Prelinger Archives
5,233–5,280 of 10,346 films, free to watch, from the world's open archives.
Where these films come from, and who sees what
Every film here plays from the archive that keeps it: the Internet Archive, Wikimedia Commons, the NASA Image and Video Library, the Library of Congress and Open Images (the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision). Nothing is copied to this site. Each film's page names its archive, links to its page there, and states its licence or status as the archive does.
Archive films carry no age ratings, so each is placed from the collections it sits in and the subjects the archive gives it, cautiously. Sexual content and nudity are left out altogether.
| Little Ones | Films for young children by name: nursery rhymes, lullabies, preschool. |
|---|---|
| Kids | Cartoons and animation, children's and family films, and educational films, unless they deal with war, propaganda, crime, horror or drugs, or carry racial caricature. |
| Tweens | Documentaries, science, nature and space, classic comedies, newsreels, commercials and lectures. |
| Teens | Everything else, including anything we cannot tell about; war, crime, horror and westerns go no lower. |
| Adult | Sexual themes (such as the old "sex hygiene" films), gore, surgery, slaughter, atrocity footage. |
Internet Archive
Frigidaire Finale 1957
"Advertising film for the 1957 line of Frigidaire refrigerators, freezers, washing machines and ranges. Couple in ballroom dancing costumes dances around…
Internet Archive
[Home movie: 170002_Second_Scan_001]
A California family of the 1940s, residents of Alameda County who traveled widely around the west looking at infrastructure and agriculture. This reel…
Internet Archive
Principles of Electricity, Section 6: Electrical Measuring Instruments
Internet Archive
Home Movie: Richard M. Singer Collection: 000742
Documentation of the 1952 Millstone Construction holiday party held at the Wendell Oliver Pruitt Homes Housing Project. Can marked: "1953 [1952] Party"
Internet Archive
How To Avoid An Accident
Internet Archive
[Home Movies: Laubscher Collection: Shrine Parade, San Francisco, 1932]
Parade in San Francisco Civic Center Rainier Brewing float: "Back to Beer and Prosperity" housefronts Becker storage company van outside house tent camping…
Internet Archive
Monsters Of The Deep Reel 2
"For October, Kodascope Libraries present Monsters of the Deep, one of the most thrilling sea pictures ever filmed. The locale is Magdalena Bay, superb…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 000667: Charles E. Smith Collection: Medical Research, Coccidioidomycosis, Valley Fever, San Joaquin Valley, Kern County, California, Spring 1938
To come.
Internet Archive
Movie Trailers ("New Year's Eve" Promotion)
Movie Trailers ("New Year's Eve" Promotion)
Internet Archive
Folgers Coffee Commercial #10
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 98959: Honeymoon
To come.
Internet Archive
American Family #1
Skeletal Entry
Internet Archive
Dialogue With Life (Part I)
0703 PA8669 Dialogue With Life
Internet Archive
[Home movie: 098567: 1940s Frontier Farmers of Alaska, scenes]
7 min., color, Alaska in the 1940s, professional reel showing farming in the style of the lower 48s: farmhouses, barns, cultivated fields, towns, churches,…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: Leong Collection: 005398
Two young children play and explore a new-looking subdivision in Redwood City, California in the 1940s. A large white German shepherd dog seems to feature…
Internet Archive
Nightmare for the Bold (Pt 1)
Internet Archive
John Schmidt Collection: Reel 05
California landscapes filmed in the Sierra, Death Valley, and Lassen. Includes images of waterfalls, mountain ranges, wildflowers, thermal pools, and more.…
Internet Archive
Home Movies: Can 11243: Detroit, Michigan Family and Travel Film
Home movies presumably shot by a Detroit, Michigan family showing home and yard activities, travel scenes and miscellaneous images of interest, ca. 1929.
Internet Archive
Osprey, The
Internet Archive
Education for Excellence (Part II)
0722 PA8847 Education for Excellence
Internet Archive
Odds and Ends (Hardcastle) (Part I)
0636 PA8485 Odds and Ends (Hardcastle)
Internet Archive
[Rehabilitation Shipments to Korea]
Oakland, California: Rehabilitation shipments to Korea
Internet Archive
Factory Safety
Promotional film that addresses the importance of safety in the factory.
Internet Archive
[Home Movies: Croft Collection: Can 56: Flying in Small Plane]
Internet Archive
Movie Trailers ("Silence")
Movie Trailers ("Silence")
Internet Archive
[Home movie: 098461: 1965 New York, Times Square, Ohio State Fair parade, family scenes]
17 min, color: An Ohio family plays in the water and rides bikes, then travels to New York and sightsees, highlights are nighttime neon at Times Square, and…
Internet Archive
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Internet Archive
[Home movie: 098406: Baby Sylvia in Ohio, Reel 3, 1947]
15 min., color and BW: One-year-old plays in the yard with Mom, tries a tricycle, has her second Christmas with lots of presents.
Internet Archive
Mallinckrodt Chemical: 1935
0561 PA8483 Mallinckrodt Chemical: 1935
Internet Archive
[San Francisco Scenes (miscellaneous)]
Includes early footage of the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
Internet Archive
[Home movie: 098286b: Road trip to Mexico and Disneyland, Reel 2 - Disneyland]
8 min., color: Opens with return to U.S. through Edificio de Migracion in Mexico; then a group of friends go to Disneyland featuring the Space Bar and TWA…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 98901: Family and Travel, Florida, Washington, D.C.
Cardboard sleeve around can (not retained) states: Our house, Ray's house, Florida trip, Aug 1952, Change of the guards at cemetery Washington Label on can…
Internet Archive
Belonging to the Group (Respect as a Human Value)
Internet Archive
[Untitled: New York World's Fair Opens]
New York World's Fair
Internet Archive
Taking the "X" out of X-Rays
Demystifies X-rays and radiation.
Internet Archive
Conquest of Space, The
Internet Archive
Home Movie: Leong Collection: 005403
Extended documentation of Chinese American family and community gatherings in the early 1960s near Lake Tahoe and in the San Francisco Bay Area. Includes…
Internet Archive
[Misc TV Commercials - Crisco]
Compilation reel of TV commercials featuring Crisco products.
Internet Archive
Calvin 0314
Outtakes, compiled from five reels, from a film production entitled "North of 59." Documents research, scouting, camp development, camp life and logistics…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: Koura Collection: 006118
The Koura family's summer recreation time, including lots of swimming at Olympic Hot Springs in Olympic National Park, and some horseback riding. can notes:…
Internet Archive
Trip Through Utah
"Trip Through Utah" highlights the stunning landscapes of Bryce Canyon, presented in a silent, color format reminiscent of a tourist's home movie. The film…
Internet Archive
Vista Stock Shots: San Francisco, Dusk and Night
Skeletal entry
Internet Archive
[Home Movies: Can 10040: Brooklyn, N.Y., Jersey City, N.J.]
Skeletal entry
Internet Archive
[San Francisco Clips, 1950s]
Three sequences relating to San Francisco history: beauty pageant, a sequence on the Gilmore Brothers aviation pioneers, and a live-on-stage game show at Club…
Internet Archive
Spotlight on Burlington County, New Jersey
Skeletal entries
Internet Archive
[UCLA 1935 Campus Souvenirs]
Internet Archive
Industry on Parade: Sylacauga Saga
0527 PA8189 Industry on Parade: Sylacauga Saga
Internet Archive
From Trees to Tribunes