Media History: Digitized Publications on New Website Tell Early Film, Broadcast, Recording History

From the University of Wisconsin-Madison:

The early history of the film industry is written in yellowing print magazines and newspapers, gathering dust in remote corners.

But Eric Hoyt is helping to make that history much more accessible to researchers and others.

Hoyt is director of the Media History Digital Library (MHDL), a free online resource, containing digitized copies of magazines, books, and trade papers related to the history of film, broadcasting, and recorded sound. Hoyt is also the Kahl Family Professor of Media Production in the Department of Communication Arts.

The MHDL is housed within the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research and the Communication Arts Department, though its online reach is global.

MHDL has recently launched a new website, complete with an updated interface, new Hollywood trade papers, and international content. 

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Since its inception, the MHDL has grown from 100,000 pages of digitized content to 3 million pages. 

The collection has been able to grow in part because of passionate collectors. “It was collectors who saw this value in these magazines, and then donated them to libraries and archives,” Hoyt said, “so there’s a lot of credit that’s owed to passionate individuals who cared about these materials when not many other people did.” 

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Hoyt recently completed a three-year digital extension grant from the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), allowing Hoyt and the MHDL team to globalize and enhance the project. 

Learn More, Read the Complete Article (about 1000 words)

Direct to Media History Digital Library

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