Them. You cannot write a meaningful history of film without referring to the films in the paper print collection, because it traces the evolution of cinema from a cinema of attractions and actuality through the development of the narrative form. Its such a wonderful resource to students and scholars of cinema. [classical music] you can view many of the earliest films and the library of congress by visiting loc. Gov. The library of Congress Packard packard campus for audiovisual conservation reserves and provides access to the librarys vast collection of films, television, radio broadcast home and found recordings. American history tv visited the campus to learn about the earliest Public Affairs films, including u. S. President , the spanishamerican war, world war i, and the first ever political ad created in 1912 by the democratic party. Mike my name is mike mashon head of the moving image section of the library of congress, the home of the largest collection of video and the world. Today we are at the packard campus in culpeper, virginia, facility that opened in the summer of 2007. Dedicated to preserving our audiovisual heritage. Edisonlate 1880s, started thinking about doing for the eye what the phonograph did for the ear. So began a whole series of experiments with Motion Picture film. Most of that work was done by his engineer, a guy named William Kennedy lory dixon, who is a sometimes dickson, sometimes and unjustly forgotten figure in history. It was dickson who did most of the work and developing the Motion Picture camera. He is responsible for a lot of those early camera tests. He is the person who shot the record of his knees. Of a sneeze. He is featured in the very first sound film. Dicksonled the experimental sound film. This is an interesting story. We have the film of the dicsk experimental dickson experimental sound film, with d. W. Griffith playing the violin into a horn. Two of his fellow engineers in front of the camera dancing. Cylinder youx can and should hear somebody say start. Son historical site in west orange, new jersey, had a copy of the wax cylinder. We had a copy of the film. Several years ago working with academyurch, an awardwinning sound engineer, and people at industrial light and magic managed to marry the two together. So we have a great example of the very first sond fi sound film. [violin playing] mike another interesting aspect of what we have in our collection, including the paper prints, is our political coverage. Very first president is captured on film is one mckinley. So we have a film of mckinley during the time in the spanishamerican war. A conflict, incidentally, that was covered by several motion sometimesoducers, recreating scenes of the spanishamerican war in new jersey. [no audio] mike on its website, the specialhas a whole section devoted to the spanishamerican war on film. So, there is actuality footage of the war. There were some cameramen who tried, who got them to cuba, the philippines to shoot some footage there. There is footage of Theodore Roosevelt and the roughriders that tends to be in the United States. Troops disembarking from florida heading off for cuba. Of course, there is also recreated footage of the sinking of the maine, for example. They might shoot that in new jersey with models, or they might stage battles. So there is sort of a mix of actuality footage and recreated footage. [no audio] but this really is the first conflict ever captured on film. We also have, for example, footage from mckinleys inauguration in march, 1901. The very first inauguration we have in our collection. The footage of mckinleys inauguration its certainly going to be nothing like what we see today. The film is rather short. You can see mckinley very clearly. He is on the east side of the capitol which is where inaugurations used to take place surrounded by the dignitaries. You see him isolated in a box giving, taking the old of office. I i think you see a little bit of him giving his speech, which is totally unamplified, so i cannot imagine that too many people beyond the immediate vicinity heard him. We see a little bit of a parade afterwards on constitution avenue. So they captured a little bit of that. It is not a lot of footage. The same thing with the Theodore Roosevelt inauguration in 1905. They tend to be longer shots. Not getting closeups of anybody taking the growth of office. In any of those early films. Then we have a whole series of films of mckinleys visit to the panamerican exposition in buffalo in september, 1901, where he was assassinated. No footageheres of that, but there are certainly there is film taken of a mob outside the temple of music not long after mckinley was shot. So, people are milling around, not knowing what is going on. And then there is extensive coverage of mckinleys funeral and the cortege weaving his house in leaving his house in ohio. There is just a tremendous amount of coverage of that. And the films of mckinleys funeral are, you know, they show the blackdraped coffin being put into a hearse, and then body was takens back. He died in washington, but his body was taken back to his home in ohio. For burial. And so, they just follow the whole funeral procession. Films, mckinleys body arriving at the canton, ohio, station, those sorts of things. [no audio] you see a lot of those same kind of films for Theodore Roosevelt when he died at his home in long island. There is plenty of footage of people coming by to pay respects. Roosevelt coffin and burial service. These things starting to be very well covered. Ironically, of course, the next president who died in office really was not long after roosevelt wa warren hardings. I do not think we have any footage of his funeral. In fact, we do not have much footing o footage of harding. Afterward kimi dies, Theodore Roosevelt, very young becomes the new president after mckinley dies. And roosevelt is a fascinating figure, especially for us here in the moving image section, because he is an astonishingly wellchronicled president. There is a lot of film on Theodore Roosevelt. And the reason why is because he died in 1919. After that, a Roosevelt Memorial association was established that was devoted to collecting as much information about Theodore Roosevelt as possible. And asked aent out lot of people, a lot of producers, among others, if they would donate material relating to Theodore Roosevelt to the memorial association. They gathered up nearly 500 film s from various producers. A lot of newsreel produces, for film abouto had roosevelt that they donated to the Roosevelt Memorial association. Then later in the 1950s, the Roosevelt Memorial association donated their film collection to the library of congress. We have that today. So, roosevelt is captured not only in the paper print collection, because, of course, Companies Like edison and others were shooting footage of roosevelt. Roosevelts inauguration in 1905, roosevelt visits here, at the panama canal. There is a lot of footage that through the copyright prices and then to the Roosevelt Memorial association, they are getting newsreel producers, for example, that did not register their films, but they had a lot of films related to roosevelt, particularl after he left afteruy particularly he left office. This was a man u had an amazing decade after he left office, going to africa this was a man who had an amazing decade. Serving as a roving ambassador all over the world. Running for president again, as a progressive kennedy in 1912. Going as a progressive candidate in 1912. Going to brazil and traversing the river of doubt. And there is a lot of film taken of the river of doubt. At thethat is here library of congress. We are busy preserving and digitizing that material as well. The most interesting thing about the roosevelt films, ironically, films a good deal of taken during his presidency, which lasted from 1901 to 1909, but the vast bulk of the film that we have in the collection relating to him comes in the postpresidency era. Now, when he made this expedition to south america and doubt, there is actually a paid film company that went along to help, they were going to produce a film called the river of doubt, about the expedition. And it helped underwrite some of the costs of the expedition. And its a featurelength film. And its fascinating to watch. In fact, all of those even for those of us who might be horrified by the idea of a safari, it is fascinating to see these films of roosevelt, the life. Rsman, the strenuous [no audio] mike you have got films of him on safari in africa. Youve got him going out west, Opening National parks. Reliving his cowboy days, reunions with the rough riders. He is such a, he is one of those magnetic figures that whenever you see him, even on this old film, your eyes just eye is just drawn to him. We have some films of him campaigning for the presidency in 1912. And these are very nice films of him campaigning on the back of train platforms. You really wish you can hear him. We have recordings of roosevelt from 1912. He actually cut a few records of speeches that could be distributed to supporters. So we do have roosevelts voice as well, which is surprisingly high and squeaky, which is not something you might expect from seeing him on film. Roosevelt we stand for a living wage. If they fail to provide a living for those who devote their time and industry to industrial occupation. It must include enough to secure the normal standard of living. A standard high enough to make morality possible, to provide for education and recreation, to care for members of the family, to maintain the family during for old and to provide age. Mike i do think roosevelt was very aware of his image. And he cultivated a particular of being a strong, robust, cando kind of guy. Thats one reason why he corroborated. Im grateful for that. As an historian, that we have all these films that we can use to study Theodore Roosevelts life. I wish more president s after that had been a little bit more camera friendly. There is not very much footage of William Howard taft. Colorally, the first footage we have of a president is from William Howard taft. So, we have that in our collection. There were a lot of experiments taking place in color Motion Picture photography. At the time. And this was a very, taft was captured in a very early color process. Between the roosevelts, there is a regrettably small number of films. Its striking that these two roosevelts, both had sort of same approach to the media. By the time friends and roosevelt takes office, radio is part of everyday American Life and with his fireside chats, he takes advantage of that. He was a very visually savvy president as well. He welcomed newsreel cameras. He welcomed people shooting film of his activities. Obviously, did not want people to see him in a wheelchair. He did manage that, but there is just a lot of film on Franklin Roosevelt in the same way that there was with Theodore Roosevelt, but in between the two, just not. I dont think that those president s for whatever reason felt that it was important to manage their presence in that way. Favorite films that we have in the collection is what we believe to be the very First Political ad. It comes from 1912. Whichis is a race in William Howard taft is a republican candidate. Woodrow wilson is a democratic candidate. And Theodore Roosevelt is running in the bull moose party. Is produced by the Democratic National committee. Called the old way and the new. It opens up with this very rich, fact plutocrat, who comes into his office, where one of his flunkies is dusting off portraits of Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard taft. They are grouped in this together. As an example of the old way of doing things. And so, hes got lots of money, and he is dispensing favors. And there is all sorts of bribes and political corruption taking on. They were contrasted with the new way of doing things, represented by Woodrow Wilson, whos the champion of the common man. The film ends with a plea for people to send 1. 00 to the Democratic National committee on behalf of the Woodrow Wilson campaign, because Woodrow Wilson is for the common man. Republicans are for the wealthiest 1 . Tropes have not changed in the last 100 years. We have 1. 4 million items in the collection. S there are plenty of treasures out thereo to be discovered. And the great thing is with new technology that we have, not only the ability to preserve on newer filmlms stock, but we have a lot more Technology Available to digitize the film and make them available for people. Thewe have known about film. Now we have ways of getting it out there for people to see. Sound film we have featuring a president is Calvin Coolidge talking about economic policy. It is not the most scintillating film in the world, but it is fascinating to see him this very early sound technology. Phonofilm, they called it. Just hearing silent cal talk is amusing and in its self in and of itself. With whichdge to raise the standard of existence. It increases the value of everybodys property, raises the scale of everybodys wages. One of the greatest favors that can be bestowed upon the American People is the economy in government. I have said that in 1912 the copyright law changed. We were no longer receiving films through copyright, or we films keeping the register to copyright, but that does not mean we do not have any films between 1912 and the 19 really did start keeping a lot of films that were coming in for copyright. We have gone back and retrospectively collected over the years, so we have nearly 140 million feet of nitrate film in the collection. And a great amount of that film is actually chronicling world war i. We are in the process of doing more preservation and digitization work on those films now leading up to the centenary of world war i. That were notilms only made by newsreel companies, we started to see more newsreels come along in the mid teens. The burgeoningy hollywood studios. So we have fictional films that are set during world war i. Some of which made by d. W. Griffith were actually shot overseas during the war. But there is also, just a tremendous amount of actuality footage, a little bit there are some battlefield footage. Ofitical leaders, leaders all the major countries that were involved in world war i. Rallies which, of course, were hosted by very maryar stars like pickford, charlie chaplin, douglas fairbanks. A fair amount of coverage of world war i in our collection as well. Much of that world war i footage is known to researchers. We have long had a good to all our world war i related material that is available in the reading room. So, scholars have been able to get access to it, but most of that footage we have is in the public domain. So, now that we have these Digital Tools available to us, it makes for good access copies. We are going to preserve the films. We want to make sure that the films themselves are preserved and stored in cold storage so they last for a long time. But digitization is such a great access tool. It allows many more people to see some of these world war i films that we have in the collection. We are collaborating, for example, with a worldwide that arem of archives trying to preserve and make available the world war i films. So, working very closely with the group in italy that is coordinating amongst many archives, both in the United States and europe, especially among the combatant nations, to gather as much world war i film as possible to make it available online. The earliest videotape in our collection. It comes from may, 1958. This is the inauguration of Color Television at wrc, nb cowned station in washington, d. C. A ceremony hosted by the attended by nbc and president eisenhower. During the ceremony, he flips the switch. The cameras you see before you are, or cameras. They are now transmitting a black and white picture. By pressing this button, which i now do, the cameras are transmitting a live color picture. When you step before them, you will be making your first appearance on Color Television from washington. Mike it goes from black and white to color. And he tells president eisenhower, we are making two copies on this new kind of videotape for you, mr. President. I have a script of this new tape. I have asked our engineers to make two copies of this program. One will be sent to the white house for your personal retention. The other will be presented to the library of congress so its archives may permanently possession of visual record in color of this affinity can occasion. I think all of us realize that in these fastmoving times, it is highly important that our Nations Capital should be citizen to every single in this country by the very fastest, best kinf of communication best kind of communication. Of sions of the nation and dovernmenta that one time coul tolerate three or four weeks of study now demand almost instantaneous reaction. Mike and that is the copy that we have here. Our engineers recently did a new transfer of it. So amazingly enough, 55 years later, we are still able to copy this video. Playingo the chief mike the way that most people today are able to see our films is to visit the moving image Reference Center in the Madison Building on capitol hill, washington d c but that is starting to change because we have a lot of, we are employing a lot of scanners here at the packard campus. Working with the librarys Web Development team in order to get more content available online. And i believe that we are currently in the midst of a sea change, a paradigm shift, that is going to see a lot more of our content available online. And we are a long way off from today with everything we have to the day when everything would have will be available online, but with some of the work taking place at the packard campus, we are going to reach a day very soon when i inked there is just tremendous amounts of material when i think there is just meant as amounts of material out there for a new generation of researchers to discover and make something meaningful. There is a lot of stories that can be told in our collection, and we are just so eager to make more of it available for people to discover and enjoy, and tell us more about what we have. [violin playing] you can view many of the earliest films from the library of congress by visiting loc. Gov. You are watching American History tv on cspan 3. Georgia southern history professor Eric Allen Hall discusses professional tennis player arthur ashes personal life, career, and involvement in the civil rights movement. Explainsarthur ashe how he overcame racial and class ther ears to win three of four grand slam tennis tournaments. This hourlong program was hosted by the Virginia Historical society. Host virginias own arthur ashe was one of the best tennis players in the 1960s and 1970s, winning multiple davis cup and multiple grand slam events, u. S. Open, the rest really an open, and wimbledon. He was also deeply committed to human rights and civil rights causes, most noticeably the Apartheid Movement in south africa. His