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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 275 Collections and/or Records:

Embryology, 1954

 Series
Identifier: Film Collection no. 57
Scope and Contents

Evelyn Shaw, of the Department of Animal Behavior at the American Museum of Natural History, introduces the program which opens with film clips of chicks, monkeys, kinkajous, and cocker spaniels and discussions of their beginnings. Charts of human growth in the womb are shown. The development of frog, trout, fish, and chicken embryos is seen through time-lapse photographs. The films were provided by United World Films.

Dates: 1954
Found in: Museum Archives at the Gottesman Research Library / Film Collection no. 25-144-Mss .C377, Columbia Broadcast System, Inc. Adventure Series collection

Essence of life, 1955

 Series
Identifier: Film Collection no. 99
Scope and Contents William D. Clarke, AMNH curator of invertebrates, reviews the nature and range of life on earth, illustrating how all normal forms of life have five basic properties: responsiveness, the ability to reproduce, growth, metabolism, and movement. A live performance by UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) demonstrates that despite its amazing capabilities, far superior to human clerks, its giant brain falls short of qualifying it as life. A powerful electron microscope is used to show that the...
Dates: 1955
Found in: Museum Archives at the Gottesman Research Library / Film Collection no. 25-144-Mss .C377, Columbia Broadcast System, Inc. Adventure Series collection

Ethiopia

 Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 179
Scope and Contents With the feel and flavor of a travelogue, this film touches briefly on a variety of locations, people, and events throughout this East African country. Places visited include Addis Ababa, the hot springs of Awash, the Blue Nile Gorge, Tisisat Falls, Lake Tsana, Daga Island, Dek Island, Gonder, Lalibela, and Aksum. Ethiopia's diverse cultural make-up is illustrated through glimpses of the daily lives of various groups. One segment of the film focuses on religious ceremonies of the Ethiopian...
Dates: 1971
Found in: Museum Archives at the Gottesman Research Library / Ethiopia

Evolution of the horse, 1956

 Series
Identifier: Film Collection no. 135
Scope and Contents This broadcast from the Aqueduct Racetrack features horse trainer Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons, trainer of the thoroughbred Nashua. The discussion focuses on the characteristics of a fine horse and on the evolution of the horse. Edwin Harris Colbert, curator of paleontology at the AMNH, is also a guest on this program. He traces the modern horse's evolution back 60 million years to the tiny Eophippus. Films are shown of horses in the Wheatley and Greentree Stables. A new colt being born and the...
Dates: 1956
Found in: Museum Archives at the Gottesman Research Library / Film Collection no. 25-144-Mss .C377, Columbia Broadcast System, Inc. Adventure Series collection

Explorations for science in South America, 1955

 Series
Identifier: Film Collection no. 104
Scope and Contents Ross Allen, owner of the Ross Allen Reptile Farm in Silver Springs, Florida, discusses the role of adventurers and explorers in the cause of science. Allen collects and supplies animals to schools, zoos, and museums. Allen exhibits two deadly reptiles he captured and brought from Brazil, including a fer-delance, a large, extremely venomous pit viper. The poison apparatus of the snakes and a demonstration of "milking" them for venom informs the viewers about potential anti-venoms. The Count...
Dates: 1955
Found in: Museum Archives at the Gottesman Research Library / Film Collection no. 25-144-Mss .C377, Columbia Broadcast System, Inc. Adventure Series collection

Family of man, 1955

 Series
Identifier: Film Collection no. 110
Scope and Contents The "Family of Man" exhibition of photographs at the Museum of Modern Art is discussed by Edward Steichen, noted photographer and curator at the Museum of Modern Art, and guests Eleanor Roosevelt, Carl Sandburg, and Harry L. Shapiro, AMNH Department of Anthropology. Roosevelt narrates the first segment of the program which tells the basic family story around the world through photographs of mothers, fathers, children, lovers, marriage and birth. Shapiro shows images (of man laboring, tilling...
Dates: 1955
Found in: Museum Archives at the Gottesman Research Library / Film Collection no. 25-144-Mss .C377, Columbia Broadcast System, Inc. Adventure Series collection

Family of man, 1955

 Series
Identifier: Film Collection no. 113
Scope and Contents

This broadcast on the "Family of Man" exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art was originally shown on June 19, 1955. The show won an award at the Venice Film Festival and was exhibited at the Edinburgh Film Festival. It is repeated here in its entirety.

Dates: 1955
Found in: Museum Archives at the Gottesman Research Library / Film Collection no. 25-144-Mss .C377, Columbia Broadcast System, Inc. Adventure Series collection

Fish behavior, 1955

 Series
Identifier: Film Collection no. 89
Scope and Contents This remote broadcast from Gilgo Beach, Long Island, N.Y., is a discussion of fish behavior introduced by Eugenie Clark, research associate in the AMNH Department of Animal Behavior. The pros and cons of laboratory research versus field research are examined. A film of fish courtship behavior and fertilization is shown featuring acara and angel fish. Some unusual underwater camera shots illustrate the subject for this broadcast. Also shown is a film made by Jacques-Yves Cousteau, renowned...
Dates: 1955
Found in: Museum Archives at the Gottesman Research Library / Film Collection no. 25-144-Mss .C377, Columbia Broadcast System, Inc. Adventure Series collection

Fishermen of Lake Patzcuaro

 Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 187
Scope and Contents

Filmed during the AMNH Educational Expedition to Mexico, 1940. In this film, made by Grace Fisher Ramsey of the Museum's Department of Education, the Tarasco Indians weave nets by their homes, near Lake Patzcuaro, Mexico They catch whitefish, abundant in Lake Patzcuaro, with both seine nets and poles, and take it to the market at the village of Patzcuaro. On Urunden Miralis Island, men fish with large butterfly and hand nets. Also pictured are methods of cleaning and drying the fish.

Dates: 1940
Found in: Museum Archives at the Gottesman Research Library / Fishermen of Lake Patzcuaro

Frontiers of a forbidden land

 Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 151
Scope and Contents Filmed during the AMNH First Asiatic Zoological Expedition to Yunnan and Fukien, China, 1916-1917. This is the record of the AMNH First Asiatic Zoological Expedition to eastern and southwestern China (Fukien and Yunnan provinces), the purpose of which was to collect zoological specimens and visual ethnographic records. Roy Chapman Andrews, was accompanied by his wife, Yvette Borup Andrews, who served as photographer, and Edmund Heller, collector and explorer, who served as specimen...
Dates: 1916-1917
Found in: Museum Archives at the Gottesman Research Library / Frontiers of a forbidden land
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