Reel American History - Resources

Here's a working list of web sites that might be useful to people working with or on Reel American History projects. Please send us your suggestions for additions by contacting Professor Edward J. Gallagher, Department of English, Lehigh University via e-mail at ejg1@lehigh.edu.

American Film Institute http://www.AFI.com/: Homepage for America's preeminent arts organization dedicated to advancing and preserving the motion picture.
At the Movies [was the Balcony Archive] http://bventertainment.go.com/tv/buenavista/ebertandroeper/: Archive of over 5,000 video movie reviews by well known critics Siskel, Ebert, and Roeper -- searchable by actor, director or movie.
Authentic History Center http://www.authentichistory.com/: The Authentic History Center is comprised of artifacts and sounds from American popular culture. It was created to teach that the everyday objects in society have authentic historical value and reflect the social consciousness of the era that produced them.
Authentic History Center http://www.authentichistory.com/
Biography http://biography.com/: Web site connected with the A&E television channel contains information on many historical figures.
BrightLights Film Journal http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/: "Bright Lights Film Journal is a popular-academic hybrid of movie analysis, history, and commentary, looking at classic and commercial, independent, exploitation, and international film from a wide range of vantage points from the aesthetic to the political. A prime area of focus is on the connection between capitalist society and the images that reflect, support, or subvert it—movies as propaganda."
Cinema Journal http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/cj/: An important scholarly film journal, sponsored by the Society for Cinema Studies.
Cinema Sites http://www.cinema-sites.com/: An enormous list of links, thankfully grouped by category, to film and video sites on and around the web.
Cinema Space http://cinemaspace.berkeley.edu/Resources/cinmares.html: UC-Berkeley's Film Studies program's list of links to film and video resources.
CinePosters http://www.cineposters.com/?templatename=_category&categoryid=8: Posters.
Controversial Films [Film & History] http://www.uwosh.edu/filmandhistory/controversial_films/menu.php: A special section of the Film & History journal's web site that will contain discussions of such films pertinent to this project as Good Night, and Good Luck.
DoHistory http://www.dohistory.org/home.html: The "DoHistory" website enables the user to "do history" by using a case study involving the diary of Martha Ballard, a post-Revolutionary War midwife, and a modern historical account by Laura Ulrich, A Midwife's Tale, which is also available on video.
Drew's Script-O-Rama http://www.script-o-rama.com/: Comprehensive database of scripts on the internet. With feature film scripts and transcripts, TV scripts, and a link to future famous screenwriters' screenplays.
Ebert and Roeper: The Balcony Archive [now At the Movies] http://bventertainment.go.com/tv/buenavista/ebertandroeper/: Archive of over 5,000 video movie reviews by well known critics Siskel, Ebert, and Roeper -- searchable by actor, director or movie.
Edison Motion Picture and Sound Recording http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/edhtml/edhome.html: The Library of Congress' archive of the surviving products of Edison's early entertainment inventions and innovations. Incredible searchable database of this lost era of American film, featuring a plethora of films to download and view.
Famous Trials http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/ftrials.htm: Comprehensive collection of documents relating to trials that could provide the basis for the "real" element of many a "reel" project. Such trials as Salem Witchcraft, the Boston massacre, Amistad, the Lincoln conspiracy, the Black Sox, Sacco-Vanzetti, Scopes, Scottsboro Boys, Lindbergh, Nuremberg, Mississippi Burning, My Lai, Manson, Earp, Peltier, Falwell and Fynt, Moussaoui.
Film & History http://www.uwosh.edu/filmandhistory/: The home page for the most important journal in this field. Features an index to all past issues of the journal, links to sites and articles, archives of discussions, and, especially, a section on controversial films (see separate entry above for direct link to "Controversial Films").
Film.com http://www.film.com/: Movie reviews, trailers, showtimes, interviews, etc. Pretty useful when you want to check out a film currently in the theaters.
Filmsite.org http://www.filmsite.org/posters7.html: Posters.
FlixFind.com http://www.flixfind.com/Weblog/: Lots of reviews.
FutureMovies http://www.futuremovies.co.uk/: Mainly about new releases.
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History http://www.gilderlehrman.org/: Major web resource for American history materials.
The Greatest Films http://www.filmsite.org/: Contains lengthy reviews/essays and helpful analyses of 200 American films, with posters, quotes, and other goodies.
H-Net Discussion Networks http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/lists/: List of and links to many scholarly discussion groups of possible relevance to the study of the representation of history: H-Amstdy/American Studies, H-Film/Cinema History; H-High-S/Teaching High School History and Social Studies, H-HistoryDay/ National History Day Forum, H-PCAACA/Popular Culture Association, H-Public/Public History, H-Survey/ Teaching United States History Survey Courses, H-Teach/Teaching College History, and so forth.
The History Channel http://www.HistoryChannel.com/: This web site for the popular television channel contains much interesting historical information.
History in Film http://www.historyinfilm.com/: A site like ours.
History Matters http://historymatters.gmu.edu/: "Designed for high school and college teachers of U.S. History courses. This site serves as a gateway to Web resources and offers useful materials for teaching U.S. history."
History News Network http://hnn.us/: Lively, current, and continuously updated collection of material on all aspects of the representation of history.
The History Place: Hollywood's Best History Films http://www.historyplace.com/films/index.html: An alphabetical list of The History Place's best feature films dealing with history, with links to amazon.com. Also contains an alphabetical list of documentary films about WWII and U.S. history and people.
The History Project http://historyproject.ucdavis.edu/: A very large collection of images relating to American history that might be useful for creating web pages associated with a RAH project.
Images of American Political History http://teachpol.tcnj.edu/amer_pol_hist/index.htm: A collection of over 500 public domain images of American Political History that might be useful for creating web pages associated with a RAH project.
Images: A Journal of Film and Popular Culture http://www.imagesjournal.com/index.html: You'll find great articles and reviews in this on-line journal that attempts to interrogate aspects of popular film.
IMDb (Internet Movie Database) http://us.imdb.com/: A comprehensive database of information on movies, actors, writers, directors, crew, etc. -- also contains links to offsite reviews. Probably the best place to start on the web to obtain information about any film.
Internet Archive Movie Archive http://www.archive.org/details/movies: "[A] library of free movies, films, and videos. This library contains thousands of digital movies which range from classic full-length films, to daily alternative news broadcasts, to videos of every genre uploaded by Archive users. Most of these movies are available for download."
Internet Movie Poster Awards http://www.impawards.com/: Posters.
Making Sense of Films http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/film/: "A place for students and teachers to begin working with early twentieth-century film as historical evidence. Written by Tom Gunning, this guide offers an overview of early film and how historians use it, tips on what questions to ask when watching early films, an annotated bibliography, and a guide to finding and using early film online."
National Standards for History http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/nchs/standards/dev-5-12.html: The curriculum plan that in causing such a national furor (see Nash et. al. above) over the representation of history in schools as part of the "culture wars" is very instructive about issues that arise in the study of history in film.
New York Times Movie Reviews http://movies.nytimes.com/ref/movies/reviews/index.html: "Browse or search 28,000 New York Times movie reviews. Included in the free review archive are all films reviewed since 1960, reviews of all Best Picture Academy Award winners, as well as The New York Times guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made. "
Picture History http://www.picturehistory.com/: "Picture History is an on-line archive of images and film footage illuminating more than 200 years of American history."
Reel.com http://www.reel.com/: Commercial site; online store to purchase and rent videos -- has a useful "close match" feature and contains information on cast and crew.
Scope http://www.scope.nottingham.ac.uk/: Scholarly journal that "provides a forum for discussion of all aspects of film history, theory and criticism."
Screening the Past http://www.latrobe.edu.au/www/screeningthepast/index.html: An international electronic journal of visual media and history, based in LaTrobe University, Australia. Contains a searchable archive that features all material previously published in the journal.
The Script Shack Movie Scripts http://www.scriptshack.com/shop/enter.html: A site featuring thousands of "authentic production draft screenplays" for sale. Features alphabetical database and sections on new screenplays and "specials."
The Silent Movie Page http://www.cs.monash.edu.au/~pringle/silent/: Loads of information and trivia on silent movies, their makers, and their stars. Many links to other silent film-related sites.
Talking History http://talkinghistory.oah.org/: "A thirty-minute weekly radio program produced by the Organization of American Historians that separates fact from fiction and myth from reality through interviews with nationally recognized historians and writers."
Teaching History Through Film http://mediapede.org/filmhistory/: With a goal similar to ours, this site provides "resources for high school and junior high teachers who want to use feature films in the classroom."
Picture Show Man http://www.pictureshowman.com/: The Picture Show Man website was established . . . to be a comprehensive resource for anyone interested in vintage movies. de you with a wealth of information in a concise, easy–to–read and easy–to–understand format. . . . The Picture Show Man website focuses on the history of motion pictures from the beginning of its development in 1890, to the end of 1960.
The Silents Majority http://www.silentsmajority.com: Classic film fan club and on-line journal. If it's about silent movies, it's probably here. Links to casts and crews, posters, lobby cards, and some Quicktime clips of silent films.
U. S. History Images http://historyproject.ucdavis.edu/imageapp.php: A very large collection of images relating to American history that might be useful for creating web pages associated with a RAH project.