Prelinger Archives
If you haven’t heard of the Prelinger Archives, now is the time to familiarize yourself.
Online, you can view nearly 2,000 of the films from the archive. There really are some interesting things to find on the site; everything from historic material such as Duck and Cover (1951) to “vintage erotica” of a woman named Sheree dancing (first in a tiger-print outfit, then in a bikini) to the top viewed film, Pick of the Pod (1939), “a peek inside the pea processing operations that culminate in Del Monte brand canned peas… With glimpses of 1930s kitchens and images of Depression-era California agriculture.” Not sure where to get started? Try the Tag Cloud.Prelinger Archives was founded in 1983 by Rick Prelinger in New York City. Over the next twenty years, it grew into a collection of over 60,000 “ephemeral” (advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur) films. In 2002, the film collection was acquired by the Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. Prelinger Archives remains in existence, holding approximately 4,000 titles on videotape and a smaller collection of film materials acquired subsequent to the Library of Congress transaction. Its goal remains to collect, preserve, and facilitate access to films of historic significance that haven’t been collected elsewhere. Included are films produced by and for many hundreds of important US corporations, nonprofit organizations, trade associations, community and interest groups, and educational institutions.