Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Motion Pictures
name: label: Creator
content: Warshaw, Isadore, 1900-1969
topic: label: Occupation
content: Motion picture actors and actresses
label: Occupation
content: Actors
label: Topic
content: Dance in motion pictures, television, etc.
label: Topic
content: Actresses
label: Topic
content: Motion picture industry
label: Topic
content: Motion pictures
label: Topic
content: Theater
label: Topic
content: Motion pictures -- History
label: Topic
content: Motion pictures, American
label: Topic
content: Filmmakers
label: Topic
content: Silent films
label: Topic
content: Sound film
label: Topic
content: Entertainment
label: Topic
content: Actresses -- United States
label: Topic
content: advertising -- Motion pictures
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Motion Pictures is a portion of the Business Ephemera Series of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Accession AC0060 purchased from Isadore Warshaw in 1967. Warshaw continued to accumulate similar material until his death, which was donated in 1971 by his widow, Augusta. For a period after acquisition, related materials from other sources (of mixed provenance) were added to the collection so there may be content produced or published after Warshaw's death in 1969. This practice has since ceased.
creator: label: Creator
content: Warshaw, Isadore, 1900-1969
setName: label: See more items in
content: Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Motion Pictures
abstract: label: Summary
content: A New York bookseller, Warshaw assembled this collection over nearly fifty years. The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana: Motion Pictures forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Subseries 1.1: Subject Categories. The Subject Categories subseries is divided into 470 subject categories based on those created by Mr. Warshaw. These subject categories include topical subjects, types or forms of material, people, organizations, historical events, and other categories. An overview to the entire Warshaw collection is available here: Warshaw Collection of Business Americana
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 2.96 Cubic feet (consisting of 9 boxes, 1 folder, 7 oversize folders, 8 map case folders, 1 flat box (partial), plus digital images of some collection material. )
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1893-1969
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.0060.S01.01.Motion
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Theater programs
label: Type
content: Ephemera
label: Type
content: Business ephemera
processinfo: label: Processing Information note
content: by: Franklin A. Robinson, Jr., December 2002

Revised: December 30, 2002

In 2016, with funding provided by the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund, the Archives Center at the National Museum of American History implemented the use of minimal level processing standards to increase information about and facilitate access to more of our collections. 
            
A few items were added to the content of this subject using minimal processing strategies with basic foldering/boxing and description, but staples and other fasteners have not all been removed.

Minimal level processing and enhancement of the machine-readable finding aid completed by Nicole Blechynden, 2017, September.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Theater programs
label: Genre/Form
content: Ephemera
label: Genre/Form
content: Business ephemera
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents note
content: Motion pictures were first publicly exhibited in the United States at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois in 1893. While the films exhibited there were technically crude with little to no plot or story and far from the polished product of today, they immediately caught the public's attention.

Within a short time the motion picture industry (creation, distribution, and marketing) had grown into a lucrative business. Those first motion pictures were often short serial films run in a series to keep customers coming back to follow the story's plot line to its conclusion. Gradually, films became longer and a number of performers developed legions of fans guaranteeing a certain amount of box office business from name recognition of the star alone.

Initially, the film industry consisted of many small companies, but competition cleared the field and fewer, larger corporations cornered the market in both production and distribution. Independent theatre owners, who were at first almost wholly independent of the production companies, also became rare as the major theatre chains developed their own movie studios to ensure a steady stream of films to be shown at their theaters. The film industry, at first based in New York City and on the East Coast, moved to the famed Hollywood, California, in the late 1910s early 1920s.

The Motion Pictures section of the Warshaw Collection consists of various types of materials relating to motion pictures. The collection is especially strong for the silent movie era, 1893-1927. This portion of the collection is divided into seven series.
relatedmaterial: label: Materials in the Archives Center
content: Archives Center Collection of Business Americana (AC0404)
label: Forms Part Of
content: Forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana.

Series 1: Business Ephemera

Series 2: Other Collection Divisions

Series 3: Isadore Warshaw Personal Papers

Series 4: Photographic Reference Material