Movies: Thomas A. Edison

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

The Passion Play of Oberammergau (1898) presents scenes from the famed Bavarian passion play, dramatizing the final days of Jesus Christ—from his entry into Jerusalem to the Crucifixion and Resurrection. Filmed by the Edison Company, it offered late-...

This short captures the thrill of winter sport in Canada, showing skiers racing downhill at high speed before leaping over a snow-built hurdle. Most of the jumpers tumble into a heap at the bottom, adding humor to the action. Although Thomas Edison h...

A location actuality filmed in Philadelphia (May 27–28, 1904) documenting the Inter-Collegiate Athletic Association’s championships: sprint and field events, crowds, and collegiate pageantry, presented with intertitle introductions....

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...

The careers of D.W. Griffith, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and Charlie Chaplin are chronicled culminating in the formation of United Artists and 1919....

Experimental test footage from Edison’s earliest motion picture work, capturing camera trials, exposure studies, and mechanical movement. Likely filmed by Edison staff in the early 1890s, it survives today in the Library of Congress collection. The f...

The Old Violin (1914) is a Kinetophone short produced by Edison, directed by Daniel Higham. The film features an elderly violinist reprimanding a young servant for playing ragtime music. Upon discovering the servant is an orphan with only an old viol...

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

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....

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...

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...

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

This 1894 film depicts a staged “war council” featuring a group of Sioux men in traditional dress, seated in deliberation as Buffalo Bill Cody addresses them....

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

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

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 veteran of the Napoleanic Wars recounts his memories and grants his blessings upon the marriage of his granddaughter and a young soldier....