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Film and History
Hist 456/AmSt 412/Film 405: Seth Fein

Selected Subject Headings in Orbis

  • Historical films --United States --History and criticism
  • Motion pictures and history
  • United States --In motion pictures
  • Depressions --1929 --United States --Drama [this identifies films]
  • United States --History --1919-1933
  • United States --History --1933-1945
  • Motion pictures --History
  • Motion pictures --United States --History
  • Motion picture industry --United States --History

Also try Keyword searches that include "(thirties or 30s)" (without the quotation marks, but with the parentheses).

Finding Articles and Reviews

Selected indexes are listed below. There is also a full list of article indexes.

U.S. History Article Databases

America: History and Life is a bibliographic reference to the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Published since 1964, the database comprises bibliographic entries, covering journals published worldwide. To find articles on movies, use the Subject heading Films.

A comprehensive guide to the literature on the left, with a primary emphasis on political, economic, social and culturally engaged scholarship inside and outside academia. A secondary emphasis is on significant but little known sources of news and ideas. Topics covered include the labor movement.

PIO is an electronic index to millions of articles published in over 4,500 periodicals in the humanities and social sciences. It combines a broad subject base with deep chronological coverage going back over 300 years.

Film Studies Article Databases and Film Review Sources

NOTE: The databases give few or no citations before 1973, so you may miss significant reviews and possibly articles if you depend only on the online tools. If you are interested in reviews and commentary written in the 1930s, you need to look through indexes in print.

American Film Institute Catalog
SML Reference: PN1998 +A43
Online catalog of every American film from 1893 to 1970. Searchable by keywords; film titles; cast, crew, and character names; subject; genre and more. Most records include extensive plot summaries and comprehensive filmographic information, plus citations to reviews and articles.

FIAF International FilmArchive Database
Continues: International Index to Film Periodicals. 1972- (New York: Bowker, 1973-)
SML, Reference: Z5784 M9 +I58 (LC)
Indexes 65-80 international periodicals of "aesthetic or critical value." The paper version has separate volume of subject headings for this index. The online version also includes a number of specialized bibliographies (silents, Latin American cinema), and information about film archives and collections.

Film Literature Index
SML, Reference: Z5784 M9 F55 (LC)
One of the most important index for research in Film Studies. It indexes over 300 international film periodicals. Film title, personal name, and subject indexes are included. The print edition covers film criticism from 1974 to the present; the online database only covers 1976-2001, and there are currently no plans to update it. Film Literature Index also includes critical articles on television and video (section two). For earlier scholarship, consult the Retrospective Index to Film Periodicals, below. There is no online version of this index yet.

Film Review Index. Ed. Patricia King Hanson. (Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1986)
SML Reference: Z5784 M9 +F554 (LC)
Two-volume comprehensive index of movie reviews from 1882 through 1985. Along with the New York Times Film Reviews (below), this set is essential if you want reviews written in the 1930s.

The Hollywood Reporter
 SML Microform Room: Film S3204 [1934 to 1990]

International Index to the Performing Arts
IIPA draws its current content from more than 130 international periodicals and also indexes articles and obituaries appearing in The New York Times and The Washington Post. IIPA covers nearly all aspects of the world of performing arts, including film, theater, and opera. Most IIPA records in the current file (1998 forward) contain an abstract.

MLA Bibliography (New York: Modern Language Association of American, 1921- )
SML Reference, Index Case 7, Row 14 [Z7006 M63 (LC)]
The MLA Bibliography indexes critical materials on literature, languages, linguistics, and folklore. It also includes film studies. The database provides access to citations from over 4,000 journals and series published worldwide, as well as books, essay collections, working papers, proceedings, dissertations, and bibliographies. The print volumes go back to 1921 and the database covers from 1963 to the present. The MLA Bibliography continues the Modern Language Association Annual Bibliography. For earlier volumes, check the SML Card Catalog under "Modern Language Association."

Motion picture almanac [1929-1935]; continued by International motion picture almanac [1936-1951]
SML Microform Room: Film S3852

Motion picture herald [1931-1972]
SML Microform Room: Film S2211

New York Times Film Reviews
SML Reference: PN1995 +N49
Indexed photographic reprints of film reviews as they appeared in the the New York Times from 1913-1968. There is a single name/title index for these volumes.

Retrospective Index to Film Periodicals, 1930-1971. Batty, Linda. (New York: Bowker, 1975)
SML Reference: Z5784 M9 B39 (LC)
Historical index of film scholarship predates the Film Literature Index, above. Indexes 14 English-language film periodicals, as well as articles from the Village Voice.

Variety and Daily Variety
SML Microform Room: Film S2206 [1905 to most recent microfilm reel]

Newspaper and Other Primary Resources

AFSO includes more than 1,000 scripts and permits searching by production date, character type, subjects, scenes, and various other criteria.

Age of insecurity: America, 1920-1945; interpretive articles and documentary sources
SML Stacks: E784 D58 (LC)

Anxious years: America in the nineteen thirties; a collection of contemporary writings
LSF: PS536 F55 1964

Cinema pressbooks from the original studio collections
SML Microform Room: Film B18273. There is also a guide in the Microform Room: Z6784 M9 C56 1988
Pressbooks for United Artists, 1919-1949; Warner Bros., 1922-1949; and Monogram Pictures, 1937-1946

The Film daily: the daily newspaper of motion pictures [1922-1968]
SML Microform Room: Film S3516

The Film daily year book of motion pictures [1919-1969]
SML Stacks: Hae61 F48 (Yale Classification) and Film Study Center
Note that the sets at SML and FSC are incomplete, but the volumes missing at one location can be found at the other.

Lifetimes: the Great War to the stock market crash: American history through biography and primary documents
SML Stacks: E766 L48X 2002 (LC)+ Oversize

Major problems in American history, 1920-1945: documents and essays
CCL Stacks: E784 M315X 1999

US Newspapers on Microform in the Yale Libraries
It is possible to identify some types of newspapers through the "Notes" field, for example by entering the phrase "African American newspaper."

Other Research and Reference Resources


American cinema: directors and directions, 1929-1968
SML Reference: PN1993.5 U6 S26 1996

American film studios: an historical encyclopedia
SML Reference: PN1993.5 U6 F46 1988

Encyclopedia of the Great Depression and the New Deal
SML Reference: E806 .E53 2001

Encyclopedia of the Great Depression
Online

The Great Depression: a historical bibliography
SML Reference: Z7165 U5 G73 1984

Historical dictionary of the Great Depression, 1929-1940
SML Reference: E801 H57X 2001

Historical dictionary of the New Deal: from inauguration to preparation for war
SML Reference: E806 H58 1985

Modern America, 1914 to 1945
SML Reference: E766 G745 1995

New day/New Deal: a bibliography of the Great American Depression, 1929-1941
SML Reference: Z1244 K95 1988

New era and the New Deal, 1920-1940
SML Reference and Andrews History Study Room 214-215: Z1244 B87

New historical dictionary of the American film industry
SML Reference: PN1993.5 U6 S539 1998
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Yale University Library Research Guide in Film Studies
Last modified Tue, 20 Feb 2007 Copyright © Yale University Library.
Comments to Tobin Nellhaus, Librarian for Drama, Film and Theater Studies.

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