Motion Picture Films and Sound and Video Recordings
Information About Holdings
The National Archives multimedia collections include nearly 300,000 reels of motion picture film and more than 200,000 sound and video recordings. These materials are held by:
- Washington, DC area facilities
- Presidential Libraries
On-Line Resources
Motion Picture, Sound, and Video unit Materials
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The Motion Picture, Sound, and Video unit, Special Media Archives Services
Division, located at the National Archives at College Park, makes
available on-line some information about NARA's
motion picture, sound, and video records holdings. On-line finding aids to holdings and informational
resources include:
- Information About Card Catalogs
- Catalog of Longines Chronoscope Interviews [Large File - 201KB]
- Select Audiovisual Records: Captured German Sound Recordings (1977).
- Select Audiovisual Records: The Crucial Decade: Voices of the Postwar Era, 1945-1954 [rev. 1994].
- Select Audiovisual Records: Sound Recordings: Voices of World War II, 1937-1945 [rev. 1994].
- General Information Leaflet 34: National Archives Gift Collection Acquisition Policy: Motion Pictures and Sound and Video Recordings (1990)
- To Obtain Reproductions of Motion Pictures, Sound Recordings, and Videotapes
- Information available in the Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives of the United States 3 vols. (1995), may be used to identify holdings by record group.
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Contact the reference staff of the Motion Picture, Sound, and Video unit: mopix@nara.gov
Presidential Library Audiovisual Finding Aids
- Franklin D. Roosevelt Library: Audiovisual Archives
- Harry S. Truman Library: Audiovisual Materials
- Dwight D. Eisenhower Library: Audiovisual Department
- John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library: Audiovisual Archives
- Lyndon Baines Johnson Library: Recordings and Transcripts of President Johnson's Telephone Conversations
- Nixon Library (College Park, MD)
- Gerald R. Ford Library: Audiovisual Collections
- Jimmy Carter Library
- Ronald Reagan Library: Audiovisual Materials
Archival Research Catalog (ARC):
The ARC database can be used
to search by media type and by subject.
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Descriptions of a large number of motion picture films and sound and
video recordings in the Motion Picture, Sound and Video
component of the Special Media Archives Services Division are available through
ARC.
Search Hint:- Go to the ARC basic search screen.
- Select Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Branch from the NARA Location filter box.
- Press the "Go" button to retrieve descriptions of moving images or sound recordings within the Motion Pictures, Sound, and Video unit. (You may limit your search further by entering keywords in the Keywords boxes.)
Search ARC
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The following Presidential Libraries have some of
their motion picture films or sound and video recordings described in ARC:
- Harry S. Truman Library
- Jimmy Carter Library
- Lyndon Baines Johnson Library
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George Bush Library
- Go to the ARC basic search screen.
- Select Moving Images and/or Sound Recordings from the Type filter box.
- Select [A Presidential Library] from the NARA Location filter box.
- Press the "Go" button to retrieve descriptions of moving images or sound recordings within the holdings of that Presidential Library. (You may limit your search further by entering keywords in the Keywords boxes.)
Search ARC
Other Resources
- Most of NARA's finding aids are not yet online
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Send us your
request.
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The Herbert Hoover Library does not currently have motion picture film, sound or video recording finding aid information available online, but you may contact them for information about their holdings.
