the start of a baseball game in the middle of the summer.

Here are some recommended items on Internet Archive focused on the national song:

Listen

  • An oral history of Francis Scott Key followed by the song
  • A classic instrumental rendition of the anthem
  • Blues Travelers’ version performed in 1989
  • The Star-Spangled Banner, 1915
  • A version performed by Guster in 2006

    • Watch

  • A short film from the 1940s, a sort of ode to the American flag
  • A film from 1942 showcasing military clips and fireworks

    • Read

  • The Centenary of the Star-Spangled Banner
  • An Essay on the Star-Spangled Banner and National Songs
  • Francis Scott Key Author of the Star Spangled Banner: What Else He Was and Who
  • Poems of the Late Francis S. Key

    • –Cara Binder

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    An All-Star Team

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    It has been about seven months since NASA and Internet Archive teamed up to create nasaimages.org. Through a Space Act Agreement, NASA has granted Internet Archive unprecedented access to all of the NASA centers’ media archives.

    While media from NASA had previously been held in numerous stations around the country, Internet Archive now provides a one stop shop for NASA images, video, and audio. By 2011, it is expected that nasaimages.org will hold more than five million still images and tens of thousand of hours of video and audio. Already, nasaimages.org is the largest collection of NASA media available through a single site, hosting more than 140,000 still images and dozens of hours of video and audio.

    The mission of this project is threefold:

  • To be a resource for educators, students, researchers and anyone else who wishes to use the media assets of NASA to further our understanding the earth, aeronautics, space exploration, astronomy and NASA itself
  • To encourage young people to study math and science in order to inspire them to become the next generation of scientists
  • To facilitate the sharing of media resources within NASA by being the primary source of media for NASA employees and contractors

    • Perusing this site can easily take up hours of your time, so here a few highlights to get you acquainted:

  • Space Shuttle Columbia
  • Young Stars Emerge From Orion’s Head
  • Monkey Baker With a Model Jupiter Vehicle
  • Astronauts’ Wake Up Calls
  • Buzz Aldrin on the Moon
  • Astronaut John Glenn in a State of Weightlessness
  • Jupiter, its Great Red Spot
  • Hubble Reveals the Heart of the Whirlpool Galaxy
  • Christa McAuliffe Experiences Weightlessness During KC-135 Flight
  • Great Observatories Present Rainbow of a Galaxy

    • To find more items of interest, visit the homepage to browse. Check back often as more items will be flowing in all the time.

    –Cara Binder

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    200 Candles for Abraham Lincoln

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    Just about 200 years ago, or 10 score as Abraham Lincoln might say, one of the most iconic presidents in history was born. On February 12, 1809, Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks gave birth to a baby boy in a one room cabin. He would grow up to lead the United States and make two of the most well-known speeches in United States history, the Gettysburg Address and the Emancipation Proclamation. Now, 200 years later, his country still throws him a birthday party.

    President Obama, another tall, elegant man from Illinois who swore into office with his hand on the Lincoln Bible, will be in Springfield on Thursday in the company of $95 ticket holders who are ready for a monumental start to Presidents’ Day Weekend. Although Obama has said, “I cannot swallow whole the view of Lincoln as the Great Emancipator,” he has looked to Lincoln for help in speech writing and inspiration in leadership. The two have drawn constant comparisons in the press, and one can only wonder how the United States would celebrate Barack Obama’s 200th birthday.

    This week, many will celebrate Abe by using the new Lincoln postage stamps, visiting one of the many Lincoln-centered exhibits at museums and libraries, watching the new play about Lincoln at Ford’s Theater, or browsing through the Abraham Lincoln material at Internet Archive.

    Here are some highlights from our collections:

  • Abraham Lincoln, a 1930 biographical film directed by D.W. Griffith
  • Gettysburg Address, audio version read by John Greenman
  • Abraham Lincoln, a book of quotes
  • The Face of Lincoln, a short film of a sculptor describing Lincoln’s life while sculpting his bust
  • The Works of Abraham Lincoln Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4,Vol. 5, Vol. 6, Vol. 7
  • Abraham Lincoln: A History
  • The Writings of Abraham Lincoln

    • Happy Birthday, Abe!

    –Cara Binder

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    Travel Films From Watson Kintner

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    Before “wandering through the stacks” at Internet Archive, I had never heard of Watson Kintner. Although he is far from a household name, the chemical engineer who lived from 1890-1979 provided thorough and unique documentation of his extensive travels for future generations to learn from.

    Kintner traveled to more than 30 individual countries throughout his lifetime armed with a 16mm camera and a thoughtful eye. What he created is a collection of moving images that clearly illustrates the countries he visited. Kintner had an obvious goal to really characterize a place while including images of all major aspects of an area; his films offer an education of past cultures.

    The short documentaries show intimate meetings with the land’s people, animals, food, housing, rituals, costume, everyday dress, markets, geography, instruments, weather, sea life, pottery, weaving, and transportation. They have been collected and preserved by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology who has archived the collection at Internet Archive.

    Here are some highlights of the collection:

  • Mexico, 1933 or 1934
  • East Africa, 1961
  • Ethiopia, 1969
  • India, 1958
  • Australia, 1957
  • Iran, 1963
  • Guatemala, 1947

    • For more interesting historical moving images, check out the rest of the Penn Museum Collection.

    –Cara Binder

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    Do It Yourself (With Some Help From the Archive)

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    New Year’s resolutions often center around learning something new, getting a new hobby, or opening yourself up to different experiences. New Year’s resolutions also fall to the back of the mind within a few weeks of the new year. Let Internet Archive get you back on track with a plethora of videos, podcasts, and texts that offer easy how-to advice on everything from knitting to brewing beer.

  • How to Make Plushies
    These are those almost-too-cute-to-enjoy small stuffed animals that have become all the rage.
  • How to Knit
    Knitting guru Stephanie Pearl McPhee teaches Irish Cottage Knitting.
  • How to Make Fire
    Here is a short clip outlining one of the most classic and basic ways to make a fire.
  • How to Brew Beer
    A nice video showing the process of creating homemade brews.
  • How to Make School Gardens
    A manual from 1903 which explains methods for making gardens for children.
  • How to Make a Political T-Shirt
    Release your inner punk with this easy way to transform a plain t-shirt.
  • How to Draw Yoda
    A surprisingly simple method for drawing the famous Star Wars character.
  • How to Juggle
    A skilled juggler breaks down the steps mastering the juggle.
  • How to Make a Feature Film
    Interview with filmmaker Don Glut who gives tips on how to make a film.
  • How to Make a Bank
    Originally meant for children, this video shows how you can turn an old Tang can into a money bank.
  • How to Make Greek Coffee
    This is a simple instructional video about how to make authentic Greek coffee.
  • How to Play Trouble by Coldplay
    A thorough piano lesson on how to play Trouble.

    Continue the search for D.I.Y. videos on the Archive to hone even the simplest skills, like learning how to scream.

    –Cara Binder

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    • Inaugurations Past on the Archive

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    Who’s ready for a new president?

    Two million people will gather next Tuesday in Washington to hear Barack Obama give his inaugural address, and many millions more will be watching on television. He and his speechwriting team have been working on the speech since before Thanksgiving, and according to a news report today, he’s “nearly finished.” What can we expect?

    A skilled orator closely attuned to history and his place in it, Obama has paid close attention to the great inaugural addresses of the past. The Archive provides material for those who might care for the subtleties of reference that will no doubt mark his speech:

    Lincoln’s 1st and 2d Inaugural Speeches. In preparing his inaugural address, Obama visited the Lincoln Memorial on whose wall Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address (1865) is etched. Afterward, he humbly commented, “I’m not sure whether that [was] wise because every time you read that second inaugural you start getting intimidated… There is a genius to Lincoln that is not going to be matched.”

    John Kennedy’s Inaugural Speech (audio). Theodore Sorenson, the speechwriter who wrote Kennedy’s 1961 inaugural address, recently remarked,”Obama is the most eloquent presidential candidate since JFK and I would think we would hear the most eloquent speech since JFK’s 48 years ago.” This newsreel covers parts of Kennedy’s speech and other inaugural events.

    A complete file with every Presidential inaugural speech, in chronological order, is available here (from Project Gutenberg).

    In the moving image archive, there’s footage from as far back as William McKinley’s first inauguration in 1897. His was the first inauguration to be filmed. FDR’s in 1933 was the first to have both sound and image. (That newsreel leaves out the most famous part of the speech (“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”)–which you can find in brief excerpt here. This short film, in praise of preceding presidents, seems to have been made for Eisenhower’s inauguration (whose own inaugural speech can be heard here).

    Further back in time, from the text archive, a variety of inaugural booklets: official reports from Ulysses’s S. Grant’s (1869), Grover Cleveland’s (1893), McKinley’s first (1897) and second (1901); official programs from James Garfield’s (1881), Teddy Roosevelt’s (1905) and William Howard Taft’s (1909); and a commercial, not-so-official program from McKinley’s. This official booklet, commemorating McKinley’s second inauguration (1901), contains a description of all the preceding inaugurations.

    And, while we’re at it, why not a few bars of Hail to the Chief?

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    Learn How to Be a Teen in 1950

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    The sexual education debate has been a chronic one. No one can seem to agree on what age to teach children about sex, what details should be disclosed to different grades, if condoms should be supplied in schools, or if abstinence can be used as an effective approach to sex-ed.

    While it seems as though this same song has been sung for decades, it has, indeed, evolved with the times. Educational videos shown in grade schools and high schools today struggle with drug abuse, rape, and coming into your own sexuality. A look at Coronet Films, which were shown in great regularity in American schools in the 1940s and ’50s, shows a completely different world of instructional videos for teens. Teens in the ’50s were taught how to say no to a goodnight kiss, not how to say no to a hit off a bong.

    Several are available to view in the Prelinger Archives. While for many this will be a walk down memory lane, the younger generation can now see just how different things were a short 50 years ago.

    Some suggestions are highlighted below:

  • Lunchroom Manners
  • Going Steady?
  • Dating: Do’s and Don’ts
  • Self-Conscious Guy
  • How Honest Are You?
  • I Want to Be a Secretary
  • Am I Trustworthy?
  • How Quiet Helps at School
  • Exercise and Health
  • You and Your Parents
  • How to Be Well Groomed
  • The Fun of Being Thoughtful

    • While today these films are primarily screened as novelty pieces to mock, they are no doubt a precious capsule of the 1950s zeitgeist.

    –Cara Binder

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    View National Film Registry Picks

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    Each December, the United States National Film Preservation Board chooses up to 25 films they deem worthy of taking special action to preserve in the Library of Congress. It’s a new year, and that means 25 more films are welcomed in the vault of the National Film Registry.

    I picture the registry as a gathering place of the great moving images throughout time. Here, company is shared between documentaries, Hollywood classics, family movies, news footage, and experimental films; the board clearly has an open mind when considering what should be preserved, and they are therefore responsible for creating a phenomenal resource of what they consider “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant film.”

    Three of the 2008 picks can be viewed on the Archive as well as nearly 40 picks from years past. Take a look at what the filmphiles of the United States work to preserve.

    2008 National Film Registry picks found on the Archive:

  • Foolish Wives (1921)
  • Disneyland Dream (1956)
  • One Week (1920)

    • 1989-2007 National Film Registry picks found on the Archive:

  • All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
  • The Battle of San Pietro (1945)
  • The Birth of a Nation (1915)
  • The Black Pirate (1926)
  • The Blood of Jesus (1941)
  • Broken Blossoms (1919)
  • The Cameraman (1928 )
  • Cat People (1942)
  • Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1894-5)
  • Duck and Cover (1951)
  • Fall of the House of Usher (1928 )
  • Flash Gordon (1936) serial
  • Freaks (1933)
  • The General (1927)
  • Gertie the Dinosaur (1914)
  • The Great Train Robbery (1903)
  • His Girl Friday (1940)
  • The House I Live In (1945)
  • The House in the Middle (1954)
  • The Immigrant (1917)
  • Intolerance (1916)
  • The Kiss (1896)
  • The Last of the Mohicans (1920)
  • The Lost World (1925)
  • Manhatta (1921)
  • Master Hands (1936) in four parts
  • Modern Times (1936)
  • My Man Godfrey (1936)
  • Our Day (1938 )
  • The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
  • The Plow That Broke the Plains (1936)
  • The Sex Life of a Polyp (1928 )
  • Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
  • She Done Him Wrong (1933)
  • Sherlock, Jr. (1924)
  • Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse
  • The Thief of Bagdad (1924)

    • –Cara Binder

    Preservation for Home Movies

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    Home movies all too often get relegated to basements where they sit with recordings of made-for-TV movies or other equally-neglected videos. Of course, there are always the semi-annual walks down memory lane where people pull out the documentation of times past, but as a general rule, our home movies are going the way of dinosaurs.

    It is time that these gems are celebrated, and this is just the goal of the Center for Home Movies. By protecting and archiving our home movies, we can gradually create a history of our culture through moving images. At Internet Archive, a family’s epic camping trip or a 1960s South African dance ceremony can be shared, giving everyone the intimate experience of gathering around a television to screen forgotten home movies.

    Here is a sampling of entertaining amateur films that have gained freedom from their dusty basement status, documenting cultural heritage for years to come:

    A 16-year-old’s dramatic interpretation of Tarzan

    A peek into the life of the Kelly family in Lebanon, Kentucky circa 1938

    Footage of a New York pride parade during the first decade of gay pride marches

    A filmmaker’s tribute to Kodachrome 40 Super 8, a popular film making device that has been discontinued

    A short English film about a gentle boy scout who befriends a sheep

    A rare look into the happenings of a Californian backyard in 1949

    A film from the 1970s; scenes range from young people playing guitars to a street photographer to a child playing outside

    Please add to the growing collection at Internet Archive. Keep your footage safe while sharing in a collective vision to archive our heritage. If you have uploaded a home movie on the archive and would like it added to this collection, please contact skip@avgeeks.com.

    –Cara Binder

    Picklist #3

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    Some random morsels from the Internet Archive collections:

    1. Paul Otlet (pronounced ot-LAY; 1868-1944) is considered the “father” of information science. A Belgian lawyer and visionary, he aspired to create a central repository of all human knowledge. From the 1920s until the Nazis took Brussels, he began to build such a collection, called the Mundaneum, which housed a massive catalog made up of millions of 3×5 index cards. Each card contained data pulled from books for indexing and reuse. Otlet is considered by some to be the forefather of the World Wide Web. His 1934 magnum opus Traite de Documentation (Treaties on Documentation: The Book of the Book) has yet to be translated into English, but the Archive has digitized a collection of his essays.

    In the Archive’s Moving Image collection you’ll also find a 1998 documentary about Otlet, made for Dutch television and entitled Alle Kennis van de Wereld (“All the Knowledge of the World”). The documentary (23 min) is narrated by Boyd Rayward, Otlet’s biographer. It is in both English and French (and, unfortunately, has no subtitles).

    (See also Alex Wright’s 6/17/08 New York Times article, “The Web Time Forgot,” which discusses Otlet’s Mundaneum.)

    2. Arabian Nights with twenty color illustrations by the renowned French illustrator Edmond Dulac (1882-1953). Published by Hodder & Stoughton (1907).

    dulac2

    dulacillustration2

    dulac3

    3. Pete Seeger interviewed by Tim Robbins, “The Ballad of Pete Seeger,” an original radio documentary celebrating Pete Seeger’s life and times, and featuring a candid conversation with actor Tim Robbins and historic audio from the Pacifica Radio Archives. 4 DVDs and 2 CDs

    4.  The most popular item in the Live Music Archive, with nearly 2.5 million downloads, is OfARevolution (O.A.R.) Live at Madison Square Garden on January 14, 2006.  This Archive volunteer had never heard of the group before today, but according to the New York Times review of the 2006 show, the Columbus, Ohio, band has achieved success “by playing concerts nonstop and by encouraging fans to share recordings.”

    5.210px-toscaniniconducting4 Beethoven’s Symphony # 6, Pastoral.

    Legendary Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Recorded over several sessions from June-October 1937 at Queen’s Hall, London. Transferred and restored from the original 78 RPM RCA Victor set M-417 by Bob Varney.

    6. Bach’s Air on the G String and the estimable Sixth Suite for Unaccompanied Cello  make up concert 22 (Bach’s Songs of Strings) of the podcast collection of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.  This entire collection of 22 concerts is terrific.