Prelinger Archives
{{Short description|Film collection}}
{{for|the similarly named related project|Prelinger Library}}
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. Originally based in New York City from 1982 through 2002, it is now based in San Francisco.
History
The Archives were founded by Rick Prelinger{{cite web |title=Rick Prelinger: We have always recycled |url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/rick-prelinger-we-have-always-recycled |website=British Film Institute |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240324013952/https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/rick-prelinger-we-have-always-recycled |archive-date=March 24, 2024}} in 1982 to preserve what he calls "ephemeral" films: films sponsored by corporations and organizations, educational films, and amateur and home movies.{{Citation |last=Prelinger |first=Rick |author-link=Rick Prelinger |title=The Field Guide to Sponsored Films |place=San Francisco, California |publisher=National Film Preservation Foundation |year=2006 |url=http://www.filmpreservation.org/dvds-and-books/the-field-guide-to-sponsored-film |access-date=6 February 2011}} Typically, ephemeral films were produced to fulfill specific purposes at specific times, and many exist today only by chance or accident.[https://vimeo.com/18573291 Ephemeral Films by Rick Prelinger on Vimeo]. 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.
Criteria
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".{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/prelinger |title=About |work=Prelinger Archives|access-date=October 17, 2023}}
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[https://vimeo.com/60576868 EPHEMERA: The Prelinger Archives (March 2013 Edition) on Vimeo]. acquired the physical films held in the Archives as of that date.{{Cite web | url=https://www.panix.com/~footage/lcfaq.html |title = The Prelinger Collection at the Library of Congress}} 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 2015, the Archives holds about 8,000 films in videotape and digital form, approximately 14,000 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 8,500 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 focuses principally on collecting home movies and amateur film, and has approximately 30,000 items as of Fall 2023.
Gallery
File:Perversion for Profit part 1.ogv|Perversion for Profit part 1
File:125th Street Ferry.jpg|The 125th Street Ferry in New York City from 1941.
File:Yankee Stadium 1956.png|Yankee Stadium, 1956 screen capture
Notes
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
- {{cite journal|last=James|first=Susan|url=https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/MCR/article/view/17748|title=Rick Prelinger, Our Secret Century: Archival Films from the Darker Side of the American Dream|journal=Material Culture Review|volume=47|issue=1}} - [https://journals.lib.unb.ca:443/index.php/MCR/article/download/17748/19023/22845 PDF]
External links
{{commons category|Prelinger Archives}}
- {{official website|http://www.prelinger.com/}}
- [https://www.panix.com/~footage/ pannix.com]
- [https://www.panix.com/~footage/periodicals.html Periodicals]
- [http://www.prelingerlibrary.org/ Prelinger Library]
- {{Internet Archive collection|id=prelinger|name=Prelinger Archives}}
- [http://spotsunknown.com/interview-with-san-franciscos-guerrilla-archivist-rick-prelinger/ Rick Prelinger interview - Spots Unknown]
{{Authority control}}
Category:Film archives in the United States
Category:Organizations established in 1982
Category:1982 establishments in New York City