Prelinger Archives
Encyclopedia
The Prelinger Archives is a collection of films relating to U.S. cultural history
, the evolution of the American landscape
, everyday life
and social history
. It was physically located in New York City
from 1982-2002 and is now in San Francisco.
The Archives were founded by Rick Prelinger
in 1982 in order to preserve what he calls "ephemeral
" films: films sponsored by corporations and organizations, educational films, and amateur and home movies. Typically, ephemeral films were produced to fulfill specific purposes at specific times, and many exist today only by chance or accident. About 65% of the Archive's holdings are in the public domain
because their copyrights have expired, or because they were U.S. productions that were published without proper copyright notice.
The stated goal of the Prelinger Archives is to "collect, preserve, and facilitate access to films of historic significance that haven't been collected elsewhere."
By 2001 it had acquired 60,000 completed films of varying lengths and over 30,000 cans of unedited film. In 2002, the Library of Congress
acquired the physical films held in the Archives as of that date; the Archives made two subsequent donations to Library of Congress totalling some 65,000 cans of film, primarily industrial and educational titles. As of spring 2011, the Archives holds about 4,500 films in videotape and digital form, approximately 5,000 home movies, and 1,000 industrial and sponsored films acquired since 2002.
Compared to many other moving image archives, Prelinger Archives provides a relatively high level of public access to its collections. Over 2,000 public domain
films are available for download and unrestricted reuse on the Internet at the Internet Archive
. All the films in the archives can be licensed for production use through Getty Images
.
Prelinger Archives currently (as of spring 2011) focus principally on collecting home movies and amateur film from North America.
Cultural history
The term cultural history refers both to an academic discipline and to its subject matter.Cultural history, as a discipline, at least in its common definition since the 1970s, often combines the approaches of anthropology and history to look at popular cultural traditions and cultural...
, the evolution of the American landscape
Landscape
Landscape comprises the visible features of an area of land, including the physical elements of landforms such as mountains, hills, water bodies such as rivers, lakes, ponds and the sea, living elements of land cover including indigenous vegetation, human elements including different forms of...
, everyday life
Everyday Life
Everyday Life is the first solo album made by Life MC of the British Hip Hop group Phi Life Cypher....
and social history
Social history
Social history, often called the new social history, is a branch of History that includes history of ordinary people and their strategies of coping with life. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in history departments...
. It was physically located in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
from 1982-2002 and is now in San Francisco.
The Archives were founded by Rick Prelinger
Rick Prelinger
Rick Prelinger is an archivist, writer and filmmaker, and founder of the Prelinger Archives, a collection of 60,000 advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur films acquired by the Library of Congress in 2002 after 20 years' operation.Rick has partnered with the Internet Archive to make...
in 1982 in order to preserve what he calls "ephemeral
Ephemeral
Ephemeral things are transitory, existing only briefly. Typically the term is used to describe objects found in nature, although it can describe a wide range of things....
" films: films sponsored by corporations and organizations, educational films, and amateur and home movies. Typically, ephemeral films were produced to fulfill specific purposes at specific times, and many exist today only by chance or accident. About 65% of the Archive's holdings are in the public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
because their copyrights have expired, or because they were U.S. productions that were published without proper copyright notice.
The stated goal of the Prelinger Archives is to "collect, preserve, and facilitate access to films of historic significance that haven't been collected elsewhere."
By 2001 it had acquired 60,000 completed films of varying lengths and over 30,000 cans of unedited film. In 2002, the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
acquired the physical films held in the Archives as of that date; the Archives made two subsequent donations to Library of Congress totalling some 65,000 cans of film, primarily industrial and educational titles. As of spring 2011, the Archives holds about 4,500 films in videotape and digital form, approximately 5,000 home movies, and 1,000 industrial and sponsored films acquired since 2002.
Compared to many other moving image archives, Prelinger Archives provides a relatively high level of public access to its collections. Over 2,000 public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
films are available for download and unrestricted reuse on the Internet at the Internet Archive
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
. All the films in the archives can be licensed for production use through Getty Images
Getty Images
Getty Images, Inc. is a stock photo agency, based in Seattle, Washington, USA. It is a supplier of stock images for business and consumers with an archive of 80 million still images and illustrations and more than 50,000 hours of stock film footage...
.
Prelinger Archives currently (as of spring 2011) focus principally on collecting home movies and amateur film from North America.
External links
- An Informal History of Prelinger Archives
- Prelinger Collection at the Internet Archive
- Spots Unknown interviews Rick Prelinger
- Audio: Richard and Megan Prelinger interview at KQED-FMKQED-FMKQED-FM is an NPR-member radio station owned by Northern California Public Broadcasting in San Francisco, California.KQED-FM was founded by James Day in 1969 as the radio arm of KQED Television. The founding manager was Bernard Mayes who later went on to be Executive Vice-President of KQED TV and...
(NPR) (1 hour)