Message-Id: <200008162242.PAA09654@dns.ccit.arizona.edu> Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2000 18:32:32 -0400 From: Tamara Swora-Gober <mailto:tswo@LOC.GOV> Subject: LC National Digital Library Program announces motion picture To: mailto:IMAGELIB@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
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This message is being widely posted
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The Library of Congress National Digital Library Program and the Motion
Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division announce the release
of the collection - America at Work, America at Leisure. - at:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/awl.html/awlhome.html
The collection includes 150 motion pictures documenting work, school,
and leisure activities in the United States from 1894 to 1915, a period
which brought forth dramatic changes in the daily habits of Americans.
Highlights include films of the United States Postal Service in 1903,
cattle breeding, fire fighters, ice manufacturing, logging, calisthenic
and gymnastic exercises in schools, amusement parks, boxing, world's
expositions, football, parades, swimming, and other sporting events.
The motion pictures are from the Paper Print Collection and the George
Kleine Collection in the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound
Division of the Library. Many of the films have been digitized for the
first time for this presentation and are available online in three
formats: MPEG, QuickTime, and RealVideo. In addition, a Special
Presentation with brief essays detailing the history of work, school,
and leisure in the United States at the end of the nineteenth and the
beginning of the twentieth centuries is included on the site.
The period from 1894 to 1915 in the United States was one of dramatic
change for the average person in terms of his or her education, work,
and leisure time. The U.S. was rapidly becoming an industrial society,
as wealthy capitalists assumed more financial control of the country,
and a huge influx of immigrants was added to the work force. More and
more Americans were working in industrial jobs where they performed
often tedious, manual tasks repeatedly, working long hours in frequently
dangerous settings. Over the years, labor unrest, unions, and the
Progressive political movement contributed to improvements in the
workplace in terms of hours, pay, and benefits. The work films in the
presentation cover a range of professions from the period, including
industrial work, cattle breeding, coal mining, fire fighting, ice
manufacturing, logging, and police work. A special series of 25 films
of the United States Postal Office, created in 1903 by the Biograph
Company, follows the many steps it takes to process and deliver a letter.
The benefit of industrial work and similar wage jobs such as retail was
that one’s free time was one's own. Americans found themselves with
more leisure time during this period, with some free time on the weekend
and the prospect of vacations, though they were often unpaid. Americans
of all classes began to spend time attending vaudeville shows and
movies. There was an increased interest in sporting activities for men,
women, and children, as people sought healthier lifestyles. Amusement
parks, world's fairs, and national parks became a respite for the
average worker.
The presentation includes various films of leisure activities, including
ones of the amusement park, Coney Island, racing activities, national
parks such as Yellowstone, and expositions and fairs such as those in
Buffalo (1901), Charleston (1902), and St. Louis (1904). Sporting
activities, including football, boxing, hockey, swimming, basketball,
and wrestling, are also in evidence. Miscellaneous recreational
activities like ballooning, children's egg rolls, and roller skating
also testify to the multitude of ways Americans amused themselves at the
turn of the century.
Building the Digital Collection
The motion pictures chosen for digitization in America at Work, America
at Leisure, are all black-and-white and silent, and are taken from the
Paper Print Collection and the George Kleine Collection in the Motion
Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. The films taken from
the Library's Paper Print Collection were deposited for copyright from
1894 to 1912. These films were printed on paper as positive pictures
frame by frame. In recent years, in order to serve the goals of access
and preservation, the Library of Congress has copied the paper rolls
onto 35mm motion picture negative film at its laboratory in Dayton,
Ohio. A positive film print is made from the 35mm negative and this is
transferred to Betacam SP videotape to produce the master for
digitization. In order to present an authentic record of the paper
prints as artifacts, some of the edging and perforations evident on the
originals have been left in the digital frame. Likewise, original
labels, titles, and other tagging documentation found on the paper print
itself have been retained, as well as other imperfections from the
original.
The original motion pictures were shot at varying frame rates;
therefore, in the video mastering process, the playback speeds are
adjusted to present the appearance of natural motion to the greatest
degree possible. Main title frames for each film are added during the
editing process. Digitization of the films on videotape is performed at
Bell Atlantic in Reston, Virginia. MPEG, QuickTime, and RealMedia
digital versions of the films are available on the American Memory Web
site. The MPEG and QuickTime versions of titles with running times
greater than four minutes have been divided into segments to reduce the
file sizes to 40MB or less. A typical 28.8 Internet connection achieves
a theoretical maximum download rate of approximately 3.5 KB/sec (210
K/min) under ideal conditions. Therefore, a file of 40 MB would take
approximately 190 minutes (3 hours, 10 minutes) in optimal conditions
and possibly much longer than that (up to two to three times longer
depending on Internet traffic load).
Please direct any questions about this collection to mailto:NDLPCOLL@loc.gov
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