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National Museum of African American History and Culture
Guide to the Great Migration Home Movie Study Collection
Summary
- Collection ID:
- NMAAHC.SC.0001
- Creators:
-
National Museum of African American History and Culture (U.S.)
- Dates:
-
1940 - Ongoing
- Languages:
-
Materials are primarily in English. Additional material in Spanish or other languages.
- Physical Description:
-
825 Digital files
- Repository:
The Great Migration is a unique, ongoing digitization service program that partners the National Museum of African American History and Culture with individuals across the United States to preserve their important analog audiovisual media. While major motion picture film and television historically lacked diverse representation, black history was instinctively being preserved in everyday home movies. Today, these personal narratives serve as an invaluable tool for understanding and re-framing black moving image history, and provide a much needed visualization of African American history and culture.
Scope and Contents
Scope and Contents
The collection contains 825 digitized audiovisual media objects. However, as an ongoing project the scope of the collection will continue to increase over time. The scope will be updated as is appropriate.
The content of the collection consists predominantly of amateur recordings created by families to document their lives. This includes major life events, such as birthdays and weddings, quotidian life, as well as family vacations and holidays.
Arrangement
Arrangement
The collection is arranged into file, and item-level records. Each file corresponds to a family that has participated in the Great Migration program. Each item within a file corresponds to a single piece of audiovisual media, such as a film or videotape, digitized by NMAAHC staff.
Administration
Author
Ina D. Archer, Jasmyn R. Castro, Walter W. Forsberg, Alexander J. Lawrence, Harry B. McDowell, CK Ming, Dynito Wiles.
Sponsor
This project receives support from the Earl W. and Amanda Stafford Center for African American Media Arts and from the Center for the Digitization and Curation of African American History at the National Museum of African American History and Culture Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
NMAAHC creates and retains digital copies, 2016-[ongoing]. Original analog materials are not retained by the museum.
Additions
New material is added to this collection on an ongoing basis.
Processing Information
Collection processed, described, and arranged by Ina D. Archer, Jasmyn R. Castro, Walter W. Forsberg, Alexander J. Lawrence, Harry B. McDowell, CK Ming, beginning in 2016 as part of the Great Migration Home Movie Project.
Using the Collection
Rights and Reproduction
The Great Migration Home Movie Study Collection is a product of and owned by the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution.
Copyright for all works are retained by the creators of the original analog materials.
Licensing
The contents of the Great Migration Home Movie Project are made available to the public for the purposes of education and scholarly research. The home movies digitized through the project are not available for commercial licensing. Educational and scholarly use may be considered on an individual basis.
Restrictions
Collection is available online for open research.
Preferred Citation
Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Earl W. and Amanda Stafford Center for African American Media Arts. Supported by the Center for the Digitization and Curation of African American History.
Keywords
| Keyword Terms | Keyword Types | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Amateur films | Topical | Search Smithsonian Collections | Search ArchiveGrid |
| Home movies | Genre Form | Search Smithsonian Collections | Search ArchiveGrid |
| Families | Topical | Search Smithsonian Collections | Search ArchiveGrid |
| Travel | Topical | Search Smithsonian Collections | Search ArchiveGrid |
| Parties | Topical | Search Smithsonian Collections | Search ArchiveGrid |
| African Americans | Topical | Search Smithsonian Collections | Search ArchiveGrid |
National Museum of African American History and Culture
Washington, D.C. 20004
NMAAHC-Archives@si.edu
