For Your Viewing Enjoyment

Amongst the Archives collections we have appoximately 50,000 pieces of audiovisual materials and counting. These analog audiovisual materials come in a variety of formats including 16mm and 35mm motion picture film; U-matic, betacam, and VHS videotapes; DATs; audiocassettes; 1/4" audiotape; and vinyl records. While we have some of the equipment necessary to view and listen to these formats, making them available more broadly to people requires us to digitize them. As a result, starting in earnest in the fall of 2008 the Archives began to digitize select audiovisual items from our collections. To date we have digitized over 1000 hours of audio and video. Below you will find a compilation of clips from some of the video represented in our collections; covering such topics as science, research, exhibitions, expeditions, and more at the Smithsonian.

In putting together these clips I came across one particular video that I wanted to share in its entirety. It is a video that was used in the exhibition, Information Age: People, Information and Technology, which was at the National Museum of American History from 1990-2006. This permanent exhibition chronicled the birth and growth of the electronic information age with a special focus on how information technology has changed the way people live and work. The video was unique at the time being displayed across 12 individual screens.

Related Collections

Accession 06-104: Office of Telecommunications, Productions, 1987-1996, Smithsonian Institution Archives

Related Resources

What a Groovy Idea! A Pan-Institutional Survey of Audiovisual Collections, The Bigger Picture blog, Smithsonian Institution Archives

Produced by the Smithsonian Institution Archives. For copyright questions, please see the Terms of Use.