GREAT NEWS!!
First found from a post at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival blog.
From David Pierce at Nitrateville, "I've been working on a project to digitize trade and fan magazines, and the first batch, from the collection of the Pacific Film Archive, is now on-line.
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=%22media%20history%20digital%20library%22
There are eight volumes (four years) of Photoplay, and one volume each of Motion Picture Classic (1920) and Moving Picture World (April-June 1913). Thanks to Nancy Goldman of the Pacific Film Archive for working with me on this group of materials.
As always with the Internet Archive, you can download high-quality PDFs, embed their viewer on your webpage, and download the original full-quality scans. (the July-December 1925 volume of Photoplay is still in work; I can send the PDF to anyone who can't wait)."
From Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy blog, "One dedicated film scholar and archivist is trying to change all that. David Pierce has initiated a privately-funded project called Media History Digital Library, which is described—
—as “A major conservation and access project for historical printed materials related to cinema, broadcasting and recorded sound.” Several major libraries and an individual described as “the owner of the largest private collection of such materials” are participating in the project.
The goal: widespread, free access to a world-class collection of periodicals."
The Media History Project contains more info.
The Internet Archive download page to browse and download available texts.
Embedded viewer courtesy of Internet Achive. Starts with the Photoplay July 1925 edition.
I'm sooo excited about this. I'm glad it's getting some buzz on blogs. now if we could just get a digital film archive....
ReplyDeleteHi Jenny,
ReplyDeleteThis archive is going to be a tremendous research tool - and a lot of fun too. I love going through old movie nags. I do have a collection of bound movie mags, but I just can't bring myself to ship them through the mail to a scanning center. I would rather scan them myself and send a PDF file to the archive, but I don't believe that's an option.
Great idea about a digital film archive. Internet Archive has a good one. Do you have anything in mind? I'll donate to the cause. I just need to figure out what films in my collection are in the public domain.
jtk
Just checked the link out today (6/19/10) and it doesn't appear anything new has been added over the past few months. That's a trifle unsettling; I hope the project has at worst been stalled, not abandoned.
ReplyDeleteHi VP81955,
ReplyDeleteUh oh, I hope the project hasn't been abandoned. Hopefully they are just in the process of gathering and photocopying additional bound material.
JK