Collection Guide
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Motion Picture Patents Company and General Film Company collection
34
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Table of contents
Title: Motion Picture Patents Company and General Film Company collection
Date (inclusive): 1908-1918
Collection number: 34
Creator:
Motion Picture Patents Company
General Film Company
Extent:
1.8 linear feet of papers.
Repository:
Margaret Herrick Library. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Languages:
English
Important Information for Users of the Collection
Available by appointment only.
Property rights to the physical object belong to the Margaret Herrick Library. Researchers are
responsible for obtaining all necessary rights, licenses, or permissions from the appropriate companies
or individuals before quoting from or publishing materials obtained from the library.
Motion Picture Patents Company and General Film Company collection, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy
of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Gift of Charles G. Clarke, 1970-1978
The Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC) was formed in 1908, as a patents pool to oversee the patents
claimed by Edison, American Mutoscope and Biograph, Vitagraph, and Armat, and to license various
companies as producers and distributors. The General Film Company was established in 1910, by the
licensed producers as a distribution company for their films. Both organizations were eventually
recognized as monopolistic by the U.S. government and disbanded in 1918 (although they had ceased to be
effective many years earlier).
Collection Scope and Content Summary
The Motion Picture Patents Company and General Film Company collection spans the years 1908-1918 and
encompasses 1.8 linear feet. The collection generally reflects the work of the two organizations as
applicable to the Selig Polyscope Company. This collection was artificially created by the Library by
gathering material on both companies from the William Selig papers (with donations from William N. Selig
and Charles G. Clarke), together with additional material, also from Clarke, that may have belonged to
Selig.
Arrangement
Arranged in the following series: 1. Subject files.
Motion Picture Patents Company
General Film Company
organization records