Moving Images

Moving images deliver a compelling visual record of twentieth- and twenty-first-century political movements, philosophy, and historic events. Highlights include moving images of the Russian Revolution of 1917; the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945; the floods in Tianjin, China, in 1939; and Mother Teresa interviewed by William F. Buckley in 1989. Formats include motion picture films, videotapes, optical media, and digital files.

Collage of media types from archival collections
Ronald Reagan, Gubernatorial candidate, 1966
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Reagan speaks to an audience of Pacific Gas and Electric employees four days before the election

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Firing Line Broadcasts

Television program hosted by William F. Buckley, 1966–99

John Kenneth Caldwell Papers

US diplomat who filmed daily life in China, 1935–41

Harold Melvin Agnew Motion Picture Film

Los Alamos Laboratory staff member who filmed bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1943–46

Herman Axelbank Motion Picture Film Collection

Depicts major events in Russian and Soviet history, 1896–1977

Uncommon Knowledge Video TapES

Television program hosted by Hoover Institution fellow Peter Robinson, 1996–present

Wilbur J. Peterkin Papers

Officer, Observer Mission with Chinese communist forces, Yenan, China, 1944–45

Citizens for Reagan Records

Campaign materials promoting the presidential candidacy of Ronald Reagan, 1976

Pacific Gas and Electric Company Motion Picture Film

Campaign presentations by candidates running for political office in California, 1960–70

Paul C. Domke Audiovisual Materials

US teacher in China, 1937–39; US Observer Mission to Yenan member, 1944–45

Alexander and Ethel Pronin Collection

Films of Russian and Soviet culture, 1908–2001

 
 

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Moving Image Archival Collections     Moving Image Library Materials
Hitler’s burned and bombed mountain-side home in the Bavarian Alps, the Berghof,

Amateur Color Films from World War II Now Available

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Thanks to a 2013 grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation, five unique amateur films from the William P. Miller papers have been preserved. Those films, made from approximately 1943 to 1945, feature footage of the North African and European theaters during World War II.

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Thumbnails from videotapes (clockwise from top right): Reagan ad "Foreign Policy

Videos from Reagan's 1976 Presidential Run Now Online

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Three campaign ads from Ronald Reagan's unsuccessful presidential primary run in 1976, and four press-conference-style meetings of Governor Reagan with high school students, have been added to California Light and Sound.

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Thumbnails from PG&E films (clockwise from top left): Ronald Reagan, 1966; Georg

Campaign Speeches by California Political Candidates in the 1960s Now Online

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Fifteen motion picture films of candidates campaigning for major political offices in California's 1962 and 1966 elections are now available on California Light and Sound. Each candidate was filmed as they spoke to Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) employees and answered their questions during the company's nonpartisan lunchtime voter education program.  See the complete list of the digitized films, from the Pacific Gas and Electric Company Motion Picture Film collection, below.

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California Light and Sound

More Audiovisual Materials about California Digitized and Online

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Eleven more historic California recordings from Hoover collections have been digitized for California Light and Sound, a project of the California Preservation Program.

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Composite image from John K. Caldwell videos.

Unique amateur films from the John K. Caldwell papers have been preserved

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Unique amateur films from the John K. Caldwell papers have been preserved thanks to a 2012 National Film Preservation Foundation grant.

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Thumbnail images from the Edmund G. Brown press conference motion picture film (

More Audiovisual Materials about California Digitized and Online

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Eleven more historic California recordings from Hoover collections have been digitized for California Light and Sound, a project of the California Preservation Program. The recordings shed light on Herbert Hoover, Ronald Reagan, Proposition 13, the San Francisco Giants, the proposed peripheral canal, and the construction of the Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART).

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William F. Buckley's Firing Line television series

Firing Line episodes available through Amazon Instant Video

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

More than one hundred seventy programs from William F. Buckley’s Firing Line television series are now available on Amazon Instant Video, which offers instant streaming on compatible devices.

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Glue deposits on videotape

Firing Line 2-inch videotape preservation

Of the fifteen hundred Firing Line episodes, more than four hundred are recorded on 2-inch quad videotape, the first and oldest broadcast-quality videotape format. These videotapes come spooled on an open reel about a foot in diameter, and each videotape in its case weighs nearly twenty pounds. Specialized videotape preservation laboratories are used to assess, treat, and transfer the content of these 2-inch videotapes to modern videotape formats, as shown in this slideshow.

Slideshow
Cover of a publicity handout, 1967

Images from the Hoover Institution’s Firing Line collection

William F. Buckley Jr. hosted Firing Line on television from 1966 to 1999. The show is a window on twentieth-century American culture, politics, and television; one can see such guests as Ronald Reagan, Clare Booth Luce, Barry Goldwater, Malcolm Muggeridge, David Susskind, and Hugh Hefner discuss topics as varied as liberalism, religion, Alger Hiss, feminism, and the U.S. presidency.

Slideshow
William F. Buckley's Firing Line television series

Firing Line episodes available for the first time through Amazon Instant Video

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Thirty-two programs from William F. Buckley’s Firing Line television series are now available on Amazon Instant Video, which offers instant streaming of the programs on compatible devices. Featured guests on those programs, which date from 1972 to 1999, include Newt Gingrich, Ronald Reagan, Thomas Sowell, Margaret Thatcher, Joan Baez, Christopher Hitchens, and Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

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Contact L&A For assistance contact archives [at] hoover [dot] stanford [dot] edu or 650-723-3563

Watch Digitized Films and Videos

Old-fashioned television

Hoover Archives YouTube Channel
 

Slideshow

Wrinkled videotape (2)

Firing Line 2-inch Videotape Preservation
 

Collections Online

Thumbnails from videotapes (clockwise from top right): Reagan ad "Foreign Policy

Moving images

Hoover Archivists' Musings: Archival Film: A Reel Dilemma

Film or Video?

They say nitrate won't wait, but neither will acetate. Read more.

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Close-up of "Through Polish Eyes" poster. UK 3412, Poster collection, Hoover Ins

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