Historidex / Old film footage

Old film footage from the 1890s onward, in short clips

Old film footage shows the past moving: people walking down a street, a sneeze in a studio, two cats in boxing gloves. Historidex keeps these clips short and adds a sourced caption to each, so you know what you are watching.

Watch the old film footage

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  San Francisco, just before the quake1906 · Market Street, San Francisco
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  The oldest known surviving film1888 · Roundhay, Leeds, England
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  Apollo 11 liftoff in slow motion1969 · Kennedy Space Center, Florida
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  Camels Pass the Sphinx1897 · Giza, Egypt
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  A Gardener Gets Soaked1895 · Lyon, France
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  Oxen on the Appian Way1911 · Appian Way, Rome, Italy
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  Apollo 16's Rover Grand Prix1972 · Descartes Highlands, the Moon
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  Manhattan's Automobile Parade1899 · Manhattan, New York
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  Dancers Before Angkor's Carved Dancers1921 · Angkor Wat, Cambodia
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  The Man Who Swallowed the Camera1901 · Hove, England
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  The Baker's Tomb at Porta Maggiore1911 · Porta Maggiore, Rome, Italy
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  Flying Through Skylab1973 · Skylab, in Earth orbit
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  The Barrel That Tipped Coal Cars1897 · Cleveland, Ohio
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  Workers Rebuild Angkor's Giants1921 · Angkor Thom, Cambodia
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  A Man Inflates His Own Head1901 or 1902 · France
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  Through the Arch of Septimius Severus1911 · Roman Forum, Rome, Italy
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  A Water Ball on Artemis II2026 · Aboard Orion, in space
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  Riding the Elevated Through the S Curve1899 · 104th Street, New York
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  Elephants Walk Past Carved Elephants1921 · Angkor Thom, Cambodia
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  One Man Plays a Whole Band1900 · France
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  Panning Across the Colosseum Interior1900 · Rome, Italy
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  NASA Crashed a Jet on Purpose1984 · Edwards AFB, California
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  Traffic on the Champs-Élysées1900 · Champs-Élysées, Paris, France
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  Boxing cats at Edison's studio1894 · West Orange, New Jersey
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  A Snowball Fight in Lyon1897 · Lyon, France
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  The Parthenon in Color1912 · Acropolis, Athens, Greece
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  Annabelle's Hand Tinted Dance1895 · New Jersey, USA
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  Stagecoaches Through Yellowstone1897 · Yellowstone National Park, USA
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  Pillow Fight at the Seminary1897 · West Orange, New Jersey, USA
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  The Caryatid Porch in Color1912 · Acropolis, Athens, Greece
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  Carrying Mexico's Independence Bell1896 · Mexico City, Mexico
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  A Theatre Torn Down in Two Minutes1901 · Broadway, New York City
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  Two Women Box for Edison1901 · United States
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  Greek Vineyard Filmed in Color1912 · Corinth, Greece
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  Roping Oxen on a Mexican Ranch1896 · Atequiza, Mexico
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  A Skater's Fall in Sydney1896 · Sydney, Australia
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  Foottit and Chocolat Clown Around1897 to 1900 · Paris, France
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  Sailors Climb Mount Vesuvius1920s · Mount Vesuvius, Italy
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  Time Checks at Westinghouse1904 · Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
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  A Camera on a Train Roof1898 · France
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  A Skeleton That Falls Apart1897 or 1898 · France
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  Asbury Park's Baby Parade1904 · Asbury Park, New Jersey, USA
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  Cyclists in Hyde Park1896 · Hyde Park, London, England
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  The Cakewalk on Film1897 to 1903 · United States
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  A Sack Race in Lyon1896 · Monplaisir, Lyon, France
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  Rice Harvest in Japan1899 · Japan
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  Leaving the Lumière Factory1895 or 1896 · Lyon, France
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  Fred Ott's Sneeze1894 · West Orange, New Jersey, USA
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  Varanasi Ghats Mislabeled as Calcutta1899 · Varanasi, India
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  A Dragon Parades Through Cholon1900 · Cholon, Vietnam
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  The Dog That Punched a Bag1901 · United States
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  Juggling a Boy With His Feet1904 · Edison studio, New York, USA
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  Berlin's Friedrichstrasse1896 · Berlin, Germany
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  State and Madison Streets, Chicago1897 · Chicago, Illinois, USA
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  Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge by Train1899 · Brooklyn Bridge, New York, USA
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  Tverskaya Street in Moscow1896 · Tverskaya Street, Moscow, Russia
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  Cleveland's Fire Department Rolls Out1900 · Cleveland, Ohio, USA
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  Launching a Japanese Cruiser in San Francisco1898 · San Francisco, California
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  A Market in Fort-de-France1902 or 1903 · Fort-de-France, Martinique
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  A German Cruiser Slides Down the Ways1897 · Kiel, Germany
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  A Steamer on the Golden Horn1897 · Golden Horn, Istanbul, Turkey
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  Annie Oakley Fires for Edison's Camera1894 · West Orange, New Jersey
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  The Lady Who Vanished1896 · France
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  Sandow Flexes for Edison's Camera1894 · West Orange, New Jersey
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  A Woman Rises From a Skillet1899 · France
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  Uncle Josh and the Oncoming Train1902 · Edison studio, New York, USA
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  Times Square From Above1905 · Times Square, New York City, USA

Where the old film footage comes from

The clips come from the Library of Congress, the National Archives, NASA and other public collections. A film is only used if it is a US government work or was published before 1931. Each story links to the archive record.