Prelinger Archives
6,289–6,336 of 10,345 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
Home Movie: 005067
This fun-loving Los Angeles Latinx family celebrates many birthdays with big parties and piñatas. An older son or relative in an army green Class "A" service…
Internet Archive
[Three Monkeys Raised By California Family]
Internet Archive
Detour to Wonderland
Internet Archive
Calvin 0325
Scenes at the Syracuse University Nursery School, 1966. Teachers play with and read to a racially integrated group of children. Children play, climb, interact…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: Janet Dill Collection: 004064
Home movie footage of a family horseback riding in New York state and vacationing in Florida. Can notes: "C1"
Internet Archive
Jungles Of The Amazon
Jungles Of The Amazon
Internet Archive
[Home Movies: Can 10885: Rose Parade, Beach, Mt. Hood, Salem, Oregon]
Internet Archive
Your Visit to San Francisco
Made by Walter C. Fell, owner of W.C. Fell Travel Agency, 335 Hayes Street, San Francisco 2, California, KLondike 2-0975. Descriptive sheet in can reads:…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: Janet Dill Collection: 004053
Summer vacation, with swimming and boating. Includes scenes of cookouts and cocktails on a screened in porch. Can notes: "B2 / AR / Stayton" family on island…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 97171: This is California
California travelogue
Internet Archive
Smoothing The Way
The film delves into the indispensable role of oil and lubrication in modern industry, illustrating how petroleum not only powers machines but also prevents…
Internet Archive
[Home movie: 098499: New York mid-1930s, tourism, and a pit mine]
11 min., BW: 1935 and 1936 tourist views of New York City, also to Ausable Chasm and Lake George, NY, 40 seconds at rim of an open pit mine.
Internet Archive
Home Movie: David Duer Collection: 004034
Family in the San Francisco East Bay. Includes an event at the El Cerrito Masonic Temple, teens participating in relay races, Christmas dinner, river otters…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: Janet Dill Collection: 004041
A suburban family's "first home movie" showing life in Winter with small children and dogs and adults playing in snow, followed by a Spring picnic. Can notes:…
Internet Archive
It's Wanton Murder
Internet Archive
Hills and the Sea
Internet Archive
Voice of China, The (Reel 1 only)
from Datlowe collection
Internet Archive
The Treasure and the Trinket (B-Roll)
B-roll (of A/B rolls; see item 202886 for A-roll) of an overview of Temple Buell College (formerly and soon again to be known as Colorado Women's College), a…
Internet Archive
Home movie: 000487: 1960 Russian River vacation
Home movie: 000487: 1960 Russian River vacation
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 98768: Ohio Family
To come.
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 98364: Michigan Family
To come.
Internet Archive
[Home Movies: Can 10034: Birthdays, Newark, Ohio]
Newark, OH
Internet Archive
[Home Movies: Can 10519: "21st Ave"]
Internet Archive
[Home movie: 098517: 1930s rural life with double exposures]
26 min., BW, scenes from rural life in the 1930s featuring 4 minute double exposure sequence at minute 11:30; much of the reel is out of focus but several…
Internet Archive
Day of Plane Hunting
North Vietnamese early 1960s wartime film highlighting the role of women in combat, agriculture, and childcare. This appears to be an incomplete print of the…
Internet Archive
Stillman Fires Collection: Fires Miscellaneous 2
from Stillman Fires Collection.
Internet Archive
Tides and the Moon
Internet Archive
Home movie: 170004_004: 1940s California Alameda County family
Home movie: 170004_004: 1940s California Alameda County family
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 10065: New York, Washington, Plastic Industry Trade Show, Families, Children
Home movie showing tourist scenes in New York and Washington, D.C.; a plastics industry trade show in New York; family scenes with children, ca. late 1950s.
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 97372: Unidentified, 1952
To come.
Internet Archive
[Home movie: 098383: 1920s Mining Executives, Reel 1]
18 min., BW, 1920s: Executives observe an open pit mine at work in the 1920s, then retreat for leisure time culminating in a big cookout and picnic.
Internet Archive
Calvin 0338
Outtakes from Caterpillar Tractor-sponsored film "One Turn of the Earth." Caterpillar heavy earth-moving equipment shown engaged in a range of activities,…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: Dill Collection: 004073
Interior shots of a home, a family's visit to Cape Cod and the Saratoga Race Course, and a wedding celebration. Can notes: "C10 / Primrose Lane 1968 / Summer…
Internet Archive
Home movie: 098165: 1960s California naval family at Marine World and Catalina Island
Home movie: 098165: 1960s California naval family at Marine World and Catalina Island
Internet Archive
Stillman Fires Collection: Flitful Flashes Of First Alarms
From Stillman Fires Collection.
Internet Archive
Home Movie: Given Eckelman Collection: 003754
Domestic and recreational scenes of the Eckelman family, including birthday celebrations, golfing, lake recreation, and more. Also includes footage of trips…
Internet Archive
Gas Pool 205 outtakes
Outtakes from a sponsored film made for Northern Natural Gas Company. Includes footage of oil wells, offshore oil platforms, people using thermostats, people…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: Nicholson Collection: 004254
Family celebration of child's first birthday (Aug. 3, 1946) and more. Note in can: Snohomish - summer '46 Mrs. Decker 1st birthday Reagans Snow - Snohomish…
Internet Archive
[Unidentified 35mm silent pix] [Birds of Rhiannon: A Grove Play]
Skeletal Entry
Internet Archive
[Home movie: 098732: 1930 Pennsylvania scenes with a wealthy family, trips to Atlantic City
A wealthy family in Pennsylvania in 1930, posing outside their mansion, playing, summer scenes at Camp Oaks, canoeing, swimming, playing with toy submarine,…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 98909: Florida
Cardboard sleeve around can (not retained) states: [unintelligible], Pier at St. Pete, Cypress Gardens, Margot? Ray, Cypress Gardens, Fish Boat, Bridge,…
Internet Archive
Nightmare For The Bold (Pt 1)
Internet Archive
Yellowstone National Park
Internet Archive
Stillman Fires Collection: Foreign Fire Departments
from Stillman Fires Collection.
Internet Archive
Mode-Art Can 2410 (Reel 2)
Outtakes documenting an outdoor adventure in British Columbia, possibly sponsored by Alcoa. Leader: # 2503 "Copperhead" R1
Internet Archive
Home movie: 000541: 1940s tourism to mountain provinces, catches film production
Home movie: 000541: 1940s tourism to mountain provinces, catches film production
Internet Archive
Corpus Christi Day in Hallstadt
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 10740: Detroit Street Scenes and Anatomy of a Murder Premiere
To come.