U.S. History and American Studies 

Film Review Index. Ed. Patricia King Hanson. (Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1986)

SML Reference: Z5784 M9 +F554 (LC)

Two-volume comprehensive index of movie reviews from 1882 through 1985. Along with the New York Times Film Reviews (below), this set is essential if you want reviews written in the 1930s.

The Hollywood Reporter
SML Microform Room: Film S3204 [1934 to 1990]

Motion picture almanac [1929-1935]; continued by International motion picture almanac [1936-1951]
SML Microform Room: Film S3852

Motion picture herald [1931-1972]
SML Microform Room: Film S2211

Retrospective Index to Film Periodicals, 1930-1971. Batty, Linda. (New York: Bowker, 1975)
SML Reference: Z5784 M9 B39 (LC)

Historical index of film scholarship predates the Film Literature Index, above. Indexes 14 English-language film periodicals, as well as articles from the Village Voice.

Variety and Daily Variety
SML Microform Room: Film S2206 [1905 to most recent microfilm reel]

The Film Daily: The Daily Newspaper of Motion Pictures [1922-1968]; microfilm room call number Film S3516

LITERATURE REVIEWS & REFERENCE RESOURCES

Reference sources are an indispensable resource not only for quick information on a topic but also, and perhaps more importantly, for literature reviews (building a good bibliography of works pertaining to a topic). This will help you position your argument in appropriate secondary literature. I have listed a number of topic specific reference sources in the sidebar on the left. But you will also want to be familiar with the general Blackwell Reference Online database. Quite simply, it's that good.

Blackwell Reference Online: An excellent source for high-quality historiographical essays. Contains fully searchable versions of A Companion to Film Theory, A Companion to Literature and Film, A Companion to Media Studies, A Companion to 20^th-Century America. You can browse by title, or search by keywords to find relevant articles (ie. “race and cinema”)

Additionally, here are two sources for literature reviews of scholarly journal literature:

JSTOR – A full-text database of over three hundred major journals across multiple disciplines, including film studies and history Pros: JSTOR is easy to use and supplies full-text access to journal literature, including articles and book reviews. Cons: JSTOR is generally five years out-of-date.

[Tip: JSTOR is great for book reviews. Find the title of a book you're interested in, go into the advanced search field of JSTOR and do a title search for the book, limiting results to book reviews. This can be a great way to navigate through a large amount of secondary literature with purpose.]

America: History & Life – The combined America: History and Life & Historical Abstracts database is a powerful index to the scholarly literature for both U.S. and world history. Pros: Far more comprehensive than JSTOR (current, included books and dissertations in addition to journals). Cons: Is only an index, and you have to follow “Yale Links” to find the materials, which Yale may or may not have. Note: put “film” in the subject line to limit searches to this subject.

American Film Institute Catalog: Online catalog of every American film from 1893 to 1970. Searchable by keywords; film titles; cast, crew, and character names; subject; genre and more. Most records include extensive plot summaries and comprehensive filmographic information, plus citations to reviews and articles.

Film Literature Index 1976-2001: FLI indexes over 300 international film periodicals. The print edition covers film criticism from 1974 to 2004; the online database only covers 1976-2001, and it has been succeeded by FLTI (above). FLI also covers articles on television and video (section two of the print version).

Film and Television Literature Index: FTLI takes over where the Film Literature Index ends. See below for further information.

Cinema pressbooks from the original studio collections (38 microfilm reels – SML microfilm reading room, call number: Film B18273)

“Pressbooks are a basic background source. Posters and still reproductions, publicity blurbs, actor biographies and full technical and promotional details are included in pressbooks--the publicity kit sent with a film print to all distributors. Pressbooks of the major companies thus form a unique and detailed record of the transition from silent movies to talkies and of the golden years of Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s.”

History of cinema. Series 1, Hollywood and the Production Code (33 microfilm reels – SML microfilm reading room, call number: Film B20673)

“The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) Production Code Administration Files collection documents forty years of self-regulation and censorship in the motion picture industry. The collection contains detailed case files for nearly twenty thousand film projects that were submitted to the Production Code staff for consideration.”

Newspapers

Access NewspaperARCHIVE - Database of a number of small newspapers.

Hispanic American Newpapers (1808-1980) - Large collection of Hispanic American newspapers.

Historical Newspapers Complete - Contains full-text version of a number of important newspapers, including: Atlanta Constitution(1868-1925), Atlanta Daily World (1932-2003), Boston Globe(1872-1922), Chicago Defender (1905 - 1975), Chicagao Tribune(1849-1985), Christian Science Monitor(1908-1992), Hartford Courant(1764-1922), L.A. Sentinel (1946-2005), L.A. Times(1881-1985), N.Y. Amsterdam News (1922-1993),  N.Y. Times(1851-2002, N.Y. Tribune(1900-1910)Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2002), San Francisco Chronicle (1867-1922), the Wall Street Journal(1889-1988), and the Washington Post(1877-1989).

Periodicals

Commonweal (1924-present) Founded in New York in 1924, Commonweal is a monthly Catholic opinion magazine. This database allows users to browse issues by date or search by keywords.

Harper's Magazine & Cumulative Index Since 1850, Harper's Magazine has been one of the leading periodicals of culture and opinion. This digital archive makes every issue of Harper's monthly allows users to browse individual issues or search the database by keyword.

Nation Digital Archive contains every issue of The Nation from July 1865 through the present.

New Republic - Complete digital archive from the first to current issue (1914-present).

Periodicals Contents Index is an electronic index to the contents of thousands of periodicals in the humanities and social sciences, from their first issues to 1995. Every article is indexed. PCI Web currently indexes over eleven million journal articles in 3,536 journals. The scope is international, including journals in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and other Western languages.

Readers’ Guide Retrospective Readers' Guide Retrospective is a database containing comprehensive indexing of the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States and reflects the history of 20th century America.

Moving Images/Images

Internet Archive - Great collection of moving images.  Many subjects, genres, and geographical locations represented.  My favorite section of the Internet Archive is the extensive Grateful Dead collection.

Library of Congress Motion Picture Archive - A collection of film clips, focusing on different aspects of twentieth century U.S. history.

Digital Images from the Yale Collections - collection of digital images from the Yale University Library.

Misc. Digital Archive

New Deal Network contains a database of over 20,000 photographs, political cartoons, and texts pertaining to the New Deal, as well as WWW links and multimedia resources. Sponsored by Teachers College/Columbia U.