Gullible_Reporter_46 t1_jbgnfar wrote on March 8, 2023 at 10:19 PM

Does anyone know a good site for fair-use or public domain historical footage (newsreels, documentaries, etc)? I’m currently doing a research project on school desegregation in the 1950s and 1960s, but I’m having a hell of a time with finding videos that aren’t watermarked or copyrighted (I’m working with a $0 budget.)

I’ve looked at archive.org and the National Archives so far, but haven’t really come up with much in the way of publicly available footage from those sites (and some of the videos on the latter are still closed to researchers).

Stalins_Moustachio t1_jbj4ig3 wrote on March 9, 2023 at 12:36 PM

You may want to reach out to a local library. They may help out with the answer and better direct you to a digital archive.

elmonoenano t1_jbk9lat wrote on March 9, 2023 at 5:27 PM

I would check out the Digital Public Library of America: https://dp.la/

Although, I would assume their licensing agreement says you can use it if you leave the water marks on.

The other thing I would check would be various state's historical societies. Mine has a big digital collection. But, once again, I'm pretty sure they allow use of it for certain things but you have to keep the water mark and credit them.

I'm not sure how much stuff they have online, but there's also the National Television and Radio Museum. https://ncrtv.org/