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 274 Collections and/or Records:
Southwest Indians
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 278
Scope and Contents
Southwest Indians is a combination of the remaining material from two films made by George Clyde Fisher, curator in the AMNH Department of Education: Indian Dances and Southwest Indians. Against a background of teepees, the film opens with Indians (perhaps Taos) in ceremonial costume performing the hoop dance. To these Indians, the hoop or circle is symbolic of the complete and perfect life as well as tribal unity. A man and a boy, covered in white earth and painted with designs, wear...
Dates:
1932
Space
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 90
Scope and Contents
Joseph M. Chamberlain, chief astronomer of the American Museum-Hayden Planetarium is introduced as a guest on this program, along with G. R. Pendray, a noted pioneer in American rocketry. The history of rockets and man's attempts to learn more about the earth and space by rising above the earth's atmosphere are discussed in detail. Scientists predicted that within a few years of this broadcast, rockets built on a three-stage principle would leave the earth's atmosphere carrying instruments...
Dates:
1955
Spear hunting jaguars ; Evolution of man
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 72
Scope and Contents
SEGMENT 1: Spear Hunting Jaguars. This first segment consists of a 25-minute documentary on the exploits of Sasha Siemel, who recounts his experiences about killing 300 jaguars with various weapons in the Mato Grosso area of Brazil. Some excerpts from the motion picture Tigrero, based on a book written by Siemel, are broadcast on this program. A discussion of Sasha Siemel's career also took place on another broadcast in this series, aired Aug. 16, 1953. SEGMENT 2: Evolution of Man. Harry L....
Dates:
1954
Spear hunting jaguars ; Kontiki
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 37
Scope and Contents
SEGMENT 1: Spear Hunting Jaguars. Charles Collingwood, narrator of the Adventure series, interviews Sasha Siemel, a professional hunter for 35 years who makes his living spear hunting jaguars for cattle ranchers in South America. Siemel, who has lectured at the AMNH, shows films of various forms of wildlife around his home in Mato Grosso, Brazil, and also lets the viewers see his hunting activities: capturing a cub in the jungle and spearing a jaguar. (Jaguars are the largest cats in the New...
Dates:
1953
Spiders ; A day in the life of a lion
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 28
Scope and Contents
SEGMENT 1: Spiders. This segment is concerned with the world of spiders and includes a presentation of a live tarantula and other smaller specimens. John C. Pallister, research associate in the AMNH Department of Insects and Spiders, opens the segment with a discussion on the difference between tarantulas and small spiders. He examines live spiders in the television studio and presents a film about spiders, and their attempts to obtain prey both with and without webs. Different types of webs...
Dates:
1953
Spiders ; The Sahara ; Snake farm
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 77
Scope and Contents
SEGMENT 1: Spiders. The mythology and scientific reality of spiders are the subjects of the first segment. Willis John Gertsch, curator of the AMNH Department of Insects and Spiders, is interviewed, and films depicting close-up views of spiders eating, spinning webs, and tracking prey are shown. SEGMENT 2: The Sahara. Shown here is the documentary record of a 16,000-mile African expedition by Claude Bernheim and his family. Harry L. Shapiro, curator in the museum's Department of...
Dates:
1954
Spirits of the yellow leaves
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 279
Scope and Contents
Filmed mainly during the AMNH Weaver Thailand Expedition, 1953-1954. The opening footage of this film was shot by Thomas L. Goodman (a New York-based topographer) in 1965, and was added to the original footage to make the film universally appealing. The scenes shown here contrast traditional and modern Bangkok, and serve as a reference point: following this the film moves on to a study of the mysterious Phi Thong Luang (i.e. Phi Tong Luang) people filmed during the AMNH Weaver Thailand...
Dates:
1953-1954
Stone age culture of New Guinea
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 84
Scope and Contents
Ernest Thomas Gilliard, AMNH ornithologist, presents specimens of birds of paradise he has collected on a recent expedition to the Sepik River Valley in New Guinea. The feathers from these rare birds, found almost exclusively in New Guinea, are used by the natives in their decorative costumes. Thomas Gilliard's wife Margaret demonstrates how the headdresses are made. Margaret Mead, noted ethnologist at the Museum, narrates a film excerpted from Thomas Gilliard's 1953-1954 Sepik Expedition...
Dates:
1954
Sunrise serenades
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 265
Scope and Contents
This film opens and closes with American Indian dances that the narrator suggests are inspired by the courtship behavior of the grouse. The great prairie chicken, the sage grouse, and the sharp-tailed grouse are followed through a day of courtship, beginning with the pre-dawn assembly on the courting grounds and ending at dusk, during the height of the mating ritual.
Dates:
1949
Thar she blows
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 245
Scope and Contents
This film was taken during the 1926 Finley-Church Expedition to the Northland. The focus of the film is whaling in the waters off Glacier Bay, and other parts of Alaska. Initially, a boat is seen in pursuit of a porpoise, which is harpooned and pulled into the boat. Seagull chicks are shown being fed on deck, and Arthur N. Pack is seen filming whales with an Akeley camera. Glacier Bay is a popular feeding ground for whales, and humpback whales are shown sounding and breaching. A Rorqual...
Dates:
1926
American Museum of Natural History
Museum Archives at the Gottesman Research Library
200 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024-5192