Motion Pictures

Motion Pictures

Click on the preview image to view the motion picture. Examine the film clips below and think of some questions that would allow students to investigate these primary resources.Analyze a Video work sheet from the National Archives will also be useful.

• Buster's Dog to the Rescue
• Inventing Entertainment: The Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies

Scene IV [Part 1] -- Shows a kitchen and Bridget busy making crullers. Buster enters and begs Bridget to give him one. Bridget refuses and places all the crullers in a basket on the top pantry shelf. She warns Buster not to touch them, and leaves the room. Buster secures a stepladder and proceeds to climb to the top. As he is about to secure the coveted prize his mamma enters, chastises him severely, and ties Buster fast to the table, and leaves the room. Buster calls Tige to his assistance, explains the situation, and points to the top shelf of the closet. Tige mounts the ladder, secures the basket and places it on the table at Buster's elbow. The scene closes with Buster and Tige dividing the spoils.

• Fun in camp / Thomas A. Edison, Inc.; Producer, James White
• Inventing Entertainment: The Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies

From Edison films catalog: Showing a group of soldiers and Red Cross nurses being amused by a number of small children who are riding upon the backs of trick bears. A remarkably fine picture, with U.S. Infantry camp in the background.

Filmed ca. June to September 1899, probably in Orange, New Jersey.

Additional Resources

Several hundred early motion pictures are viewable in the Library's American Memory collections. Some of these collections are listed below.

• America at Work, America at Leisure: Motion Pictures from 1894-1915
• American Variety Stage: Vaudeville and Popular Entertainment, 1870-1920
• The Life of a City: Early Films of New York, 1898-1906
• Before and After the Great Earthquake and Fire: Early Films of San Francisco, 1897-1916
• Buckaroos in Paradise: Ranching Culture in Northern Nevada, 1945-1982
• Inside an American Factory: Films of the Westinghouse Works, 1904
• The Last Days of a President: Films of McKinley and the Pan-American Exposition, 1901
• Origins of American Animation
• Prosperity and Thrift: the Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929
• The Spanish-American War in Motion Pictures
• Theodore Roosevelt: His Life and Times on Film