Prelinger Archives
6,481–6,528 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
[Home Movies: Can 10561: Trip West]
Internet Archive
[Palmer Stock Shots: San Francisco Transportation]
Kodachrome stock shots ca. early 1940s (not logged or listed)
Internet Archive
Home movie: 170003_D: 1940s California peach harvest soft focus
Home movie: 170003_D: 1940s California peach harvest soft focus
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 001727
A family's visit to Eastern Massachusetts, including Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod, Salem, and Plymouth. Also includes footage filmed in New Hampshire and…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 010960
Domestic and recreational scenes including family Christmas and Easter celebrations, a parade down Market Street in San Francisco, California, and more. Label…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 97360: Pennsylvania Family
To come.
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 98234: Iron Horse Ramble, Reading Railroad
Label on can: "Iron Horse Ramble" / Reading Railroad 4-30-60"
Internet Archive
Our Philadelphia: Magazine Magic
montage of women's faces from magazines and paintings at end of reel.
Internet Archive
Pittsburgh Pirates
Footage of a music festival at Constitution Park (now known as Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park) in Berkeley, with many shots of audiences, folk and…
Internet Archive
Supply the Demand (B-Roll)
B-roll (of A/B rolls; see item 202885 for A-roll) of an in-house production by IBM detailing the manufacture of industrial cards utilizing photographic…
Internet Archive
[Home Movies: Can 10553: Washington D.C. and St. Augustine, Florida, 1940]
Internet Archive
Pathé Presents Al Smith and Joe Robinson, The Democratic Nominees of 1928
Internet Archive
Irrigation for the Northern Plains
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 97295: Hawaii
To come.
Internet Archive
Chile 3
Silent interview footage for an unknown production, possibly related to the 1973 Chilean coup d'état. Slate reads: "Three at Night" Can notes: "This is…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: Rochester Collection: 004259
A family celebrating a wedding, attending a yacht club event, visiting British Columbia, and spending time together outdoors. Notes from containers: From…
Internet Archive
Right Now!
Internet Archive
[Home movie: 098456: Baby grows up: Two years with an Ohio family]
15 min., color: Two years in the life of a young family in Ohio, a new baby grows to two years old in this reel featuring family Christmases, birthdays, and…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 10559: Moon Film
To come.
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 97167: Vacation 1960, Amish Country
Vacation 1963, Yellowstone
Internet Archive
Irrigation for the Northern Plains
Internet Archive
From Every Mountainside
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 10941: Georgia, 1930s
To come.
Internet Archive
[Home Movies: Can 10346: Trip to Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, July-August 1946]
Internet Archive
[Untitled: Preferred Jelly Beans Outtakes]
footage of Preferred Jelly Bean displays in stores, shoppers and factory.
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 000475
Home movie or tourist footage of Alaskan landscapes and wildlife, sled dog racing, the Alaska Railroad, ice skating, and a performance of the Indigenous…
Internet Archive
[Gould can 5185.3]
Promo for IN OLD ARIZONA
Internet Archive
Our World In Review
Silent newsreel. Studies in photography.
Internet Archive
Luer Space Ship Optical Neg
Luer Space Ship Optical Neg
Internet Archive
Nursing: A Career of Service
Film promoting military, civilian, clinical, and other nursing careers, including sequences of women being educated at UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco…
Internet Archive
3 Beach Wind Mill Plane
Possibly footage for a Mode-Art production - appears to be a location scouting mission and/or documentation of windmill siting in rural and wilderness areas…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: Galante Collection: 004327
Galante family of the San Francsisco Bay Area, featuring footage of youth playing and skiing; travels to Switzerland and France; and the San Francisco-Oakland…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: Gordon Hewes Collection: 004176
Documentation of damage to buildings likely following the 1933 Long Beach earthquake, followed by a transatlantic ocean voyage to London. Reel includes some…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: Florence and Bill Young Collection: 000204
A family travels to California making stops in some less frequently visited places, including the gold mining town Coloma and a fire lookout tower in the…
Internet Archive
Al Mismo Tiempo...
"Coincidencias Aldredor de 1880... Some good shots to be logged.
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 98568: Unidentified
To come.
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 004162
Travel reel of landscapes, architecture, gardens, and natural history, photographed primarily in Austria and the Austrian Alps, with visits also to Denmark,…
Internet Archive
Mode-Art Can 1482 R4
Negative outtakes of a steel bridge possibly used in "Profile of Steel". Long shot of a bridge across a river.
Internet Archive
Home Movie: Jamison Collection: 004124
Home movie footage of flowers at the Huntington Library and Gardens in San Marino, California. Also includes a brief sequence of neon signs and Christmas…
Internet Archive
Days Afield with Rod and Gun
The Wapanoca Outing Club (Turrell, Arkansas) hunting ducks on Wapanocca Lake in the early 1920s. Notable scenes of African American men piloting boats for the…
Internet Archive
[Home Movies: Wedding]
Wedding, woman with cat, children on porch swing, water skiing
Internet Archive
Home movie: 170006_001: 1930s Oregon tourism and Calexico
Home movie: 170006_001: 1930s Oregon tourism and Calexico
Internet Archive
Home Movie: Gordon Hewes Collection: 004164
Opening title card reads: INSURRECTION a tale of pre-war Russia with Charles Warren An amateur silent film narrative set during the Russian Revolution,…
Internet Archive
The Dog And The Ducks
Silent short featuring a dog playing with ducks.
Internet Archive
[Home movie: 098999-1: Arkansas family farm scenes]
Home movie from a white Arkansas family in the 1960s that had a large farm and traveled regionally. This reel features children harvesting nuts, farm and yard…
Internet Archive
[Home Movies: Can 10846: Yardley, PA: Suburban Life]
Skeletal Entry
Internet Archive
Home Movie: Scarpulla Collection: 58
Family reunion in Italy. Note on container: S. ALIOTO 1741 N. POINT ST. SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. [Cefalà Diana] July 5
Internet Archive
Businessman-Farmer. The
Skeletal Entry