Archives Center, National Museum of American History Search this
Extent:
107 items in 9 folders Items
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
1963-1998
Scope and Contents:
This collection was collected from movie theaters and video stores in the Washington, DC metropolitan area and with few exceptions, exclusively covers the decade of the 1990s. The collection contains movie posters from a wide range of motion pictures; animated, children's, adult, studio, and independently made films and consists of full size, six-sheet posters with two small four-sheet size posters. The collection is arranged alphabetically by motion picture title.
Historical:
Motion pictures have been exhibited in the United States since debuting at the Columbian Exposition in 1893. The public's love affair with the movies has never waned. Beginning with silent films with simple plots the motion picture industry has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry where the small simple film costs millions of dollars and a great portion of a motion picture budget is designated for advertising. Movie posters have been an integral marketing tool for the motion picture from its inception. Movie posters attempt to capture the essence of the film in one clear defining image and image that will hopefully remain in the consumers mind. Early movie posters boasted original artwork with bright colors and bold lettering. Beginning in the 1950s, movie posters began to use actual photographs from the movie itself as the primary artwork for the movie poster. In the latter 20th century almost all movie posters were photographic in nature. With the expansion of motion pictures into the home video market from the early 1980s onward, movie posters became not only a marketing tool for the movie theatre but for the video store as well.
Donor did not want to have her name in collection title so the donation was added into this artificial collection.
Provenance:
Donated to the Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution by Martha Rosen, 2001.
Collection Restrictions:
Unrestricted research access on site by appointment.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Archives Center Poster Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
