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Preservation: The AFI Collection
Services: Film and videotape archive. Material available
for research and reuse, subject to certain restrictions.
Description: The American Film Institute (AFI) Collection
at the Library of Congress includes over 27,500 titles
and consists primarily of theatrical features and
shorts (1894-present), as well as substantial numbers
of newsreels, documentaries, and television programs.
Major collections include:
- Hal Roach Studios Collection
contains approximately 700
films -
Thomas Ince Collection
contains 55 features
- Columbia Pictures Collection
(1928-52) Consists of over
4,000 features and shorts
- Paramount Collection
(1914-37) Includes nearly 200 features
- RKO Collection
(1929-56) Holds 740 features and 900 shorts
- Universal Collection
600 features and shorts
- United Artists Collection
of Warner Brothers releases
(1920-50) contains approximately 1,175 features and
1,500 shorts
- Black Film Collection
Over 100 films produced by or starring
Black Americans
- Additional films in the AFI Collection are held by over
a dozen other archives, particularly UCLA Film and
Television Archive; The Museum of Modern Art, Department
of Film; and International Museum of Photography at
George Eastman House (all q.v.).
Size and Elements: All types of film and videotape elements.
Most films originally received on nitrate stock. In
many cases, viewing copies are not yet available.
Cataloging: Cataloged by title only.
Access: The Center is not a custodial archive. While
information about the AFI Collection may be obtained directly from the Center, information regarding access should be obtained from the Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division (q.v.) and other appropriate archives.
When The American Film Institute was created in 1967, one of its
most important mandates was to initiate a coordinated effort to
rescue original, unique, or best-surviving moving image materials
and bring them into the nation's archives. No other institution
was in a position to undertake this national-level effort, and
the ongoing development of the AFI Collection has played a major
role in transforming the preservation field.
Today, the National Center continues to locate, identify and
acquire a diverse range of film and video materials for inclusion
in the AFI Collection, which now numbers over 21,000 titles. A
broad spectrum of materials have been saved: feature films, short
subjects, newsreels and documentaries, and television news,
entertainment, and public affairs programming. By donating these
materials to the Library of Congress and other archives across
the country, where they are preserved and made available to the
public, the AFI Collection has facilitated archival cooperation
and fostered the concept of a "national collection." In addition
to the Library, institutions that have received AFI Collection
materials include the UCLA Film and Television Archive, the
Museum of Modern Art, the George Eastman House, and the National
Archives.
In addition, during the last several years the Center has acquired
from overseas archives several hundred rare silent-era feature
films and short subjects that previously had disappeared and
were no longer available in this country. These international
repatriation projects have been coordinated by the Center on
behalf of the major U.S. archives, and involved the national
archives of Australia, the Netherlands, and New Zealand.
The AFI Collection
Contact: Kim Tomadjaglou
(202) 252-3120
kimt@afi.com
if you have collections
that you want to donate
to the AFI. Please,
no reference questions.
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