Moving images: Conservation and preservation

October 6, 1993 will mark the 100th anniversary of the first U.S. copyright registration of a motion picture. It was registered under the title Edison Kinetoscopic Records, but there is no known copy of the film, nor is it known what images it contained. That this significant first in film history did not survive is not only symbolic of the fate of thousands of films in the past, but also of that which may yet await the majority of the moving images produced today. Although the chemical composition of nitrate motion picture film is inherently unstable, in many ways a greater threat to the survival of these films was the attitude of producers and public alike. Films were considered as mere entertainment with no importance beyond immediate commercial exploitation. As a result of many years of deliberate destruction, neglect, fire, and deterioration, over half of the motion pictures produced before 1951 no longer exist.published or submitted for publicatio