Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences—Margaret Herrick Library
Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study
333 S. La Cienega Boulevard
Beverly Hills, California 90211
Tel: +1 310.247.3036 x2200
Email: libraryinfo@oscars.org
The Margaret Herrick Library is a world-renowned, non-circulating reference and research collection devoted to the history and development of the motion picture as an art form and an industry. Its holdings, amassed since 1928, include books, photographs, scripts, production records, correspondence, and much more.
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences—Academy Film Archive
Pickford Center For Motion Picture Study
1313 Vine Street
Los Angeles, CA 90028
Tel: +1 310.247.3000 x3345
Fax: +1 310.247.3032
Email: filmarchive@oscars.org
Dedicated to the preservation, restoration, documentation, exhibition, and study of motion pictures, the Academy Film Archive is home to one of the most diverse and extensive motion picture collections in the world.
Black Film Center Archive-Indiana University Bloomington
Herman B. Wells Library
Room 044
1320 East Tenth Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405
Tel: 812-855-6041
Email: bfca@indiana.edu
The Black Film Center Archive includes films and related materials by and about Black Americans, the peoples of Africa, and the African diaspora. Over its 40-year history, the BFCA has an extensive collection of films and materiams for films with Black writers, actors, producers, directors, musicians, and consultants, as well as those which depict aspects of the Black experience.
Emory University Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library (MARBL)
Rose Library
Woodruff Library
Emory University
540 Asbury Circle
Atlanta, GA 30322
Tel:
404-727-6887
Email: rose.library@emory.edu
Emory’s Manuscript, Archives, & Rare Book Library (MARBL), which collects print material and ephemera related to many different aspects of African American history and culture. MARBL holds the extensive Hatch-Billops collection and the Delilah Jackson papers, which include photographs, programs, and print ephemera documenting African American theater, dance, film, and music history.
The Hatch-Billops collection donated by Camille Billops and James V. Hatch includes: thousands of rare books, periodicals, posters, and pamphlets on African American history and culture; interviews with over 1,200 cultural figures; records of the Karamu Theater in Cleveland, OH; scripts of over 1,000 African American plays; and Paul Robeson files, featuring photographs, programs, and an extensive clippings file.
Library of Congress—Moving Image Research Center
Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave, SE
James Madison Building, LM 336
Moving Image Research Center
Washington, DC 20540-4810
Tel: (202) 707-8572
Fax: (202) 707-2371
Reference queries may be sent by using Ask a Librarian.
In 1942, recognizing the importance of motion pictures and the need to preserve them as a historical record, the Library began the film collection. Today the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division (MBRS) has responsibility for the acquisition, cataloging, and preservation of the motion picture and television collections. The Division operates the Motion Picture and Television Reading Room to provide access and information services to an international community of film and television professionals, archivists, scholars and researchers. The MBRS houses the "Jazz on the Screen" collection: this searchable filmography documents the work of some 1,000 major jazz and blues figures in over 20,000 cinema, television, and video productions.
New York Public Library—Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
515 Malcolm X Boulevard (135th St and Malcolm X Blvd)
New York, NY 10037
Tel: 917-275-6975
Email: scgenref@nypl.org
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture located in Harlem, New York, is a research unit of The New York Public Library system. It is recognized as one of the leading institutions focusing exclusively on African-American, African Diaspora, and African experiences. The Moving Image and Recorded Sound (MIRS) Division documents the experiences of peoples of African descent, as they have been captured via audiovisual technology that includes motion picture film (released prints and outtakes), video recordings, and music, and spoken arts recordings in several formats.
Smithsonian Archives Center—National Museum of American History
Archives Center
National Museum of American History
Constitution Avenue, N.W.
between 12th and 14th Streets
Washington, D.C. 20560-0601
Phone: (202) 633-3270
Fax: (202) 312-1990
E-mail: archivescenter@si.edu
The Archives Center holds more than 1,300 collections documenting the history of technology, invention and innovation, business and consumer culture, American music, and popular culture, including extensive paper and audio-visual materials on histories of advertising and jazz. To name just a few of the expansive offerings, their holdings include the Norman and Sally Coe Scopitone Film Collection, circa 1962-1970, Community Life Afro-American Audio-Visual Collection, 1974-1976, Gordon Hendricks Motion Picture History Paper, circa 1895-1970, The Duke Ellington Collection, and the Program in African American Culture Collection, 1979-1986. Holdings are searchable through their website and through the Smithsonian Institution Research Information System (SIRIS).
Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
1400 Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20004
Phone:844-750-3012
E-mail: NMAAHCinfo@si.edu
The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) is busy creating its foundational collections. These collections will contribute to the museum's research, exhibitions, and programs and be a part of the museum's opening exhibitions in the new building. The mission of the NMAAHC is to collect and preserve artifacts, documents, and art that reflect the history and development of the African American experience in its many aspects. The museum's foundational collections will be representative, featuring items from all regions of the United States. Artifacts and artwork that reflect the historical and cultural links of African Americans to the African Diaspora, such as in the Caribbean, Latin America, and Canada, will also be collected. Cultural material being collected by the museum includes works of art, historical artifacts, photographs, moving images, archival documents, electronic data, audio recordings, books and manuscripts. NMAAHC now has more than 1,000 collection items in the Smithsonian Collections Search Center.
Southern Methodist University Hamon Arts Library—G. Williams Jones Film & Video Collection
Jake and Nancy Hamon Arts Library
6101 N. Bishop Blvd. Dallas, TX 75205
Phone: (214) 768-2000
Email: filmarchive@smu.edu
The Collection’s primary purpose is to support education through the study, preservation, and presentation of moving images. To this end, the Collection maintains moving images in a wide variety of formats, examples of related equipment, print materials associated with moving images, and a climate-controlled storage facility. Current holdings include over 9,000 film prints and negatives, over 3,000 videotapes, and antique film equipment.
The Tyler, Texas Black Film Collection, featured within the G. Williams Jones Film & video collection, comprises 6 short subjects, 9 features, and a set of newsreels, all produced between 1935 and 1956. The African-American films include comedies, dramas, news, and musical performances, and were made outside the Hollywood system by pioneering directors and producers such as Oscar Micheaux, Spencer Williams, and William Alexander. Movies from the Tyler, Texas Black Film Collection are digitally available as streaming video files.
UCLA Film and Television Archive
10740 Dickson Plaza Los Angeles, CA 90095-1450
Phone: (310) 206-5388
Email:arsc@cinema.ucla.edu
UCLA Archive Research and Study Center's collection includes over 300,000 films and television programs, over 100,000 News and Public Affairs (NAPA) programs, and over 2,000 radio programs. The Archive holds many film and television titles by and about African Americans, including some of Oscar Micheaux’s “race movies,” 1940s “soundies” featuring Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, and Lena Horne, and the films of the “LA Rebellion.” The “LA Rebellion” refers to a group of African and African American students who entered the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, as part of an “Ethno-Communications” initiative designed to be responsive to communities of color in the late 1960s. A significant portion of the work produced by this group of filmmakers, including UCLA student films, independent shorts, theatrically-released motion pictures and television projects—as well as select interviews—is available for onsite research viewing by appointment at the Archive Research and Study Center.
UCLA Library Special Collections—Charles E. Young Research Library
280 Charles E. Young Drive, North
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575
Phone: (310) 825-4988
Email: AskUs@library.ucla.edu
UCLA Library Special Collections inspires discovery, cultivates knowledge, advances research, and preserves cultural heritage to create a distinctive learning environment for the UCLA community and society at-large. We welcome researchers to explore our collections of rare books, archives, manuscripts, oral histories, and other materials and to utilize our services.
The Department of Special Collections unit of the UCLA Libraries Collection holds the
George P. Johnson Negro Film Collection, 1916-1977 that consists of materials related to early African American film companies, films with African American casts, and musicians, sports figures and entertainers.
USC Cinema Arts—Doheny Memorial Library
University Park Campus
3550 Trousdale Parkway, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0185
Phone: (213) 740-8383
E-mail: ctlibarc@usc.edu
The USC Cinematic Arts Library is a multimedia archive dedicated to the collection and preservation of materials related to motion picture production ranging from the raw materials to the finished products. The Louis B. Mayer Study center offers a viewing collection of almost 13,000 motion picture and television titles in DVD, Laser disc, and VHS formats. In addition to an extensive book collection, the library also holds extensive collections on the history of the film industry and contains many rarely seen photographs, as well as scripts, scores and other artifacts. The library also hosts the David L. Wolper Center for the Study of the Documentary.
Washington University Film & Media Archive
One Brookings Drive, Campus Box 1061
St. Louis, MO 63130
Phone: (314) 935-8679
E-mail: wufilmarchives@wumail.wustl.edu
The Film & Media Archive at Washington University in St. Louis opened its doors to the public in September 2002. The Archive houses rare and unique collections of film, videotape, audiotape, manuscripts, including scripts, storyboards, and other materials related to Civil Rights, African-American life, the history of Harlem, social justice, democracy and the arts.
The Archive's inaugural acquisition was the Henry Hampton/ Blackside Collection. The Hampton Collection consists primarily of material collected in connection with the various documentary films made by the late Henry Hampton, a 1961 graduate of Washington University, and his production company Blackside, Inc. The acquisition attracted other African-American documentary collections, including the William Miles Collection, which includes the outtakes, photos, music, stock photos, and research from the New York-based filmmaker’s productions.
Yale University—Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library
344 Winchester Avenue, New Haven, CT 06511
Phone: (203) 432-2977
Email: beinecke.library@yale.edu
The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library is Yale University's principal repository for literary papers and for early manuscripts and rare books in the fields of literature, theology, history, and the natural sciences. Beinecke Library also houses the James Weldon Memorial Collection of African American Arts and Letters; recent acquisitions include promotional photographs from the feature films Cabin in the Sky (Vincente Minnelli, 1943) and Hallelujah! (King Vidor, 1929).
Notably, Beinecke holds the Solomon Sir Jones Films, 1924-1928 collection. Solomon Sir Jones, Baptist minister, businessman, and amateur filmmaker, was born in Tennessee to former slaves and grew up in the South before moving to Oklahoma in 1889.The Solomon Sir Jones films consist of 29 silent black and white films documenting African-American communities in Oklahoma from 1924 to 1928Yale Film Archive
Sterling Memorial Library
Room 707
120 High Street New Haven, CT 06511
Phone: 203-432-0148
The Yale Film Study Center, an Affiliate of the International Federation of Film Archives, is committed to preserving and providing access to resources for the scholarly study and appreciation of cinema. The collection includes more than 21,000 DVDs, 1000 Blu-rays, and 6,000 VHS tapes. The film archive contains nearly 5,000 35mm and 16mm prints. The study center also holds over 100 published screenplays.
The African Women in Cinema Blog provides a space to discuss diverse topics relating to African women in cinema--filmmakers, actors, producers, and all film professionals. The blog is a public forum of the Centre for the Study and Research of African Women in Cinema.
ArtMattan Productions distributes films that focus on the human experience of black people in Africa, the Caribbean, North and South America, and Europe. Films in the catalog have all screened at ArtMattan’s annual African Diaspora Film Festival in New York, launched in 1993.
The Black Film Center & Archive is dedicated to collecting, preserving, and making available historically and culturally significant films by and about Black people. The archive serves as an open resource for scholars, researchers, students, and the general public.
Black Film Research Online (University of Chicago)
Black Film Research Online (BFRO) is a resource guide for the study of Black film culture. The BFRO defines Black film culture quite broadly to include the works of Black filmmakers from across the African Diaspora; the production, distribution, and exhibition of films by, for and about Blacks; issues of Black spectatorship and reception; and images of Black people in film from the invention of the medium in the late 19th century to the present.
Cinemas et Audiovisuels Africains
The HistoryMakers Digital Archive
The HistoryMakers is a non-profit research and educational institution committed to preserving and making widely accessible the untold personal stories of both well-known and unsung African Americans.
June Givanni Pan African Cinema Archive
Dr June Givanni is a pioneering international film curator who has considerable experience in film and broadcasting for over 30 years and she is regarded as a resource for African and African diaspora cinema. The development of the Pan African Cinema Archive is based on her collections from years of working in the field of cinema. Her motivation for the archive is to make this valuable heritage collection as widely accessible as possible.
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