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New York City dumping wharf /  - movie film screenshot

New York City dumping wharf / - movie film screenshot

description

Summary

The film shows a wharf where a barge is being loaded with trash from two-wheeled, horse-drawn wagons. The trash is dumped off the edge of the pier onto the barge, where men with shovels are spreading the piles of debris. The camera pans left to the next barge, where four-wheeled carts are shown dumping excavation rubble. Probably filmed on the East River, this is one of several New York City dumping wharves in operation at the time.
H32030 U.S. Copyright Office
Copyright: Thomas A. Edison; 20May1903; H32030.
Camera, James Blair Smith.
Duration: 1:21 at 15 fps.
The Internet movie database gives Edwin S. Porter as the director of this film, however, Musser's Before the nickelodeon says that in April 1903, "Edwin Porter and James Smith shot at least fifteen travelogue-type subjects in and around Manhattan [including] New York City dumping wharf". Neither Porter or Smith is given a directing credit for this film.
Photographed April 28, 1903 in New York, N.Y.
According to notes on the original M/B/RS catalog card, the cameraman, date of capture, and location are from the Thomas Alva Edison Foundation records.
Paper print shelf number (LC 1735) was changed when the paper prints were re-housed.
Additional holdings for this title may be available. Contact reference librarian.
Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as digital files.
Sources used: Niver, K. Early motion pictures, p. 221; AFI catalog, film beginnings, 1893-1910, p. 730; Musser, C. Before the nickelodeon, p. 241; Thomas Alva Edison Foundation records, envelope 7; Internet movie database, November 28, 2018.
Early motion pictures : the Paper Print Collection in the Library of Congress / by Kemp R. Niver. Library of Congress. 1985.
35 mm dupe neg pic renumbered: FPE 5372 to FZA 2327.

The height of the silent movie era (the 1910s-1920s) was a period of artistic innovation. Silent film stars had to use their faces to express every emotion — a skill that was lost on most actors when talkies replaced silent movies. Several silent stars including Wallace Beery, Shearer, Laurel and Hardy, Greta Garbo, and Janet Gaynor made a successful transition to talkies.

date_range

Date

01/01/1903
person

Contributors

Smith, James Blair, camera.
Thomas A. Edison, Inc.
Paper Print Collection (Library of Congress)
place

Location

create

Source

Library of Congress
copyright

Copyright info

Public Domain

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