Form. Resourceh a wonderful for students, scholars. You can view many of the byliest films by bill at visiting loc. Gov the library of congress provides access to the earliest sound and video recording. American history tv visited the to the youth of the earliest political ad created in 1912 by the democratic party. Sean. My name is mike the mashon. Today we are at the packard campus for audiovisual conservation in culpeper virginia, and facility that opened in the summer of 2007 and is dedicated to preserving our audiovisual heritage. 1880s edison forted thinking about doing the eye what the photograph did for the year. For the ear. He began a whole series of experiment with Motion Picture film. What about work was done by his engineer, a guy named William Kennedy laurie dickson. Is a sometimes unjustly forgotten figure. In film history. But it was dixon who really did most of the work in developing the Motion Picture camera he is responsible for a lot of those early camera tests, including. He is the person who shot the kinetoscope record of the sneeze. He is featured in what we believe to be the very first sound film. It is called the dickson experimental sound film. And this is an interesting story. We have the film of the dickson experimental sound from. On the wax cylinder, you can actually hear somebody saying start. The edison historical site and new jersey had a copy of the wax sondergaard to copy of the film. Several years ago, working with walter, and Academy Awardwinning sound engineer, to marry thenaged two together. So we have a great example of the very first sound film. Mr. Mashon another interesting aspect of what we have here in the collection is our political coverage. Very first president was captured on film is william mckinley. So we have the film of mckinley during time in the spanishamerican war. A conflict incidentally that was covered by several motion producers, sometimes recreating scenes of the spanishamerican war in new jersey. Mr. Mashon on its website, the libra has a whole special section devoted to the spanishamerican war on film. There were some cameramen who got down into cuba to shoot some footage there. There are some troops embarking from floridarida put they might shoot that in new jersey florida. They might shoot that in new jersey or they might stage battles. So there is a mix of actuality footage and recreated footage. Mr. Mashon but this really is the first conflict ever captured on film. We also have, for example, footage from mckinleys inauguration in march of 1901. Of hisootage inauguration, it is certainly going to be nothing like what we see today. You can see it mckinley very clearly. He is on the east side of the capital, where inaugurations used to take place. You sort of see him isolated in the box there, he is taking the oath of office. You can see him giving his speech, which is totally on amplified, so i cant imagine too many people heard him. We see a little bit of a parade afterwards on constitution avenue. 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. You are not getting closeups of anybody taking the oath of office in any of those early films. And then have a whole series of film. To buffalo init september of 1901, where he is assassinated. There is no footage of that, but there is certainly some from 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 leaving his house in ohio. So there is a tremendous amount of coverage of that. Funerals of mckinleys are, you know, they show the black draped coffin. You know, being put into a hearse. He diedey are being in washington, but his body was taken back to his home in ohio. For burial. So they just follow the whole funeral procession. With various films. Mccamleys body arriving at the ohio station mckinleys body arriving at the ohio station. Mr. Mashon you see a lot of those same kind of things films for Theodore Roosevelt when he died. There is plenty of footage of people coming by to pay their respects. Of roosevelt coffin and burial service. Very things starting to be well covered. Ironically, the next president who died in office really wasnt long after roosevelt was warren harding. I dont think we have any footage of his funeral. In fact, we dont have much footing footage of harding at all. Of course, after can the dyes, then Theodore Roosevelt, very young, he comes the new president of the United States. And roosevelt is a fascinating figure. Especially for us here in the moving image section. Because he is an astonishing astonishingly well chronicled president. There is a lot of film on president roosevelt. And the reason why is because he died in 1919. That, the Roosevelt Memorial association was established that was devoted to collecting as much information about Theodore Roosevelt as possible. Asked a lot out and of people, a lot of film producers, among others, if they would donate material relating to Theodore Roosevelt to the memorial association. And they gathered up and nearly 500 films from various producers. A lot of newsreel producers. For example. You had film about roosevelt that they donated to the Roosevelt Memorial association. And then later in the 1950s, the Roosevelt Memorial association during the therefrom connection collection to the library of congress. So roosevelt is captured not only in the paper print collection because, of course, Companies Like edison biographic and others were shooting footage of roosevelt, roosevelt inauguration in 1905 and roosevelt visit here, roosevelt in the panama canal. There is a lot of footage that came in through the copyright through the then Roosevelt Memorial association, they are getting newsreel producers, for example, that didnt register their films. They had a lot of films relating to roosevelt, particularly after he left office. This is a man who had an amazing decade after he left office going to africa, serving as a roving foreign ambassador all over the world, running for president again as a progressive candidate in 1912, going to brazil and traversing the river of doubt. And there is a lot of film taken in the river of doubt. And all that is here at the library of congress. Ande are busy preserving digitizing that material, as well. The most interesting thing about the roosevelt films, ironically, there is a good deal of film which lasted from 1901 to 1909. But the vast bulk of the from that we have and the collection relating to him comes in the postpresidency era. When he made this tradition expedition to south america, there is actually a paid film company that would along to help they were going to produce a from called the river of doubt about the expedition. And it helped underwrite some of the costs of the expedition. And it is a featurelength film. And it is fascinating to watch. Evenact, all of those for those of us are my be horrified by the idea of a safari, it is fascinating to see these films of roosevelt, the outdoorsman, the strenuous life. Mr. Mashon i mean, youve got films of him on safari in africa. Youve got him going out west, Opening National parks. Days,ng his cowboy reunions with the roughriders. He is such he is one of those magnetic figures that whenever you see him, even on this old film, your eyes are just drawn to him. And we have some films of him campaigning for the presidency in 1912. These are very nice films of him campaigning on the back of train platforms. And you just really wish you could hear him. We have recordings of roosevelt from 19 oh 12. He actually cut if your records 1912. He actually cut a few records, so we do have roosevelt voice, as well, which is actually quite high and squeaky. We stand for a living wage. Where does that provide a living to those who give their time and energy. Vers according to local censorship, but must include and to give the elements of a normal standard of living. A standard high enough to make morality possible and provide for education and recreation. [indiscernible] i do think that roosevelt was very aware of his image. Particularivated a image of being a strong, robust, can do kind of guy. And this is one reason why he cooperated with people who wanted to take movies of him so much. And im grateful for that as an historian. That we have all of 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. Ironically, the first color 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. Taft was was a very captured in a very early color process. Isween the roosevelt, there a regrettably small number of films. Twois striking that these roosevelt both had the sort of same approach to the media. By the time Franklin Roosevelt takes office, radio is now an everyday part of american life. And he takes advantage of that. But he was very visually savvy. He welcomed newsreel cameras. He welcomed people shooting film of his activities. Obviously, he didnt want people to see him in a wheelchair, but he did manage that. There is just a lot of film on Franklin Roosevelt in the same way that there was in 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. Films that werite have any collection is what we believe to be the very First Political ad. It comes from 1912. And this is the race in which William Howard taft is a republican candidate, Woodrow Wilson is a democratic candidate, and Theodore Roosevelt is running in the progressive party. The bull moose party. Film is called, the old way and the new. It opens with this rich plutocrats who comes into his work ashere one of his is dutifully dusting off portraits of Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard taft. They are grouped in this together as new example of the old way of doing things in this example of the old way of doing these things. They are contrasted with the new way of doing things. Represented by Woodrow Wilson, who is the champion of the common man. And the film actually ends with a plea for people to send one dollar to the Democratic National committee on behalf of of the Woodrow Wilson campaign because Woodrow Wilson is for the common man, the republicans are for the wealthiest 1 . Have notthough strokes changed in the last 100 years. We have 1. 4 million items in the collection. There are plenty of treasures out there to be discovered. And the great thing is with new technology that we have, not only the ability to preserve these older films on film stock, but we have a lot more Technology Available to digitize the film and make them available for people. We have known about the film. Now have ways of getting it out there for people to see. Film we first sound 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. Speaking to the camera about policy. Talk isaring silent amusing in and of itself. It grants everybody a life pension with which 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 on the American People is economy and government. Said that in have 1912, the copyright law changed. And we were no longer receiving films through copyright. Or we werent keeping the films that were registered to copyright. But that doesnt mean that we dont have any films between 1912 and the 1940s when we really did start keeping a lot of films that were coming in to copyright. We have gone back and retrospectively collected over the years. So we have nearly 140 million feet of film. And a great amount of that film is chronicling world war i. We are in the process of doing more preservation and digitization work on those fails now leading up to the centenary. Films not only made because we companies started to see more newsreels come along in the midteens, but also made by, you know, the burgeoning hollywood studios. So we have fictional films that are set during world war i, some griffith wereby actually shot overseas during the war. But there is just a tremendous amount of actuality footage. A little of it, some battlefield footage. Some political leaders. Leaders of all the major countries that were involved in world war i. , whichf bond rallies were hosted by very popular charlieke mary pichler, chaplin, douglas fairbanks. So there is a fair amount of coverage of world war i in our collection. Much of that world war i footage good rcher mark had a footage is thanks to researchers. Most of that footage we had 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 failed to want to make preserve the films. Want to make sure the films are stored so they last for a long time, but does it is a is such a great digitization is such a great access to all to allow so many more people to see these world war i films we have in the collection. , fore collaborating with example, a Worldwide Consortium of archives that are trying to preserve and make available the world war i films. Working, for example, very closely with a group in italy that is coordinating amongst many archives, both in the United States and in europe. Especially among the combatant nations, to as much world war i film as possible to make it available online. This is the earliest videotape in our collections. May 1958. From a this is the inauguration of Color Television. In washington dc. A ceremony that was hosted by robert and president of nbc and attended by president eisenhower. During the ceremony, he flicks the switch. The cameras you see before you will pick by pressing this button, which i now do, the cameras are transmitting a letter color picture. When you step before them, you will be making her first appearance on Color Television from washington. Mr. Mashon it goes from blackandwhite 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 strip of this new tape. I have asked our engineers to make to tape copies of this program. One will be sent, mr. President , to the white house. The other will be presented to the library of congress to let us so that the archives may permanently possess the significant occasion. I think all of us realize that in these fastmoving times, it is highly important that our Nations Capital should be attached to every single citizen in this country by the very fastest, best kind of communications. Nation and of a government that at one time could tolerate three or four almostf study now demand instantaneous reactions. Mr. Mashon and that is the copy 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 videotape. Mr. Mashon they way that most people today, early 2013, are able to see our films is to visit the moving image Reference Center in the Madison Building on capitol hill in washington dc. 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 strrently in the mists mid of a change that is going to see a lot more of our content available online. And we are a long way off from the day when everything that we have will be available online, but with some of the work that is taking place here, we are going to reach a day very soon, i think, when there is just tremendous amount of material out there waiting for a new generation of researchers to discover it and make something meaningful of it. There is a lot of stories that can be told in our collection. Makee are just so eager to more of it available for people to discover and enjoy and tell us more about what we have. Announcer you can view many of the films by visiting loc. Gov. Night,er this sunday Brookings Institution senior fellow rhonda brown talks about the u. S. Counterinsurgency in afghanistan. The u. S. Did achieve improvements in security, but it depends on how would ands. And where i hesitate an increasingly interrogates myself and question myself, we dont know how it will and. We think it is a moment if we withdraw now, the moment still to also possible see five is that liberal we will be back in a new civil war in afghanistan. Isis is now slowly emerging in the country, the terrifying prospect that in this, much worse than the caliban. Taliban. So if we and up five yes down the road and a new civil war in afghanistan, a new safe haven ban and ialiban tali says, then i would say it was not with the price. Announcer sunday night at 8 00 eastern and pacific. Announcer you are watching American History tv on cspan3. Next, a Georgia SouthernUniversity History professor, eric allen hall, discusses arthur ashes personal life and the civil rights movement. Professor halls book, arthur ashe tennis and justice in the civil rights era,