Thomas A. Edison Movies

A documentary overview of the career of silent cinema pioneer Edwin S. Porter.

A short Edison Kinetophone film, part of Edison’s early experiments in synchronizing sound and image. Distributed by General Film Company....

Civil War drama of a Confederate spy who is captured by Union soldiers.

James J. Corbett and Peter Courtney meet in a boxing exhibition.

The crew of seven dressed in cork jackets, push the boat through the surf; they clamber in and row out to the wreck. 50 ft.

In this John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short, a look is taken at the problems of film preservation efforts in the 1930s and early 1940s.

A comedy of a young man’s humiliating initiation into a woman-hating men’s club, The Five Jolly Bachelors. With Eddie Boulden and the...

Examines the life and work of the American inventor Thomas Alva Edison.

Filmed at the second inauguration of William McKinley on March 4, 1901, this short captures the president taking the oath of office at the U.S....

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

An Edison Kinetophone short presenting an on-stage minstrel company performing musical numbers and patter; made as part of Edison’s early...

The camera shows a view of the American Falls and Goat Island.

East Side Drive, No. 1 (1896) is a brief, silent actual-city documentary directed by James H. White for Edison. Filmed on New York City’s East...

Footage of the 1903 football game between the University of Chicago and the University of Michigan, showing uniformed players in action along with...

Metropolitan Opera stars, tenor Enrico Caruso and bass-baritone Pol Plancon, in a scene from the opera "Lucia di Lammermoor" filmed in Edison...

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

The evening presentation of distinguished guests from earlier that afternoon.

An Edison Kinetophone short featuring leading suffragists Harriet May Mills, Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw, Mrs. Raymond Brown, Mrs. John Rogers, Jr., and...

Daily practice of life boat crew, showing boat being upset purposely by the men. As these boats are self-righting and self-bailing, the scene is...

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...