America at Work, America at Leisure: Motion Pictures from 1894-1915

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• Learn more about American history, culture, film, leisure, occupations, and sociology.

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America at Work, America at Leisure presents motion pictures that chronicles the work and leisure activities of Americans at the turn of the century. Included are films that document work in manufacturing plants, logging facilities and stockyards; films that document people visiting amusement parks, country fairs and expositions; as well as films that document children at school and people participating in sporting events. Of special interest are films showing the activities of the United States Postal Service in 1903.

The majority of the films are from the Paper Print Collection, while the remainder are from the George Kleine Collection, both residing in the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division (M/B/RS) of the Library of Congress. The films were selected from these two collections on the basis of the activities pictured in the films and the quality of the available prints. As many different types of work, school, and leisure activities as could be found were sought in order to show the broadest possible representation of activities at the turn of the century.