Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division

Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. It is a major repository within the Library of Congress responsible for acquiring, preserving, and providing access to the nation's audiovisual heritage. The division's vast collections encompass the history of film, radio, television, and recorded audio, serving as an indispensable resource for researchers, historians, and the public. Its mission is to safeguard culturally and historically significant works, from early Thomas Edison experiments to contemporary digital media.

History and establishment

The division's origins trace to the early 20th century, with the Copyright Act of 1912 prompting the deposit of motion pictures at the Library of Congress. Key figures like Librarian of Congress Herbert Putnam and archivist Carl Louis Gregory began systematic collection efforts. A pivotal moment was the 1942 establishment of the Library of Congress Motion Picture Project, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, to preserve nitrate film during World War II. The modern division was formally created in 1978 through the merger of the Motion Picture Section and the Recorded Sound Section, consolidating national efforts following the landmark National Film Preservation Act. Subsequent initiatives, including the National Recording Preservation Board and the work of the National Film Preservation Board, have been administered under its purview.

Collections and holdings

The collections are immense, housing over 1.7 million film and television items and nearly 4 million audio recordings. Iconic film holdings include the Paper Print Collection, early works by D.W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille, the United Artists library, and thousands of newsreels from Fox Movietone and Universal Newsreel. The recorded sound archives feature the pioneering Emile Berliner discs, historic broadcasts from CBS and NBC, seminal music from John Coltrane and Woody Guthrie, and the complete radio archives of National Public Radio. The division also preserves vast quantities of television programming, including early broadcasts from WGBH-TV and material from the Public Broadcasting Service.

Services and access

Primary public access is provided through the Moving Image Research Center and the Recorded Sound Research Center, both located at the Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation in Culpeper, Virginia. While copyright restrictions govern much material, the division offers extensive on-site viewing and listening facilities. It provides critical reference services for scholars, supports the National Film Registry and National Recording Registry, and facilitates loans to institutions like the Museum of Modern Art and the Smithsonian Institution. Public screenings and lectures are regularly held at the Mary Pickford Theater in the James Madison Memorial Building in Washington, D.C..

Significance and impact

The division is fundamental to American cultural preservation, ensuring the survival of fragile media like nitrate film and acetate audiotape. Its work directly supports academic research, documentary filmmaking for entities like PBS and the History Channel, and legal evidence in copyright cases. The curated selections for the National Film Registry, such as Citizen Kane and Star Wars, and the National Recording Registry, including Louis Armstrong's recordings and Simon & Garfunkel's albums, shape the canonical understanding of American audiovisual history, influencing global archives like the British Film Institute.

Related divisions and departments

The division works closely with other Library of Congress units, including the Music Division for scores and sheet music, the Prints and Photographs Division for still images, and the American Folklife Center for field recordings. It collaborates with the Copyright Office on deposit materials and with the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center on preservation science. External partnerships are maintained with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the National Archives and Records Administration, the University of California, Los Angeles Film & Television Archive, and international bodies like the International Federation of Film Archives. Category:Library of Congress Category:Film archives Category:Sound archives Category:National libraries