Movies: Thomas A. Edison

The film expresses the history of oppression, discrimination, violence and hate in America. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short....

Documentary footage of the author and his two daughters at home....

The Edison Quartet perform songs as blacksmiths. This was one of 200 projects produced using the Edison Kinetophone system. The Kinetophone was a fairly complex mechanical means of creating talking pictures. Unlike previous systems, in which actors w...

This is a film taken of the execution of Topsy, an elephant employed to help build Luna Park on Coney Island....

Late 1800s cigarette advertisement produced by Thomas Edison Manufacturing....

A short film in which the members of the Motion Pictures Patents Company (which had been founded only a year earlier) congratulate Thomas Edison himself on receiving a new patent....

President McKinley taking the Oath....

A six-part documentary recording the 74-year-old Edison's collaborations with his staff, conversations with industrial leaders, and supervision of the factory's production line. The majority of the film (parts 3, 4, and 5) chronicles Edison's trip to...

An excellent view of 'The Finest,' on their annual parade and inspection, June 1, 1899. The head of the column is just turning into 14th street from Broadway, the Morton House forming part of the background. Crowds line both sides of the cable car tr...

With a tree-lined river bank dominating the top and back of the frame, the Charles River flows toward a stationary camera. A flotilla of canoes passes by. Some have one occupant, some two, a few three or four. Some men wear ties, a few wear boaters. ...

Shows ice plows in operation, drawn by horses and guided by men on skates. The plows are first operated in one direction and then crosswise, cutting to within four inches of the bottom, after which men saw and cut the ice entirely off in about twelve...

Brooklyn Jubilee Peace Parade...

Shows a tramp enter and try to ride a wheel, from which he makes some very ludicrous falls and gives up in despair, after which an artist enters and jumps rope on a wheel. A very laughable subject....

"'Neidert,' of national fame, does stunts on his wheel that are simply wonderful. Makes his bicycle rear up...

The evening presentation of distinguished guests from earlier that afternoon....

A group of Jewish men in Jerusalem perform a dance....

Excerpts of a 1903 football game between the University of Chicago and the University of Michigan. Includes views of the uniformed players, the spectators in the stadium and surrounding stands, and the game itself....

Filmed on January 1, 1899, this Edison short shows a victory march by General Lee and the Seventh Army Corps. When watching these early films it's best to look at them as a newsreel because you're really not going to get any type of entertainment lik...