Primary Sources Home: Audio-Visual Collections

"The Library of Congress holds the world’s largest and most comprehensive collection of audiovisual works, over 6.2 million moving images, sound recordings and related documents."

Provides a list of places to locate home movie footage of African-Americans from various eras. It also notes which collections provide online access.

"Sponsored by the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU) Library Deans, this digital project provides access to archival images documenting two important aspects of Catholic higher education. For this pilot initiative, contributors agreed to select and catalog photographs depicting the long-standing tradition of great teaching found in all Jesuit institutions. Other contributors submitted images that highlighted social justice and service-learning programs at their institutions."

"The Library of Congress and WGBH in Boston have embarked on a project to preserve for posterity the most significant public television and radio programs of the past 60 years: The American Archive of Public Broadcasting. The American people have made a huge investment in public radio and television over many decades, calculated at more than $10 billion. The American Archive will ensure that this rich source for American political, social, and cultural history and creativity will be saved and made available once again to future generations."

Archival footage available on You Tube from the Associated Press.

"APM Reports strives to raise awareness, trigger debate and prompt positive change via non-partisan, independent investigative and documentary journalism."

"Artstor’s ever-growing public collections offer approximately 2 million freely accessible images, videos, documents, and audio files from library special collections, faculty research, and institutional history materials, as well as hundreds of thousands of open access images from partner museums.

Anyone may view and download these public collections; no subscription or login required."

Gathers a variety of materials from Alan Lomax, "a musicologist, writer and producer who spent his life researching and promoting unrecorded and unrecognized music, dance, and oral traditions." Find sound recordings, interviews, photos, videos and more related to Lomax's work.

"... is operated by the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA). The NFSA is the national audiovisual archive, collecting, preserving and sharing the nation’s moving image and recorded sound heritage. "The site provides access to various materials including news reels and historical footage.

Listing of oral history websites provided by the Best of HistoryWebsites.

"British Library Sounds presents 50,000 recordings and their associated documentation from the Library’s extensive collections of unique sound recordings which come from all over the world and cover the entire range of recorded sound: music, drama and literature, oral history, wildlife and environmental sounds."

"The entire British Movietone collection is now viewable on YouTube. "

"By the time Pathe finally stopped producing the cinema newsreel in 1970 they had accumulated 3500 hours of filmed history amounting to over 90,000 individual items."

• Free for everyone.


• Search and browse thousands of clips.


• Save your favourite videos to watch and share later.


• Buy British Pathe clips to download and own forever.

Newsreels, documentaries, etc. available from the British Pathe via YouTube.

Provides links to some sites that provide images.

"This online collection contains 888 records of digitized audio of interviews and radio broadcasts created by journalist Don Swaim. The interviews were conducted in the 1980s and 1990s with a variety of authors, editors, and other publishing industry professionals. Interviewees include Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison, Pulitzer Prize winners John Updike and Ray Bradbury, and Booker Prize winners Margaret Atwood and Kazuo Ishiguro."

A project to digitize films showing "ordinary life in Austria through the eyes of amateur filmmakers who recorded the Nazis taking power in 1938."

Free access to movies created by the U.S. Government.

"The EFG Portal gives you quick access to hundreds of thousands of film historical documents as preserved in European film archives and cinémathèques: photos, posters, programmes, periodicals, censorship documents, rare feature and documentary films, newsreels and other materials. Targeted at scientific researchers and the interested public alike, the EFG offers a look at and behind the scenes of filmmaking in Europe from the early days until today."

"National Film And Sound Archive Film Australia Collection is a collection of Government produced films from 1920 to 2008. There are approximately 5000 films in the collection."

This project was designed to "show you hidden treasures in the world's public photography archives." Participating institutions include: The Library of Congress, Brooklyn Museum, National Media Museum and more.

"10,000 hours of audio and video recordings and thousands of documents about social justice movements locally, nationally, and internationally from the 1960s to the present. The Archives features speeches of movement leaders and community activists, protests and demonstrations, cultural currents of rebellion and resistance. "

"Getty Images is leading the way in creating a more visual world. Our new embed feature makes it easy, legal, and free for anybody to share our images on websites, blogs, and social media platforms."

"Welcome to Wyzant's Audio History section! Here, you can listen to famous speeches made by influential leaders of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. We're offering original audio tapes of how JFK dealt with the Cuban Missile Crisis. You can also hear Dr. Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Use these resources to bring history and politics alive! Listening to these historically famous speeches out loud can be truly inspirational for both students and educators alike. In addition to the original audio of the speeches, you will also find transcriptions beneath the audio player, so that you can follow along as you hear some of the world's greatest speakers address political issues of the 1900s and 2000s. "

Home movies can provide a fascinating look at real life. This website is designed to curate access to home videos and amateur films available in various film archives.

"This library contains digital movies uploaded by Archive users which range from classic full-length films, to daily alternative news broadcasts, to cartoons and concerts. Many of these videos are available for free download."

Includes such items as classic TV commercials, documentaries, vintage cartoons, U.S. Government films, etc.

Part of the internet archive. The site contains classic radio shows from the 1940s and 50s among other audio items.

"..It's a big, online archive where we can hear and see these interviews with all kinds of reporters. And some of them are - obviously, Woodward and Bernstein, and Dana Priest, from the Washington Post. These are terrific reporters." From NPR’s All Things Considered

"Over 25 digital Library of Congress collections include, or are comprised of, film or video materials. The following selected list of moving image collections provide a good starting point for research. The newest collection—The National Screen Room—offers a broad range of historical and more current films on a wide variety of themes."

"The National Screening Room showcases the riches of the Library’s vast moving image collection, designed to make otherwise unavailable movies, both copyrighted and in the public domain, freely accessible to the viewers worldwide."

A selection of Audio Recordings from the Library of Congress. Over 18,000 are available online.

"The Prints and Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) contains catalog records and digital images representing a rich cross-section of still pictures held by the Prints & Photographs Division and, in some cases, other units of the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress offers broad public access to these materials as a contribution to education and scholarship.

The collections of the Prints & Photographs Division include photographs, fine and popular prints and drawings, posters, and architectural and engineering drawings. While international in scope, the collections are particularly rich in materials produced in, or documenting the history of, the United States and the lives, interests and achievements of the American people."

A collection of "of Creative Commons-licensed sound recordings of places, events and wildlife in the capital. Historical references too are gathered to find out how London's sounds have changed."

"Enjoy documentaries, animations, alternative dramas and interactive productions on the web, on your personalized home page, or on your iPhone. Don't forget to check out our trailers, playlists and upcoming online releases. Free for personal use and on a subscription basis for schools and institutions. " Note: Trible Library does not subscribe, you will need to use it based on the personal use guidelines.

"The Library of Congress presents the National Jukebox, which makes historical sound recordings available to the public free of charge. The Jukebox includes recordings from the extraordinary collections of the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation and other contributing libraries and archives."

"Multimedia credited to NPS without any copyright symbol are public domain. Multimedia credited with a copyright symbol (indicating that the creator may maintain rights to the work) or credited to any entity other than NPS must not be presumed to be public domain; contact the host park or program to ascertain who owns the material. "

Listen to various broadcasts from the public radio station WNYC; includes interviews of notable people,

Provides access to "The best free cultural & educational media on the web." It includes films & videos, ebooks & audiobooks, online courses, etc. It covers a wide variety of topics.

"The purpose of the Open Video Project is to collect and make available a repository of digitized video content for the digital video, multimedia retrieval, digital library, and other research communities." Users can search for videos or browse by a number of categories: Genre, Duration, Color, Sound, or Collections. Information is provided about the video along with a link to download it. Videos may require browser plug-ins for viewing.

The site from the U.S. National Park Service provides access to photographs from the Thomas Edison National Historical Park collection of 60,000 images. It also provides access to a selection of Edison sound recordings in MP3 format.

Designed primarily as a resource for middle and high school students and teachers, the site contains interactive exercises to aid in the understanding of American History topics from the period of 1880-1920. It helps students in learning to analyze primary source materials, especially visual resources.

"About 15,000 historical prints (ca. 1700-1900) created to document geographic locations or popular subjects and sometimes used for advertising and educational purposes. Most are by American printmakers (e.g., Baillie, Currier & Ives, Sachse & Co.), but publishers in many other countries are also represented (e.g., Antonio Vanegas Arroyo). Subjects vary widely, from city and harbor views, street scenes, and manufacturing plants to genre scenes, historical events, religious iconography and portraits. " Library of Congress

"Prelinger Archives was founded in 1983 by Rick Prelinger in New York City. Over the next twenty years, it grew into a collection of over 60,000 "ephemeral" (advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur) films. In 2002, the film collection was acquired by the Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. Prelinger Archives remains in existence, holding approximately 4,000 titles on videotape and a smaller collection of film materials acquired subsequent to the Library of Congress transaction. Its goal remains to collect, preserve, and facilitate access to films of historic significance that haven't been collected elsewhere. Included are films produced by and for many hundreds of important US corporations, nonprofit organizations, trade associations, community and interest groups, and educational institutions" Available through the Internet Archive

Access a wide variety of materials in the public domain, including primary source materials. Includes images, audio, film, etc.

"For the first time on The National Archives' website you can view complete public information films from 1945 -2006."

"Public speech making has played a powerful role in the long struggle by African Americans for equal rights. This collection, for the ear and the eye, highlights speeches by an eclectic mix of black leaders."

Sign up for the free version of Spotify to access audiobooks and speeches as well as music.

"... based at the University at Albany, State University of New York, is a production, distribution, and instructional center for all forms of "aural" history. Our mission is to provide teachers, students, researchers and the general public with as broad and outstanding a collection of audio documentaries, speeches, debates, oral histories, conference sessions, commentaries, archival audio sources, and other aural history resources as is available anywhere. "

"Founded in 2002 by film archivist and University of Texas at Austin professor Dr. Caroline Frick, the Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization working to discover, preserve, provide access to, and educate the community about Texas’ film heritage. TAMI’s ever-growing online collection includes home movies, amateur films, advertisements, local television, industrial and corporate productions, as well as Hollywood and internationally produced moving images of Texas. By partnering with institutions and individuals across the state, TAMI digitizes and provides web access to thousands of moving images that offer insight to Texas’ history and culture. TAMI’s educational programs promote the sharing of Texas moving images via screenings, demonstrations, and lectures at venues across the state. TAMI also works with educators to encourage the use of Texas film in the K-12 social studies classroom."

"The Travel Film Archive is a collection of travelogues and educational and industrial films - many of them in color - that show the world the way it was between 1900 and 1970. All of our footage was shot on film (much of it on 35mm)..."

See videos from the National Archives via YouTube

"The UCSB Library invites you to discover and listen to its online archive of cylinder recordings"
Includes collected playlists such as: "Mexican Cylinders: Of National Identity and Sound Recordings;" "Popular Songs of World War I;" "Early Black Artists and Composers;" "Historical Speeches on Edison Cylinders;" etc.

A large collection of image resources provided by the University of Minnesota's Library Media Services. Collections can be viewed by subject.

"The G. Robert Vincent Voice Library files found in the digital repository represent only a small part of the entire Voice Library collection, which includes over 100,000 hours of audio recordings. The repository features Voice Library items held in the public domain or which include permission from the rights holder for online distribution. More files will be added to the repository as the Voice Library continues to grow. Please search the MSU Libraries catalog to explore more Voice Library items."

Contains historic audio recordings about events in the 20th Century.

"Web of Stories began as an archive of life stories told by some of the great scientists of our time. As the number of stories grew, it became obvious that some were on related topics and a web was slowly being created of connected stories. After a while we also invited famous people outside the field of science to tell their life stories. We are now opening up Web of Stories to everyone, inviting you to help make our web of stories grow. We all have wonderful stories to share, and have family and friends whose tales we would like to hear. So tell your stories, and invite others to tell theirs."

WGBH's Media Library and Archives

"Wikimedia Commons is a media file repository making available public domain and freely licensed educational media content (images, sound and video clips) to everyone, in their own language. It acts as a common repository for the various projects of the Wikimedia Foundation, but you do not need to belong to one of those projects to use media hosted here. The repository is created and maintained not by paid archivists, but by volunteers. The scope of Commons is set out on the project scope pages. "

Provides access to videos on various topics. Check to see who uploaded the video and what you can find out about them. Videos can be altered, so it is a good idea to evaluate the source. See if you can find more than one video of the same event.

"Universal Newsreel, produced from 1929 to 1967, was released twice a week. Each issue contained six or seven short stories, usually one to two minutes in length, covering world events, politics, sports, fashion, and whatever else might entertain the movie audience. These newsreels offer a fascinating and unique view of an era when motion pictures defined our culture and were a primary source of visual news reporting. "