What are the Filmstrip Archives?

Decades ago, before computers, the filmstrip projector ruled our classrooms. The best day as a student was when the teacher rolled that little cart with the filmstrip projector into the classroom and then pulled the screen down in front of the blackboard. All the students wanted to be the one to run the projector. And everyone got to take turns reading the text on the screen.

There were filmstrips on literally ever subject. Churches used them in Sunday School. Businesses used them to train employees. There was not a spot on our planet that didn’t have a filmstrip dedicated to it. Every animal that walked the earth, flew in the skies or swam in the lakes, rivers or ocean, was the subject of a filmstrip.

Now they are all gone. Made obsolete by the computer and the internet. The projectors, the screens and the filmstrips themselves all ended up in dumpsters all across America. Librarians threw them all in the trash to save precious shelf space for the new technology.

But not all are gone. Some survived. And it is our mission here at the Filmstrip Archives to try and preserve that vintage media. Produced by defunct companies, or companies who have moved on to other media and no longer maintain their filmstrip libraries filmstrip media is a lost art which needs to be respected, preserved and protected.