LC National Digital Library Program announces release of "Theodore Roosevelt: His Life and Times on Film"

[Tamara Swora-Gober <tswo@xxxxxxx>]

This message is being widely posted

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The Library of Congress National Digital Library Program and the Motion
Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division announce the release
of of the online collection ?Theodore Roosevelt: His Life and Times on
Film?, available at the American Memory Web site at: 

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/trfhtml/trfhome.html

The site features 104 films from the Library?s holdings which record
events in Roosevelt?s life from the Spanish-American War in 1898 to his
death in 1919.  The majority of films (87) are from the Theodore
Roosevelt Association Collection, donated to the Library in 1962, while
the remainder are from the Paper Print Collection, dating from a hundred
years ago.  Besides containing scenes of Roosevelt, these films include
views of world figures, politicians, monarchs, and friends and family
members of Roosevelt who influenced his life and the era in which he
lived.  Commemorative events up to 1921 are also included as well as
silent documentaries compiled from earlier footage by the Theodore
Roosevelt Association between 1919 and 1928.  Four sound recordings made
by Roosevelt for the Edison Company in 1912 in which he states his
progressive political views are also available on the site.  

Theodore Roosevelt was the first U.S. president to have his career and
life chronicled on a large scale by motion picture companies (even
though his predecessor, William McKinley, was the first to be filmed). 
The presentation begins with scenes of Roosevelt and his Rough Riders
during the Spanish-American War.  Later films chronicle the
assassination of President McKinley and Roosevelt?s sudden presidency as
a result.  Motion pictures taken during his presidency show his
inauguration, his meetings with dignitaries, and his trip to Panama to
begin construction of a canal, the first time a president in office had
ever traveled abroad.  His trips to Africa for safari and to Europe
shortly after his presidency were filmed extensively and include scenes
of reigning European monarchs of the period, some of which were taken at
the funeral of King Edward VII.  Films of his later life include scenes
of his home, family, his failed Progressive campaign for the presidency,
his efforts to prepare the U.S. for World War I, and an expedition he
undertook in 1914 on the previously unexplored River of Doubt in Brazil,
a trip which nearly claimed his life.

The motion pictures are available to view in three formats, MPEG,
Quicktime, and RealMedia, and the sound recordings are available in wav
and RealAudio formats.  A special presentation featuring a film
chronology, a timeline of Roosevelt?s life, and an essay on Roosevelt on
film is also included on the Web site.

Motion Picture digitization

The motion pictures chosen for digitization are all black-and-white and
silent.  The films taken from the Theodore Roosevelt Association
Collection were portions of newsreels and other actuality footage taken
from 1898 to 1921.  Some of this footage was compiled by the Association
into documentary films between 1919 and 1928.  Often, several different
versions of a documentary were made, all essentially the same except for
minor editing differences or the exclusion of a few scenes.  In cases
such as this, the copy with the best editing and footage was selected. 

MPEG, Quick Time, and RealMedia digital versions of the films are
available on the American Memory Web site.  The MPEG and Quick Time
versions of titles with running times greater than four minutes have
been divided into segments to reduce the file sizes to 40MB or less.  A
typical 28.8 Internet connection achieves a theoretical maximum download
rate of approximately 3.5 KB/sec (210 K/min) under ideal conditions. 
Therefore, a file of 40 MB would take approximately 190 minutes (3
hours, 10 minutes) in optimal conditions and possibly much longer than
that (up to two to three times longer depending on Internet traffic load).

Sound Recordings digitization

The four sound recordings included in this presentation were originally
made as cylinder recordings.  These recordings were copied to 1/4-inch
analog tape, and then, for the purposes of this presentation, to Digital
Audio Tape (DAT) to produce a master source for digitization.  The
recordings originally belonged to the Theodore Roosevelt Association and
were given to the Library of Congress.  Some surface noise and
scratching may be apparent on the recordings since they have not been
enhanced or altered in any way from their original state.  RealAudio and
wav versions have been supplied for each recording.

Due to the limited audio quality (bandwidth capability) of the cylinders
and discs, the wav files were created from the DAT tape at 22Khz,
16-bits, and a single mono channel.  The RealAudio files were derived
from the wav files through means of digital processing and were created
for users with at least a 14.4 modem.  All digitization for the sound
recordings was performed at the Library by National Digital Library
Program staff.

Additional web presentations featuring early films are available at the
American Memory Web site,

http://memory.loc.gov

where topics include: Thomas Edison, the Westinghouse Works in 1904, the
American Variety Stage, President McKinley, and the Spanish-American War.

Please direct questions and comments about this collection and all other
American Memory collections to:  ndlpcoll@xxxxxxx