Prelinger Archives
6,241–6,288 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
Mode-Art Can 2668 (negative)
Staged promotional or advertising footage of canned beans and ketchup with stop-motion animation of cans and bottles of ingredients.
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 004703
Road trip through mountain and desert Southwest including a stop to observe film production, with extensive documentation of rock formations and plant life in…
Internet Archive
Wings for Doubting Thomas
Internet Archive
Stillman Fires Collection: Bigger And Better
from Stillman Fires Collection.
Internet Archive
Home movie: 010137_001: 1940s California upper class girls school and regional roads
Home movie: 010137_001: 1940s California upper class girls school and regional roads
Internet Archive
[Soundies: "You'll Have to Marry Me"]
Man/woman trick costume production number.
Internet Archive
Home Movie: Rochester Collection: 004277
Sightseeing in Yellowstone National Park, with thorough documentation of landmarks including Old Faithful and the Petrified Tree. The end of the reel shows…
Internet Archive
Movie Trailers ("Selected Comedies, News Reels and Novelties")
Internet Archive
[Home Movies: Can 10701: Alaska #1 - Fair]
Internet Archive
Santa Barbara Oil Spill
Internet Archive
Here Is China
Internet Archive
38 Familias
Film about the 38 families at La Posada labor camp for farm workers in Salinas, California who went on strike in demand of improved housing conditions. They…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: Prud'homme Collection: 000948
Content warning: This film includes brief images from ethnological exhibits that put non-Western people on display in ways that are culturally exploitative…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 11697: Hamden, CT Family Scenes, Wedding and CA Trip
To come.
Internet Archive
Vista Stock Shots: San Francisco, Skyline Stock Footage, Golden Gate Bridge
Internet Archive
It's Wanton Murder
Internet Archive
Story of Coal, The
Internet Archive
Movie Trailers ("Mother's Day, May 13, 1934" Promotion)
Internet Archive
[Home movie: 098591: 1950s Alaska: Alaska native culture]
43 minute color reel showing many Alaska native traditional practices filmed by tourists, including fishing, fish trap construction, basketry, snowshoe craft,…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: Paul Steelman Collection: 004116
Tourism and sightseeing along the Gulf of Mexico in Corpus Christi and Galveston, Texas; and in the Western and Southeastern U.S. at sites including…
Internet Archive
[Muybridge Motion Picture Experiments]
Skeletal Entry
Internet Archive
[Home Movies: Can 10586: Livonia, Michigan]
Internet Archive
Company Profile (Part II)
0576 PA8521 Company Profile
Internet Archive
Movie Trailers ("Starting Monday")
Internet Archive
Home Movie: Tuohino Collection: 003521
A youth group's visit around Europe including bicycling, bus, and boat tours. Can notes: "Tuohino #14"
Internet Archive
Home Movie: Coy Collection: 005086
Intimate shots of a loving couple exchanging a long kiss; unsupervised children playing with broomsticks and yard scraps; elder women in floral dresses…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 001086
Content warning: This film includes repeated visual evidence of racial and class differences influenced by the legacy of colonialism, including people local…
Internet Archive
[Gould can 5229.7]
Flagpole sitter climbs up and stands on top of flagpole
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 98610: Family and Friends
To come.
Internet Archive
Home Movie: Janet Dill Collection: 004067
Home movie footage of a New York family visiting Charleston, South Carolina; vacationing in Florida; visiting their son at the Harvey School in Westchester…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: Stallings Collection: 001496
Documentation of the funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia, on April 9, 1968. Featuring Wilt Chamberlain, Richard…
Internet Archive
[Home movie: 098736: Switzerland in the 1920s and a trans-Atlantic ship crossing]
Travel through Switzerland in the interwar 1920s: Visiting the Swiss Army Cavalry and observing Army horse trials; scenes around Hotel Suisse and at Hotel zur…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 97108: Camp Allegro
To come.
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 97214: Trip to California and Colorado
To come.
Internet Archive
Home Movie: Jamison Collection: 004120
Southern California orange groves in winter; family airplane, airfield; surveys crops; visit to Newport Harbor, California with both high-angle and shipboard…
Internet Archive
Supply the Demand (A-Roll)
A-roll (of A/B rolls; see item 202884 for B-roll) of an in-house production by IBM detailing the manufacture of industrial cards utilizing photographic…
Internet Archive
Home movie: 170004_002: 1940s California agriculture and Bay Area
Home movie: 170004_002: 1940s California agriculture and Bay Area
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 98682: Military Academy Graduation
To come.
Internet Archive
[San Francisco Outdoor Art Show]
Amateur footage of San Francisco Outdoor Art Show
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 98902: Minnesota, Michigan, Manitoba and Florida
Cardboard sleeve around can (not retained) states:, Indian Village, John's Pass & Fishing, Grant's Motel, Mackinaw Bridge & Manitoba, At the farm, Boats at…
Internet Archive
Movie Trailers ("Also, on the same program")
Internet Archive
The City (B-Roll)
B-roll (of A/B rolls) of a film documenting demolition of the Bunker Hill neighborhood in downtown Los Angeles, California, and the new construction that…
Internet Archive
[Home Movies: "With Rod and Harpoon to the Enchanted Land of Sport," January 1930, Part II, continuation]
Continuation of Part II.
Internet Archive
[California Rodeo at Salinas]
19th annual California Rodeo at Salinas
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 10371: Family Pictures
To come.
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 11126: Monterey, Carmel, San Jose, Los Gatos
To come.
Internet Archive
MT Chem Orig 4
Outtakes featuring nickel plated chrome products and the industrial application of nickel additive chemicals. Notes on reel: Bright Nickel parts; McMullen…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: Rose Collection: 003830
Michigan family plays and drives in the snow, celebrates Christmas, visits the Original Irish Hills Tower, and has a picnic in Kensington Metropark. Can…