Film Collection
Subject
Subject Source: Local sources
Scope Note: Distinguishes audiovisual material in the Library that are part of the 1987 Cataloged Film Collection created under the direction of Nina Root.
Found in 292 Collections and/or Records:
Nanook of the north
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 232
Scope and Contents
Often considered the "father" of the naturalistic documentary, Nanook of the North was made in 1922 by Robert Flaherty. The museum acquired two prints and 25,000 feet of outtakes of the film from its producer, Revillon Fr̈res, at Flaherty's request; in 1967, the outtakes were given to the Museum of Modern Art. Nanook of the North is a portrait of an Eskimo family's struggle for survival. Flaherty's objective was to illustrate the manner in which the Eskimo lived before the influence of white...
Dates:
1922
Native animals of Australia
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 12
Scope and Contents
Animals of the Canberra Reserve, located in the Australian Capital Territory in southeastern New South Wales, are featured in this film: kangaroos, tree kangaroos, bandicoots, pademelons, kangaroo rats, wallabies, opossums, albino opossums, flying opossums, wombats, koalas, Tasmanian devils, tiger cats, spotted native cats, echidnas and platypuses.
Dates:
1928
Nature's side show
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 239
Scope and Contents
Filmed during the Finley Expedition to Arizona, 1925. This film was taken during the 1925 Finley Expedition to Arizona, near the Tucson Mountains. The actual "side show" is preceded by footage of various animals found in the area: a horned lizard, a gila monster, a fox, a prairie dog, a peccary, jackrabbits, cactus wrens, and mourning doves. A family of ground squirrels is also shown, one of whom is seen eating a grasshopper. The next sequence, one of the "side shows," involves the eating...
Dates:
1925
Navajo Indians
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 46
Scope and Contents
The cultural conflict resulting from differences in the basic way of life of the Navajo Indian and the white man in America, is discussed in detail on this program. Hosted by Charles Collingwood and Adventure science reporter, Robert Northshield, the program is enhanced by the expertise of Clyde Kluckhorn, chairman of Harvard University's Department of Anthropology and a leading authority on the Navajos. Paul Curtis and the American Mime Theatre act out pantomime interpretations of the...
Dates:
1953
New Mexican descendants of conquistadores
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 106
Scope and Contents
This broadcast discusses the inhabitants of Truchas, New Mexico, who were direct descendants of the Spanish conquerors who opened the North American continent to colonization and development. The Spanish conquerors were searching for the seven golden cities of Cibola, but found only Indians, pueblos and mud huts instead of gold. The Spanish government commissioned the Cortes and Velazquez expeditions after receiving reports of gold. Bernard De Voto, a noted lecturer and Pulitzer Prize...
Dates:
1955
Niagara Falls ; Navajo
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 78
Scope and Contents
SEGMENT 1: Niagara Falls. This remote broadcast from Niagara Falls features Bobb Schaeffer, AMNH paleontologist, and Dr. Anderson, Niagara Park official, discussing a disaster which occured six weeks earlier when Prospect Point broke away from the Falls. The forces of nature are dramatically observed through films of the point at Niagara Falls breaking away and plunging into the gorge. SEGMENT 2: Navajo. The second segment of the season's premiere describes the Adventure crew's three-week...
Dates:
1954
Nigeria
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 249
Scope and Contents
Anthropologist Francis Paine Conant made this film as part of his dissertation for Columbia University. The film documents the use of the tools Conant collected for the AMNH from the peoples of northcentral Africa. Conant filmed Fulani (i.e. Fulbe), Hausa, and the "pagan" Dass (i.e. Maguzawa) people performing various tasks. Two men build a cone or cylinder house; a bow is made by bending a straight branch, one end of which is anchored in a tree hole as the other is tugged until the desired...
Dates:
1958
Northwest Coast Indians
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 98
Scope and Contents
The story of the Northwest Coast Indians and the loss of their culture is the subject examined. Harry Tschopik, AMNH ethnologist, discusses the recent disappearance of the Coast Indians' culture as a result of an obsession with a tribal institution called potlatch. A ceremony in which tribal members try to outdo each other by giving away their most prized possessions, this practice eventually undermined their economic and traditional value system. Some of the artifacts, such as carvings,...
Dates:
1955
Nyimsao and Kheseto
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 165
Scope and Contents
Charles Suydam Cutting made this film while traveling through the Naga Hills of Assam in northeast India with a punitive expedition conducted by the British Naga district commissioner to curtail headhunting. Ethnographic footage of the Naga peoples is overlaid on a light fictional story about two men, Nyimsao and Kheseto. The story begins with Nyimsao entering a Sema Naga village, where he takes a nap. While Nyimsao sleeps, a Lhota Naga refugee steals his belongings. When Nyimsao awakens and...
Dates:
[1930]
Oceanic conquest
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 204
Scope and Contents
Filmed during the AMNH Michael Lerner Peru-Chile Expedition, 1940. Oceanic Conquest is the film record of the AMNH Michael Lerner Peru-Chile Expedition of 1940. The purpose of the expedition was to continue the research Lerner had been conducting on four previous expeditions, namely, to survey and study the habits of swordfish and marlin in the earth's oceans. Those who joined Lerner and his wife, Helen, on the expedition were AMNH ichthyologist Francesca La Monte, captains William Hatch and...
Dates:
1940
American Museum of Natural History
Museum Archives at the Gottesman Research Library
200 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024-5192