Google Brings National Archives to Google Video
Google Video has launched a program which aims to make media holdings of the National Archives available for free online. This agreement between Google and the National Archives and Records Administration will enable researchers and the general public to access a diverse collection of historic movies, documentaries and other films from the National Archives.
“Today, we’ve begun to make the extraordinary historic films of the National Archives available to the world for the first time online,” said Sergey Brin, co-founder and president of technology at Google. “Students and researchers whether in San Francisco or Bangladesh can watch remarkable video such as World War II newsreels and the story of Apollo 11 – the historic first landing on the Moon.”
The pilot program undertaken by the National Archives and Google features 103 films from the audiovisual collections preserved at the Archives. Highlights include :
* The earliest film preserved in the National Archives holdings by Thomas Armat, “Carmencita – Spanish Dance,” featuring the famous Spanish Gypsy dancer,1894;
* A representative selection of U.S. government newsreels, documenting World War II, 1941-45;
* A sampling of documentaries produced by NASA on the history of the spaceflight program;
The National Archives and Google are exploring the possibilities of expanding the on-line film collection and making the Archives extensive textual holdings available via the Internet.
Speaking of archives of free online movies, About.com Web Search Guide and Search Engine Journal Editor Wendy Boswell has put together a great list of other places to find and download free movies online.
Dear sir or madam:
I live in a small community in North Carolina that was built as part of president Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New New Program. I have succeeded in locating over two thousand cubic feet of records about my community which is named Penderlea. The name means the “meadows of Pender” which is the county in which it is located. One of the original residents who is now deceased told me that they were often filming during the construction of the community. I thougt maybe you could help me find newsreels or other footage about my community. It seems the deeper I dig, the more information I manage to find. Could you help me find information on my community called Penderlea, North Carolina.
Your help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your time, efforts, and consideration on this matter.
Respectfully,
Donald W. Southerland
You can also find a lot of archival footage on http://www.publicdomainfootage.com