Prelinger Archives
6,817–6,864 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
Planned With A Purpose: The Story of Connecticut's Parks and Forests
Internet Archive
Tuna Seining and Porpoise Safety, Pt 2
Internet Archive
[Home Movies- Saga of the Happy Wanderers]
[Home Movies- Saga of the Happy Wanderers]
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 011005
People boarding a TWA airplane (N9410H — "Star of London"), followed by a visit to an Abraham Lincoln statue and log cabin, likely a historic site. Largely…
Internet Archive
[Home Movies: Can 10518: Worrall Collection: Maceday Lake and Pontiac, Part 2]
Internet Archive
Training Women for War Production
Skeletal Record
Internet Archive
Movie Trailers ("Coming Attraction")
Internet Archive
Vista Stock Shots: Agricultural Colleges: 2
Can marked: Beef / State Agricultural Colleges / Int & Ext classes at Davis, Fresno State, Cal Poly
Internet Archive
Calvin 0309
Outtakes from "Polyglas Tire Film". Slow-motion sequences of jigsaw puzzles disassembling and fluorescent bulbs being smashed; LEGO kinetic sculpture…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 97258: Sailing, Water and Ice
Can marked: Sailing Water & Ice! 1941.
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 98601: Northwest Trip 1938
To come.
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 98646: Denver
To come.
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 096532
Leisure and recreational scenes of a young family in the high desert lands of the American Southwest. Can notes: "Family, Honey Girl, Trip in new Chry,…
Internet Archive
Niagara's Summer Sorcery
Niagara Falls scenes.
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 004243
Travels to Banff National Park and the Canadian Rockies. Features moose in the wilderness and a close encounter with a black bear. Note on can: #12 From…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: Jay Hansell Collection: 003632
Footage of what is likely the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad. Also includes footage of a San Francisco East Bay family playing golf. Donor inventory…
Internet Archive
1960 Flaherty Meeting
The 1960 Flaherty Foundation Seminar (8/27/60-9/5/60), exploring independent cinema, in Dummerston, Vermont. Footage of attendees eating, relaxing outdoors,…
Internet Archive
Lampasas, Texas
A woman in a sound studio reads newspapers and rehearses spoken word and song performance in this silent footage, with fragments from apparently staged…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: Burns Collection: 004821
Footage on this reel is largely underexposed. Includes images of a wedding ceremony, a child playing at a jump house, a family's visit to the mountains, and a…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 98672: Michigan Scenes
To come.
Internet Archive
QUAKE! Its Effect on Long Beach and Compton California
Internet Archive
Human Reproduction
Though this sex education film concentrates on presenting the anatomy and physiology of human reproduction in sober medical terms, its release kicked off a…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 97398: Colgate University
To come.
Internet Archive
Urban Dwellers in Temperate Countries: A Classroom Picture
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 98676: Hawaii
To come.
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 11113: Labor Day Parade, New York City, 1936
To come.
Internet Archive
Evolution of Man
skeletal entry
Internet Archive
Vista Stock Shots: Cattle Handling — Drivers, Cutting Out, RTC on Open Range and Pasture
Can notes: California Beef Council / "Beef" Orig Eco Stock / Cattle Handling (Drivers, Cutting Out, RTC on Open Range and Pasture)
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 71154: Unidentified Detroit Family
To come.
Internet Archive
Home Movie PA 097715
Home Movie PA 097715
Internet Archive
Sacred Trust (Outtakes)
Inc: Mausoleum footage , cemetery, De Young
Internet Archive
Home movie: 010135: 1920s California merchant family stores and trip to Lindbergh parade
Home movie: 010135: 1920s California merchant family stores and trip to Lindbergh parade
Internet Archive
Builders of the Broad Highway (Part 1)
Skeletal Entry
Internet Archive
Home movie: 010072_001: 1950s cabin at the lake birthday party and Christmas
Home movie: 010072_001: 1950s cabin at the lake birthday party and Christmas
Internet Archive
Northwestern Mountains
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 10329: Prelinger Collection
To come.
Internet Archive
Black Sunlight
Coal mining in the Anthracite coal region of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Note on can: Mogulls No. 15390
Internet Archive
Calvin 0337
Outtakes of a sponsored industrial film shot primarily in Hesston, Kansas. Most of the footage on this reel depicts farm equipment at work in crop fields.…
Internet Archive
PA 9332A
Footage of the Asti Italian Swiss Colony vineyards located in Sonoma County, California. Includes footage of vineyards, people visiting the wine tasting room,…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 10942: Travel, San Francisco
To come.
Internet Archive
New Frontiers: An Epic of Electrified America, The
Internet Archive
World's Fair Report with Lowell Thomas
Internet Archive
[Home Movies: Al Wesson Collection: Fire at Rimpau Boulevard, Big Bear Lake]
Internet Archive
[Home movie: 098902: Michigan family road trip to California redwood country, mid-1950s]
From a Michigan family of older adults: A mid-1950s road trip to California, featuring coastal U.S. 101, redwood trees, and Sequoia and Kings Canyon National…
Internet Archive
The Grand Design: A Lecture on U.S. Foreign Policy (Reel 2)
Content warning: This film contains graphic still images of violent death and disfigurement of humans, as well as an outdated and offensive term for…
Internet Archive
Americology: Recovering Usable Energy and Marketable Resources from Municipal Waste
Skeletal Entry
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 10951: Henry Charles Collection (Prelinger Collection
To come.
Internet Archive
Mode-Art Can 2850 R1
Outtakes from an industrial film featuring scenes of industry located in the south Texas wetlands. Note: C.U.'s Mill People Leader: "Baytown" Tape: Rl 3 & Rl…