This site from the Library of Congress – The Life of a City: Early Films of New York, 1898-1906 – features 45 short films from either the Edison Company or the American Mutoscope and Biography Company. You can watch Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show parade down 5th Avenue or see a panoramic view from one of the towers of the Brooklyn Bridge. You can search by film title, subject or keyword; three viewing formats are available for each film: RealMedia, MPEG, and Quick Time. The Library of Congress also hosts Edison Motion Pictures, a collection of 341 of his and his company’s films including those in the previous New York City site. An informative biography and history is also appended.
Archive for videos
Postcard Videos of Bergen County Towns
Entitled Greetings from Bergen County, this series of individual videos on the county’s 70 communities (as of this writing, 65 are online) consists of historic postcards, most from the “Golden Age” of postcards. The truly rural nature of Bergen County is captued in these snapshots, some almost 100 years or older. Living as we do in one of these towns, it is a window into our past. The videos, set to music, range from 1:16 minutes for Elmwood Park to over 10 minutes for Hackensack (the county seat). As a bonus, there is a delightful video of the Palisades Amusement Park! These videos featuring postcards reinforce the fact that postcards must themselves be viewed as historical artifacts, to be used as another type of primary source and subject to the same scrutiny that any source would be. An informative newspaper article on this series is available for perusal. To learn more about the “Golden Age” of postcards, please read this oft-cited article: Rogan, Bjarne. “An Entangled Object: the Picture Postcard as Souvenir and Collectible, Exchange and Ritual Communication,” Cultural Analysis, 4(2005): 1-27. Examples of other collections are: Propaganda Postcards of the Great War (1400 postcards); Old Postcards from Brazil; Library Postcards: Civic Pride in a Lost America (annotated, with a separate section on New Jersey public libraries); Chicago Postcard Museum; Albuquerque Historical Postcards; Route 66 Postcards; Joplin Historical Postcards; and New Jersey Postcard Collection.
LIVE – Former Governor Corzine’s Testimony Before the House Agriculture Committee
His testimony is online now, thanks to C-SPAN.
Occupy Wall Street Videos
From the Internet Archive, this growing collection of media concerns itself with the Occupy Wall Street movement and related protests. The New York Times has extensive coverage of OWS with many links to outside sources as well.
Videos of the Republican Debates
The recent Republican debates can be viewed in their entirety at CNN’s 2012 Election Central. The full debates, plus highlights and commentaries are available. This CNN site offers a wealth of information, detailing the candidates’ positions on various hot-button topics such as health care, the economy, and immigration. When the field finally narrows down, CNN will also cover the Presidential debates.
Phone Hacking Transcripts and Videos
The following full text transcripts of Parliamentary committee hearings are available: James and Rupert Murdoch, Rebekah Brooks, and Sir Paul Stephenson. C-SPAN videos of James and Rupert Murdoch (Part 1 and Part 2), Rebekah Brooks, and Sir Paul Stephenson can also be viewed.
The Return of Captain Sully
The three-day National Transportation Safety Board hearing on Flight 1549 and its ditching into the Hudson River is currently underway. Among the documents released is an animation of the flight after it was struck by geese; this presentation is accompanied by selected comments from the cockpit voice recorder. Other documents of value: interviews with the flight crew; factual report of the group chairman; passenger questionnaires(part 1 and part 2); and transcript of the cockpit voice recorder. Watch this brief YouTube video of Captain Sullenberger and these videos from CNN. And follow this hearing via the New York Times.
Obama’s Speech to the Muslim World.
Read the transcript of the speech; view a video of the speech as well. And read the reportage from the BBC, New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Guardian.
A Day in the Life of the President
View this video and read the accompanying special features outlining a typical day in the Obama presidency.
President Obama’s Commencement Speech at the University of Notre Dame
You can watch the video and the read the text of speech here. For additional information, please see The Chicago Sun-Times, Time, South Bend Tribune, Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times.
Text of President Obama’s Commencement Address at Arizona State University
You can read the entire speech here; for those who would rather watch the video, you can do that as well.
