Prelinger Archives
7,105–7,152 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 movie: 098114: 1950s Oakland California family
Home movie: 098114: 1950s Oakland California family
Internet Archive
Calvin 0332
Reel is comprised of outtakes for an industrial film promoting Hesston Manufacturing Corporation and features shots of motorized farm equipment in use…
Internet Archive
Armed Forces Forum: George F. Kennan Discusses Communism
Armed Forces Information Film AFIF 50 "Mr. Kennan, a former ambassador to Russia, discusses international communism with a group of enlisted personnel (43…
Internet Archive
[Home Movies: Levy collection: New York World's Fair, 1939-40]
[Home Movies: Levy collection: New York World's Fair, 1939-40]
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 10805: The Key System
To come.
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 004344
A family's farm, Moon landing photographed from a television screen, a wedding, and a camping trip in upstate New York. Reel notes: "1970s Home Movies"
Internet Archive
Luer Space Trip 001
Luer Space Trip 001
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 000933
Domestic scenes of a wealthy family of the upper Midwest, including African American domestic labor, and tourism. Home Movies 000933, 000932, 000936 are the…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 11098: New Haven, Conn. Family
To come.
Internet Archive
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 97404: Snow
To come.
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 004249
White tourists travel by sea on the S.S. Oronsay to Asia and Europe. Features scenes from Malaysia, England, Italy, and more. Note on can: #12a From notebook:…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 98228: CERA Red Car Fan Trip on CTA
Label on can reads: "C.E.R.A. Red Car Fan Trip on C.T.A. 5-25-58"
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 97367: Syracuse and Utica, New York
To come.
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 97261: Salinas Rodeo
Salinas, California rodeo, 1927. Photographed by Art Hoxie.
Internet Archive
Home Movie: Oregon: 003384
Scenes from a Boy Scouts Troop #220 Oregon City camping trip. Notes on can: "Mt. Rainier."
Internet Archive
Home Movie: Ed Westberg Collection: 004100
A pack mule camping trip in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, an automobile road trip, and visits to Niagara Falls and New York City. Can notes: "Camping to June…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 10259: Prelinger Collection
To come.
Internet Archive
Businessman-Farmer. The
Skeletal Entry
Internet Archive
I Am the Way
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 000077
A wedding reception takes place in a formal living room. Guests wear cocktail dresses, diamond jewelry, and suit corsages. A woman sings and plays the piano…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 10815: Family Scenes
To come.
Internet Archive
1016 F 5 Automatic Pilot Silent
to come
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 010587
Content warning: This film contains a depiction of a memorialization of settler colonialists, [00:11:04]. A family vacation to various national parks and…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 71163: Hirota Collection
To come.
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 98932: Family
To come.
Internet Archive
[Untitled: "Stop" Fisk Tire Safety Stripes]
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 098778
Labor, life, and landscapes in and around New Orleans, Louisiana in the 1930s. Includes images of African American people, often laboring and/or in rural…
Internet Archive
Medical Committee For Human Rights
Content advisory: police violence. Film about the Medical Committee for Human Rights (MCHR) group that provided medical assistance to protesters during the…
Internet Archive
Mode-Art Can 2799 R2
Outtakes depicting a summer project of small building construction from pre-made panels. Mode-Art production number: 3968 Leader: Daily # A- 2129 Prod. # 3968…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: Galante Collection: 004320
Home movie footage of the Galante family spending time in Oakland, Golden Gate Park, Ojai, Carmel-by-the-Sea, and Towle, California. Box D- circle circle…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: F. C. Doepke Collection: 010755
A rare glimpse of a westerner's trip to China, circa 1925, including Kowloon street scenes with dense pedestrian traffic, Hong Kong's Victoria Harbor…
Internet Archive
Mode-Art Can 2877_2
United States Atomic Energy Commission (US AEC) workers assembling equipment, perhaps building a nuclear energy plant. Possibly shot in Rowe, Mass. or Haddam…
Internet Archive
[Untitled: Eastman Kodak Follies]
features Kodak Pageant Projector
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 97156: Unidentified
Various subjects, probably shot in the Cleveland, Ohio area
Internet Archive
Scenic New Orleans
Internet Archive
Mode-Art Can 1556 R2
Outtakes from "The Magic Switch," sponsored by Pennsylvania Power & Light. Aerial survey of rural land. Also several takes featuring a man in a living room…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: Jay Hansell Collection: 003621
Can notes: Roll 2 - JAY HANSELL & FAMILY 1962 - Kurtz croquet, beach and camping 1963 - Field St. Oakland – Derrick, Sherri Hansell, Bill & Mary Nelson 1963 -…
Internet Archive
Home Movie: Vic Lusinchi Collection: 071142
World War II-era assembly reel spans a range of human activity from prewar to postwar, and from kissing to gambling to war games. With photography of settler…
Internet Archive
Exercise: A Film Lesson in Health and Hygiene
Internet Archive
[Home movie: 098942: Mackinac Island, 1968]
Tourism at Mackinac Island, Michigan, 1968
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 97408: Texas
To come.
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 97065: Rochester, Michigan Family
Home movies probably shot in or near Rochester, Michigan.
Internet Archive
Home Movie: 003804
A family visiting the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway and Santa's Village, celebrating Christmas, and celebrating a boy's 7th birthday.
Internet Archive
Better Work Methods R1
Text on screen: "This film designed for use with WORK METHODS MANUAL by Ralph M. Barnes Copyright, MCMXLIV Specific cases showing how BETTER WORK METHODS Make…
Internet Archive
Burring Plastic Jar Covers
Silent industrial film demonstrating a new method of burring plastic jar covers. Can: Barnes (A)- Burring Plastic Jar Covers- 6-6-46 (Dupe of Dupe)…
Internet Archive
201661 Home Movie: Sanford Collection: 010067
A homecoming rally and game of the University of Southern California football team in 1936 and track meet in 1937. Note on can: Football - Fall 1936
Internet Archive
Darkness Defeated
Content warning: The opening titles of this film describe blindness with an outdated term for disability. A dramatized narrative in which a blind man and his…