Still from “Ambrose’s Nasty Temper” (1915) starring Mack Swain and directed by Mack Sennett for the Keystone Film Company, newly added to the National Screening Room.
A few months ago, we launched the National Screening Room—a new digital collection featuring films that showcase the wealth and diversity of the Library’s moving image collections. The films range from early silent shorts from the Library’s Paper Print Collection to newsreels and actualities, from home movies to educational and sponsored films, from television to feature films, and much more. Many of the films in the collection are public domain and are fully downloadable, while others still under copyright are available to stream only.
The Screening Room was launched with just over 280 films, and will continue to grow as additional items are added each month. In early January, additions included industrial and government films about General Motors, the coal and television industries, black market beef sales in 1943, the Works Progress Administration in New York and throughout the country, communism, and the industrial labor force fueling World War II; more All American News segments produced for African American audiences and several newsreels for and about women; and a number of silent feature films.
Still from Vitagraph paper print fragments (1908), newly added to the National Screening Room.
This month’s additions are now available for viewing. These newly-added films allow viewers to experience a few days in the lives of presidents Calvin Coolidge and Teddy Roosevelt; explore the work of film pioneer D.W. Griffith through such films as Ghosts (1915), Fate’s Turning (1910), and Taming of the Shrew (1908), as well as several films starring Mary Pickford, and Griffith’s directorial debut, The Adventures of Dollie (1908); travel to new places such as Brazil and Manchukuo, and revisit scenery a little closer to home. Other new additions can help you refresh your knowledge of cell biology; connect with your inner slapstick comedian through several films from a series of pictures produced and written by Mack Sennett for Keystone Film Company; cross the path of Buffalo Bill and the quintessential Western; and dig into some of the earliest cinema, copyrighted at the Library by Biograph, Edison, Vitagraph, and others as photographic paper prints before film was an accepted medium.
We encourage you to check the Screening Room often for new films, added as the Library continues to preserve and digitize our film heritage, as new collections arrive at the Library, and as new films enter the public domain each year.
The National Screening Room can be found online at loc.gov/collections/national-screening-room.
Have questions about the film and television collections of the Library of Congress? Ask a Moving Image reference librarian here.
Happy viewing!