Research

The Moving Image Source Research Guide is a gateway to the best online resources related to film, television, and digital media.

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  • Moving Image Collection Catalog  
    The Museum of the Moving Image's collection contains artifacts from every stage of producing, promoting, and exhibiting motion pictures, television, and digital media -- currently more than 130,000 objects. Holdings include licensed merchandise, technical apparatus, still photographs, production design materials, costumes, fan magazines, publicity materials, and video and computer games. The online catalog currently contains over 4,000 silent-era and licensed merchandise entries.
  • Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Television  
    An online encyclopedia with more than 1,000 entries. Users can also search the museum's collection catalog.
  • Museum of Lone Pine Film History  
    Website of a museum devoted to the film history of Lone Pine, Death Valley, and the Eastern Sierra. Also features articles on the many westerns filmed at Lone Pine, as well as an inventory of the museum's collection of western film memorabilia, props, and oral histories.
  • Museum of Television Online Exhibits  
    Click on "exhibits" to see a timeline of television history, an exhibit on TV pioneers, and other online exhibits.
  • National Film and Sound Archive Collection  
    Search the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia's catalog, which contains items that are in the physical archive in Canberra.
  • National Public Broadcasting Libraries at the University of Maryland  
    Browse through finding aids for the many specialized collections in the physical archive.
  • NBC News Archives   Paid Subscription Required
    View thousands of video clips from NBC's archives. Registration is necessary.
  • Origins of American Animation (Library of Congress)  
    This website, maintained by the Library of Congress, offers 21 animated films and two fragments from the early days of American animation. Included are examples of clay, puppet, and cutout animation, as well as pen drawings, in a variety of formats for both streaming and download.
  • Paley Center for Media  
    The Paley Center for Media (formerly the Museum of Television and Radio) collects radio and TV programs and advertisements. The museum has about 120,000 pieces of programming. The museum has two locations: one in New York City and one in Los Angeles.
  • Particip@tions: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies   Peer Reviewed
    Participations is an online, peer-reviewed journal of audience research and reception studies. It is published twice yearly and back issues are archived within the website.
  • PBS 30-Second Candidate  
    An interactive online exhibit about the history and production of presidential campaign commercials, featuring a historical timeline and clips of interviews with campaign-ad experts. The site also is host to a short video emphasizing the craft of creating commercials (and its similarity to the craft of cinema) and a dissection of how the famous "Eisenhower Answers America" ads were created.
  • Political Advertising Resource Center  
    PARC's website compiles campaign advertising from recent elections and analyzes voter reactions to the ads. Also, their "Campaign 2008" section includes a running archive of ads, including transcripts.
  • Political Spot Advertising Bibliography  
    A bibliography of print resources about political advertisements.
  • Prelinger Library   Peer Reviewed
    The official website for the physical collection of the Prelinger Library in San Francisco. The library contains "40,000 books, periodicals, printed ephemera and government documents," many of which pertain to television and media, and to industrial/educational film production.
  • SCIPIO: Art and Rare Book Sales Catalogs   Paid Subscription Required
    This site can help users locate relevant auction catalogs, as well as information about which institutions have copies.
  • Silent Film Bookshelf  
    Curated by David Piece, this site reprints original documents from the silent film era. Includes reprints of historical reviews and magazine articles about the industry, as well as information about musical accompaniment of silent films, articles on famous theaters (such as the Roxy Theater in New York), and much more. Active through 1999.
  • Silents Are Golden  
    This website contains a huge collection of vintage reviews of silent films. The site also includes photos of hundreds of silent-film actors, a calendar of theatrical and TV screenings of silent films, and an exhaustive list of available DVDs and videos. The articles and essays on the site are mostly written by fans.
  • Small Screen: Vintage Broadcasting  
    This website features a wealth of vintage television clips, along with explanatory articles.
  • Television Collection in the National Media Museum  
    Images of televisions, TV cameras, and other technological devices important to the history of television broadcasting.
  • Television History: The First 75 Years  
    This website provides a wealth of primary documentation on the history of television in the form of advertisements and newspaper clippings. Also features a photographic guide to television sets through the decades.