Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Guide to the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Motion Pictures

Summary

Collection ID:
NMAH.AC.0060.S01.01.Motion
Creators:
Warshaw, Isadore, 1900-1969
Dates:
1893-1969
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
2.96 Cubic feet
consisting of 9 boxes, 1 folder, 7 oversize folders, 8 map case folders, 1 flat box (partial), plus digital images of some collection material.
Repository:
A New York bookseller, Warshaw assembled this collection over nearly fifty years. The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana: Motion Pictures forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Subseries 1.1: Subject Categories. The Subject Categories subseries is divided into 470 subject categories based on those created by Mr. Warshaw. These subject categories include topical subjects, types or forms of material, people, organizations, historical events, and other categories. An overview to the entire Warshaw collection is available here: Warshaw Collection of Business Americana

Scope and Contents note

Scope and Contents note
Motion pictures were first publicly exhibited in the United States at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois in 1893. While the films exhibited there were technically crude with little to no plot or story and far from the polished product of today, they immediately caught the public's attention.
Within a short time the motion picture industry (creation, distribution, and marketing) had grown into a lucrative business. Those first motion pictures were often short serial films run in a series to keep customers coming back to follow the story's plot line to its conclusion. Gradually, films became longer and a number of performers developed legions of fans guaranteeing a certain amount of box office business from name recognition of the star alone.
Initially, the film industry consisted of many small companies, but competition cleared the field and fewer, larger corporations cornered the market in both production and distribution. Independent theatre owners, who were at first almost wholly independent of the production companies, also became rare as the major theatre chains developed their own movie studios to ensure a steady stream of films to be shown at their theaters. The film industry, at first based in New York City and on the East Coast, moved to the famed Hollywood, California, in the late 1910s early 1920s.
The Motion Pictures section of the Warshaw Collection consists of various types of materials relating to motion pictures. The collection is especially strong for the silent movie era, 1893-1927. This portion of the collection is divided into seven series.

Administration

Author
Franklin A. Robinson, Jr., Vanessa Broussard-Simmons, and Nicole Blechynden
Sponsor
Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).
Processing Information note
by: Franklin A. Robinson, Jr., December 2002
Revised: December 30, 2002
In 2016, with funding provided by the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund, the Archives Center at the National Museum of American History implemented the use of minimal level processing standards to increase information about and facilitate access to more of our collections. A few items were added to the content of this subject using minimal processing strategies with basic foldering/boxing and description, but staples and other fasteners have not all been removed.
Minimal level processing and enhancement of the machine-readable finding aid completed by Nicole Blechynden, 2017, September.
Immediate Source of Acquisition note
Motion Pictures is a portion of the Business Ephemera Series of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Accession AC0060 purchased from Isadore Warshaw in 1967. Warshaw continued to accumulate similar material until his death, which was donated in 1971 by his widow, Augusta. For a period after acquisition, related materials from other sources (of mixed provenance) were added to the collection so there may be content produced or published after Warshaw's death in 1969. This practice has since ceased.

Digital Content

More …

Using the Collection

Preferred Citation note
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Motion Pictures, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Conditions Governing Access note
Collection is open for research. Some items may be restricted due to fragile condition.
Conditions Governing Use note
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Materials in the Archives Center

Materials in the Archives Center
Archives Center Collection of Business Americana (AC0404)

Forms Part Of


Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Dance in motion pictures, television, etc. Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Actresses Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Motion picture industry Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Theater programs Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Motion pictures Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Ephemera Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Theater Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Motion pictures -- History Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Motion pictures, American Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Business ephemera Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Filmmakers Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Silent films Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sound film Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Entertainment Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Motion picture actors and actresses Occupation Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Actors Occupation Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Actresses -- United States Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
advertising -- Motion pictures Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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